- Published
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli stretched his lead in the drivers' standings with victory at the first Spanish Grand Prix held at the Madring.
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Antonelli → publish → Madring
Max Verstappen finished second in the Red Bull and McLaren's Lando Norris completed the top three.
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Norris → finish → three
Norris, who was leading, lost out having passed the pit entry immediately before the virtual safety car was called.
BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions.
The new Madring circuit looks like one of the worst on the calendar for entertaining racing.
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circuit → lead → racing
Given that half the track is custom built (ie not having to conform to street layouts), how did they get it so wrong and will substantial changes be made ahead of next year?
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changes → give → year
Even before the race weekend began, drivers were predicting that overtaking would be next to impossible at the new Madring, and they were proved right.
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they → begin → Madring
The track is effectively a start-from-scratch layout built partly as a new track and partly on existing roads around the Ifema exhibition centre near Madrid's Barajas international airport.
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track → start → airport
It is, therefore, mystifying as to how they got it so wrong, as the problems could be foreseen by anyone with an understanding of F1.
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problems → get → F1
As Lando Norris put it witheringly after the race: "I don't know how someone looks at this design and goes: 'Mint.'
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someone → put → Mint
The main one is the lack of a long straight leading into a big braking zone.
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one → lead → zone
Another is, as the drivers pointed out, a lot of the corners have entries where drivers have to combine braking and turning, which makes overtaking extremely difficult, as well as walls that come back towards the track on corner exit.
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that → point → exit
And if tyre degradation is high, that means more tyre management, driving further under the limit, and less chance of accidents and therefore safety cars.
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that → mean → accidents
The good news is it is not hard to see how it could be fixed.
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it → see → ?
As Norris said: "There's a lot of opportunity.
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Norris → say → opportunity
They can make it into a track that's good for racing, and I'm excited to come back here next year if they can make these changes because I think it's a track that is good fun to drive and it can be a great race track.
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it → make → changes
Norris suggested removing turns 18 and 19 and "making a straight line from 17 to 20, have a much wider entry like Austin Turn One or Turn 10 in Austin... big hairpin".
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Norris → suggest → Austin
That, he said, would "create much better opportunities for everyone and you'll be able to enjoy the race".
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you → say → race
He also advocated what he called "some trickier changes", such as changing the unpopular, clumsy chicane at Turn Five, and the section from there to Turn Seven.
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he → advocate → Seven
While they're at it, it would also be worth looking at the location and layout of the pits and paddock.
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it → look → pits
This was more fractured and over a much larger area than at any other track, which made working for F1 personnel difficult in a number of ways.
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working → make → ways
The many large exhibition halls on what is, frankly, a pretty unprepossessing site - it's a bit like holding a grand prix at the NEC in Birmingham - clearly don't make this the easiest task.
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this → hold → Birmingham
But finding a location for a pit lane that is not split in half by a building and making it somewhere the pits and paddock can be together and entirely outside would be another step in the right direction.
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pits → find → direction
The virtual safety car (VSC) definitely throws jeopardy into races, but it does not do virtually what the safety car does.
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car → throw → what
Would it not be more balanced to have a minimum of at least one full lap?
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it → have → lap
Yes, this would dampen the jeopardy effect but what happened to Lando Norris feels like a chance card in Monopoly.
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happened → dampen → Monopoly
Kyle
Lando Norris' bad luck with the virtual safety car at the Spanish Grand Prix has certainly focused attention on the ways this can disrupt races.
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this → focus → races
The VSC has always had issues - it freezes a race rather than resets it, which can be a bit boring compared to an actual safety car - but it has the benefit of minimising disruption when a track hazard can be cleared relatively quickly.
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hazard → freeze → disruption
It has long been an opportunity for someone to benefit over a rival, because making a pit stop under a VSC takes significantly less time than under racing conditions.
But usually this has been in cases where one team has changed or deployed its strategy with the express intention of waiting for a safety car or VSC (such as Norris himself in his maiden victory in Miami in 2024), and benefiting over a rival who has run a more conventional strategy.
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who → benefit → strategy
That sort of thing is considered fair game.
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sort → consider → thing
What happened to Norris - a driver lost a race win because his specific track positioning at the time of a VSC meant he alone was unable to pit under it - is, to the best anyone could remember on Sunday, unique.
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anyone → happen → Sunday
The media are not privy to conversations in drivers' briefings, and Norris in particular gets a bit sniffy when information from those meetings leaks out because they are meant to be a safe space where the drivers and FIA can share opinions without it becoming a controversy.
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it → get → opinions
But it emerged after the race that this issue, as Norris put it, "has been spoken about many, many times".
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Norris → emerge → it
Whether Norris' misfortune leads to a change, such as ensuring that a VSC is deployed for at least one whole lap, remains to be seen.
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VSC → lead → lap
There is no easy answer, because within F1 it's recognised that safety cars are part of the competitive jigsaw, and can be used to a team's advantage.
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cars → be → advantage
And the latest rules have been arrived at after various previous iterations that worked in different ways, such as shutting the pit lane for specific periods.
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that → arrive → periods
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: "Offering a personal opinion, I'm puzzled myself as to what's right.
"
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what → say → opinion
Is it correct to give enough duration such that everyone will have been subject to the same track conditions?
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everyone → give → conditions
So, for instance, the virtual safety car lasts at least one full lap.
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car → last → lap
"Or you just keep it in the hands of the Gods, and sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not.
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you → keep → Gods
There is process for these sorts of discussions - they go to a sporting advisory committee for analysis, before being reviewed by the F1 Commission of teams, commercial rights holder F1 and governing body the FIA.
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they → be → teams
That won't happen quickly - unless it is decided by F1 and the FIA that it is a desirable outcome to change the rules.
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it → happen → rules
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
