Fast facts ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix

F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunya

Today's Spanish Grand Prix will be the 52nd race in Spain with Barcelona set to play host to the race today for the 32nd consecutive occasion. With the close fight between Ferrari, Red Bull and the constantly improving Mercedes, the thrilling fight is expected to continue today afternoon, F1Technical's Balázs Szabó is reporting from the Barcelona F1 paddock.

Long history – Today’s Spanish Grand Prix will be the 52nd Formula One race to take place in Spain. The event first appeared on the calendar in 1951, and has been held at five venues. The 1951 and 1954 races took place at Barcelona on the Pedralbes street circuit before the race moved to Madrid where the Circuito del Jarama hosted the race between 1968 and 1981.

The third venue was Barcelona’s Montjuic Park, playing host to event in 1969, 1971, 1973 and 1975. The Spanish Grand Prix had a short stint at Jerez between 1986 and 1990 before moving to the Circuit de Catalunya in the following year.

Stewards – Tim Mayer, Nish Shetty, Vitantonio Liuzzi and David Domingo will form the group of FIA stewards at today’s Spanish Grand Prix.

The most successful team – Scuderia Ferrari is the most successful constructor at the Spanish Grand Prix with 12 victories. The Italian team recorded its most recent triumph in 2013 when Fernando Alonso took a popular home win.

Average length – The Circuit de Bacelona-Catalunya features a layout that has a length of 4675m. The start line-finish line offset is 126m. Drivers will need to rack up a total of 66 laps at today’s Spanish Grand Prix, which is equivalent to 308.424km.

Pit lane – Drivers will need to adhere to a speed limit of 80 km/h in the pit lane.

Schumacher and Hamilton – The German and the Briton are the most successful drivers at the Spanish Grand Prix with six victories each. Schumacher first won in 1995 with Benetton, followed by five victories for Ferrari (1996, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004). Hamilton won here in 2014 for the first time, and was unstoppable in the years between 2017 and 2021.

Two DRS zones – Today’s Barcelona race will feature two DRS zones. The first one will have a detection point of 86m before Turn 9 and an activation point of 40m after Turn 9. The second zone will have a detection point at the Safety Car 1 line and an activation point of 57m after Turn 16.

Modifications – The track has been updated since the field last visited the venue last May. The run-off area at Turn 4 has been extended, and a new kerb has been installed in Turn 3.

Two-stop strategy - For today’s 66-lap Barcelona round, Pirelli expects a two-stopper, especially if it’s warm as was the case in qualifying yesterday. This is down to the relatively high levels of tyre wear and degradation seen at the Barcelona circuit, with its abrasive asphalt and high-energy corners. Another reason is the fact that not so much time is lost in the pits, which makes a two-stopper much more viable, as well as the fact that the hard tyre is slower here.