F1 Team Form: Spanish Grand Prix

Mercedes have won seven of the last ten Spanish Grands Prix, Red Bull have finished on the podium in all of the last eight seasons and Williams recorded their most recent win here in 2012. Here’s everything you need to know about each team’s history at the Spanish Grand Prix!

RED BULL

WINS: 5, POLES: 3, PODIUMS: 14 | 2023 SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT: VERSTAPPEN 1st, PEREZ 4th

Red Bull have won the Spanish Grand Prix in each of the last two seasons and have taken five wins in total at Catalunya with three different drivers. Mark Webber won for the team here in 2010, Sebastian Vettel won in the following season and Max Verstappen has taken three wins with the team here. Verstappen took his maiden Formula 1 victory at the track in 2016 and also won the 2022 and 2023 Spanish Grands Prix.

Verstappen’s second place in 2020 marked the first time that a Red Bull driver finished as runner-up at this circuit. Since then, a Red Bull driver has finished as runner-up in all but one of the last four Spanish Grands Prix, with Sergio Perez securing the team’s first 1-2 result at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in 2022.

At least one Red Bull driver has appeared on the Spanish Grand Prix podium in every season since 2016, while 2017 is the most recent season in which only one Red Bull driver finished in the points. That year, Verstappen recorded the team’s third retirement at the circuit, after Vitantonio Liuzzi in 2005 and Mark Webber in 2007. 2006 is the only time from 19 appearances that neither Red Bull driver scored a point at the Spanish Grand Prix.

In 2023, Max Verstappen joined Mark Webber as only the second driver to have taken pole for Red Bull at the Spanish Grand Prix. Webber took two poles with the team at the track, in 2010 and 2011. In both of those seasons, Red Bull locked-out the front row.

In 2021, Max Verstappen recorded the team’s first front row start at the circuit since 2011 and followed it up with another front row qualification in 2022. Sebastian Vettel’s second place in qualifying in 2009 is the only other time a Red Bull car has qualified on the front row here.

Qualifying 11th in 2023, Sergio Perez became the first Red Bull driver to fail to reach Q3 at the Spanish Grand Prix since Mark Webber in 2012. Sergio Perez’s eighth place in 2021 is the only other time since 2016 that a Red Bull driver has qualified outside of the top six at the Spanish Grand Prix.

2006 remains the only time neither Red Bull driver has qualified in the top ten for the Spanish Grand Prix since the team joined the sport in 2005.

MERCEDES

WINS: 7, POLES: 9, PODIUMS: 16 | 2023 SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT: HAMILTON 2nd, RUSSELL 3rd

The Mercedes team have excelled at the Spanish Grand Prix in the V6 hybrid era. They’ve won all but three of the last ten races at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and probably would have won one more, if not for their drivers eliminating one another from the race on the opening lap in 2016.

Aside from the first lap calamity in 2016, Mercedes have recorded only two other DNFs at the Spanish Grand Prix since their F1 comeback in 2010. The team have scored points with at least one car every year, except in 2016, and have had one car in the top five every year except in 2013 and 2016.

They’ve secured 1-2 finishes at the Spanish Grand Prix in four of the last nine seasons – their most recent being in 2019.

Lewis Hamilton’s fifth place in 2022 marked the first time since 2017 that a Mercedes driver failed to finish on the Spanish Grand Prix podium. George Russell kept the team’s podium streak alive with a third place finish and both drivers returned to the podium in 2023.

Valtteri Bottas, Spanish Grand Prix. Image: © Andrew Balfour.
Image: © Andrew Balfour

Mercedes’ incredible run of nine consecutive pole positions at the Spanish Grand Prix came to an end in 2022. It marked the first time neither Mercedes driver qualified in the top three at Catalunya since 2012. Between 2013 and 2021, Mercedes locked out the front row in all but two years.

At the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix, George Russell became the first Mercedes driver to fail to reach Q3 at Catalunya. He exited in Q2, qualifying 12th. Michael Schumacher’s tenth place in 2011, mainly due to a KERS failure which prevented him from setting a lap in Q3, is their only other non-top eight qualification at Catalunya to date.

FERRARI

WINS: 8, POLES: 8, PODIUMS: 25 | 2023 SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT: SAINZ 5th, LECLERC 11th

Historically, Ferrari are the most successful team at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with eight wins and 25 podiums. However, the team have won the Spanish Grand Prix only once in the last 15 years and have not finished on the podium since 2017.

Since 2017, the team has recorded four retirements – including for Charles Leclerc in 2022 when he was leading the race. Leclerc also retired in 2020, while Kimi Raikkonen failed to cross the line in both 2017 and 2018.

Ferrari have scored on every visit to the track, except in 2005, when Michael Schumacher retired from the race and Rubens Barrichello could finish only ninth.

Ferrari at the Spanish Grand Prix. Image: © Andrew Balfour.
Image: © Andrew Balfour

Ferrari took seven poles here between 2000 and 2008, but since then have qualified on the front row only four times. While Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz qualified second in 2012, 2017 and 2023 respectively, Charles Leclerc recorded the team’s first Spanish Grand Prix pole in 14 years in 2022.

In 2020, Sebastian Vettel became only the sixth Ferrari driver to fail to qualify in the top ten at Catalunya since 1991. With Leclerc qualifying ninth, it was the first race at the circuit in which neither Ferrari driver qualified in the top eight. Leclerc joined Vettel as the seventh Ferrari driver to fail to qualify in the top ten at the track in 2023, where he was eliminated in Q1.

Since 2006, the team have reached Q3 with both cars on every occasion bar four – Kimi Raikkonen was out in Q1 in 2009, Felipe Massa was eliminated in Q2 in 2012, and the aforementioned Vettel and Leclerc were out in Q2 and Q1 in 2020 and 2023.

McLAREN

WINS: 4, POLES: 4, PODIUMS: 14 | 2023 SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT: PIASTRI 13th, NORRIS 17th

McLaren have won the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya four times in the past, including taking three 1-2 finishes in a row between 1998 and 2000. Since then, Kimi Raikkonen’s 2005 win has been their only victory at the circuit. More podiums followed in 2007 and 2011, with both cars, while Lewis Hamilton also took a third place for the team in 2008.

In 2020, Carlos Sainz’s sixth place finish marked the team’s first top seven finish since 2011, and with Lando Norris tenth, it was the first time both McLaren cars scored at the circuit since 2013.

2023 was the first time since 2017 that neither McLaren driver scored a point in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Image: © Andrew Balfour

McLaren’s pole tally at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya would be five, if not for Lewis Hamilton’s exclusion from the result in 2012. The exclusion also means Fernando Alonso is the only driver to have qualified on the front row with McLaren at the Spanish Grand Prix in the past 18 seasons, having done so in 2007.

With third place in 2023, Lando Norris recorded McLaren’s best qualifying result at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2011.

1998 is the only year that the team have locked-out the front row at the circuit. In 2020, both Sainz and Norris both reached Q3, making it the first time both McLaren drivers qualified in the top ten at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2011. Both McLaren drivers reached Q3 again in 2021 and 2023 , but Daniel Ricciardo was eliminated in Q2 in 2022.

Heikki Kovalainen and Stoffel Vandoorne are the only drivers to have recorded Q1 exits for the team at the track, doing so in 2009 and 2017 respectively.

ASTON MARTIN

WINS: 0, POLES: 0, PODIUMS: 0 | 2023 SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT: STROLL 6th, ALONSO 7th

The Silverstone-based team has failed to pick up any points in its two visits to the Spanish Grand Prix under its Aston Martin guise. Aston Martin scored for the first time at the circuit in 2023, with Lance Stroll finishing sixth and Fernando Alonso seventh.

The team recently recorded two double top five finishes in the space of four years, with both cars finishing in the top five in 2017 and 2020. Their best result here is fourth, recorded four times in total. Since 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2022 are the only years in which this team has failed to score at Catalunya.

In 2020, Sergio Perez recorded Team Silverstone’s best ever Spanish Grand Prix qualifying result with fourth place. With Lance Stroll also qualifying fifth, this was the first time that both cars had qualified in the top five in the team’s 30-year history at the track. It was also the first time the team had qualified in the top ten here with both cars since 2017 – and only the second time the team has achieved the feat since 2002. Both of the team’s drivers reached Q3 again in 2023.

In 2019, Lance Stroll recorded the team’s first Q1 exit since 2015 – and only their third Q1 elimination at the track from the previous 10 seasons. Both cars were out in Q2 in 2021, while both were eliminated in Q1 in 2022.

ALPINE

WINS: 1, POLES: 3, PODIUMS: 14* | 2023 SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT: OCON 8th, GASLY 10th

Fernando Alonso’s win at his home event in 2006 for Renault remains the Enstone-based team’s only victory at the Spanish Grand Prix since 1994, when Michael Schumacher won in their Benetton guise.

Between 2003 and 2006, Renault featured on the podium every year and the team scored further podium finishes as Lotus in 2012 and 2013. 2008 is the last time the team recorded a double DNF at this circuit.

With both Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso finishing in the points with Alpine in 2022, it was the team’s first double points scoring appearance at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2012. Both Ocon and new team-mate Pierre Gasly scored for the team again at the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix.

Just as Renault’s only win here came in 2006 so too did their only pole, with Alonso taking the honours as Giancarlo Fisichella helped to lock out the front row for the team.

The Enstone team have had only one other front row qualification here since 1996, which came in 2008 when Alonso lined up second on the grid. The team took pole as Benetton in both 1994 and 1995, with a further front row start in 1992.

Both drivers reached Q3 here in 2021 – the first time the team managed that at this circuit since 2013. In 2022, Ocon reached Q2 while Alonso was out in Q1. Both drivers progressed to Q3 again in 2023.

WILLIAMS

WINS: 6, POLES: 5, PODIUMS: 10 | 2023 SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT: ALBON 16th, SARGEANT 20th

Williams won all of the first four Spanish Grands Prix to be held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and took their most recent victory at the circuit in 2012, when Pastor Maldonado scored an unlikely win.

The team has not scored at the track since 2016; which was one of only three occasions on which both of their cars finished in the points at the track. Bruno Senna’s retirement in 2012, when Michael Schumacher collided with him, is the only time a Williams car has failed to finish the race here in the last 15 years.

Image: © Andrew Balfour

Williams locked-out the front row at the Spanish Grand Prix in 1993, 1996 and 1997 and took further front row starts in 2004 and 2005. Their most recent pole at the track came in 2012, with Maldonado inheriting the top spot after Lewis Hamilton’s exclusion.

Williams recorded a double Q1 exit at Catalunya for the sixth time in 2023, the other occasions being in 2013, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022. 2019 and 2022 are the only times that the team has set the two slowest times in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix.

2014 and 2015 are the only years where both cars have reached the final part of qualifying at the circuit, while at least one of their cars has been out in Q1 in every season since then. In 2021, George Russell became the first – and remains the only – Williams driver to make it out of Q1 at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2017.

VISA CASH APP RB

WINS: 0, POLES: 0, PODIUMS: 0 | 2023 SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT: TSUNODA 12th, DE VRIES 14th

In all of their first four seasons in the sport, the Red Bull junior team failed to finish the Spanish Grand Prix with either car. It was only in 2010 when this unlucky streak ended, and Jaime Alguersuari finished tenth, picking up the team’s first point at the circuit. Since then, Toro Rosso failed to finish three times, while Yuki Tsunoda recorded the team’s first retirement under their AlphaTauri guise in 2021.

Carlos Sainz is responsible for the team’s best result at the track. He finished sixth in 2016. There’s yet to be a year that both of the team’s cars have finished in the top ten at the track, though the team has scored at the Spanish Grand Prix in all but two of the last nine seasons.

Pierre Gasly reached Q3 with AlphaTauri in 2020, marking only the fifth time in their history that a driver for the Red Bull junior team progressed to Q3 at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Other than Gasly in 2020, both Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz reached Q3 in 2015, Sainz once again qualified in the top ten in 2016 and in 2019 Daniil Kvyat reached Q3. Sainz recorded the team’s best qualifying performance in Spain to date in 2015, when he lined up fifth on the grid. Both cars have been out in Q2 in each of the last two seasons.

SAUBER

WINS: 0, POLES: 0, PODIUMS: 0 | 2023 SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT: ZHOU 9th, BOTTAS 19th

In 2022, Valtteri Bottas finished sixth with Alfa Romeo. That was the former Sauber team’s best result at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2012, when Kamui Kobayashi finished fifth. More points followed in 2023, with Zhou Guanyu finishing ninth.

In the nine Catalunya races between 2012 and 2021, the team picked up just five points, courtesy of an eighth place finish for Pascal Wehrlein in 2017 and tenth for Charles Leclerc in the following season. 2002 and 2011 are the only occasions on which both of the teams’ cars have finished in the points at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Sauber’s best ever result at the Catalunya track is fourth, which they’ve taken four times – with Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 1996, Nick Heidfeld in 2002 and Robert Kubica in both 2007 and 2008. Zhou Guanyu’s retirement in 2022 marked the first DNF for the team at the Spanish Grand Prix since Sergio Perez failed to finish in 2012.

Alfa Romeo at the Spanish Grand Prix Image: © Andrew Balfour.
Image: © Andrew Balfour

Bottas’ seventh place in qualifying in 2022 was the team’s first Q3 appearance at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2012, when both cars appeared in the top ten. 2012 is one of only three double Q3 appearances at the circuit, the others being in 2007 and 2008. The team also qualified in the top ten with both cars in 1993 and 2001.

With Zhou reaching Q3 in 2022, it is the only season since 2012 in which neither of the team’s drivers was eliminated in Q1. 2016 marks the team’s only double Q1 exit. Robert Kubica’s fourth on the grid in 2008 is the team’s best qualifying result at Catalunya, while Antonio Giovinazzi’s 20th place in 2020 was the first time a driver for this team qualified in last place at the Spanish Grand Prix.

HAAS

WINS: 0, POLES: 0, PODIUMS: 0 | 2023 SPANISH GRAND PRIX RESULT: HULKENBERG 15th, MAGNUSSEN 18th

The Haas team has not picked up a point at the Spanish Grand Prix since both drivers scored in 2019. That’s the only time both of the team’s cars have picked up points in a single race at Catalunya, though Romain Grosjean finished tenth in 2017 and Kevin Magnussen recorded Haas’ best finish here to date with sixth place in 2018.

From their 16 starts, the team have suffered just two retirements at the track, both with Romain Grosjean’s car, in 2016 and 2018.

Haas saw both cars reach Q3 at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2018, 2019 and 2022, while Nico Hulkenberg recorded the team’s latest Q3 appearance at Catalunya in 2023. The team’s best qualifying result here is seventh, recorded by Kevin Magnussen in 2018 and Romain Grosjean in 2019.

Haas’ worst qualifying result is 20th, recorded by Nikita Mazepin in 2021. 2020 and 2021 are the only years in which Haas have recorded double Q1 exits at the Spanish Grand Prix.

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