A bolder F1 lands at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

The waiting time is over. The premier class of car racing is just about to invade the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2020 will be starting in only four days, in a rather crazy context.

After the double-header in Austria, the round in Hungary and two races in the UK, the world championship caravan has already given rise to much debate. Spectators have been able to watch both surprising and not really surprising events from home. Lewis Hamilton, for example, continues to lead the classification and to be the favourite for the title. Fortunately, nothing has been said about the positions behind him. Yesterday, Dutch driver Max Verstappen won the race, and that victory, together with other outstanding results, moved him up to the second overall position. Red Bull and the young talented driver have rolled up their sleeves, placing themselves in between the silver arrows, which are black now. On third position, Valtteri Bottas, who started the season with a win but has lost momentum.

Ferrari, McLaren and Racing Point are leading the rest of the mortals. The thrill of the season will thus be shared by these teams, together with Red Bull. Charles Leclerc and Ferrari are the most outstanding in the group so far, followed by Lando Norris and McLaren. It seems that the young drivers are willing to show that seniority is not a guarantee for anything. Any tiny mistake can become really expensive in this section of the classification. The positions are in a constant change.

This is the case of local driver Carlos Sainz. Fate is not really smiling at the Spaniard, who, despite being always among the top positions, does not always manage to materialise the good results. Touches, punctures and slow stops: this is some of the ballast that Sainz is hoping to get rid of at his home race.

Formula 1 has already witnessed races filled with eventualities, as we could already see a couple of weeks ago in Silverstone. The Pirelli tyres were able to withstand more than expected. However, the compounds were even softer the following week on the same track. Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a demanding track on which they will have to stand very high temperatures, so everything is yet to be decided. Talent, reliability and ingenuity will have to work together to overcome a Grand Prix that promises to be interesting, considering that it had never before been staged in August.

The Circuit, an economic engine

While it is true that the FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2020 will be staged behind closed doors, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will continue to showcase itself as an economy booster.

Drivers, teams and organisation, all in all, the motor racing world championship moves around 2000 people who stay for about a whole week in the Vallès Oriental area and in Barcelona and its metropolitan area.

Consequently, there are several sectors that are boosted by this event, such as, for example, transport, accommodation and catering, and it also continues to generate jobs. Ultimately, it is an event with a worldwide dimension that has a beneficial effect on the territory.