Barcelona Wrap Up

The 2026 Barcelona Grand Prix brought scorching track temperatures, tire strategy battles, and incredible wheel-to-wheel racing. In this episode of P22, Andy breaks down Kimi’s lightning-fast start, Hadjar’s disastrous opening laps, Mercedes’ perfect strategy call with Russell, Lewis Hamilton’s outstanding drive, Ferrari finally getting strategy right, and one of the best battles of the race between Kimi and Russell. Plus, life updates, cruise countdown talk, and the Driver of the Weekend award.

Transcript

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Kenny was robbed. Hey everybody, welcome back to P22, your F1 podcast, where we are back of the pack, front of the vibes. That's why this video is a week late for the Barcelona wrap-up. My name is Andy. Thanks so much for hanging out with us today. This is P22. We are an F1 podcast where we talk about all the latest F1 beefs, rivalries, championship battle races, car upgrades, all the tea, all the drama, unfiltered, unsponsored, unpromoted. So everything you hear here is uh literally just from my head, from my notebook, from me watching the races back, from me listening to other podcasts and kind of interpreting and uh changing it to my perspective. It's been really fun and I've been learning a lot. I don't know basically anything about F1 from what I've learned over the last two years. So if I don't sound like I know what I'm talking about, that is because I don't. And I am just a fan of sports and I love F1 a lot. So I'm super pumped to have the season rolling, and I was just on my cruise, so I didn't think I was gonna be able to get this episode recorded at all. But I didn't realize that Austria wasn't until this weekend, so I actually had a week off to do this. So I got back from the cruise and I had some time this morning, so I'm gonna go ahead and get this episode recorded. Not gonna be the best one, not gonna be the you know, the most uh information, the most well sought out, structured episode I've had, but at least I didn't want to skip one. I've done pretty good this season without skipping any episodes at all, and I've even released a couple bonus episodes. So we're just gonna keep it rolling, and if I don't like it, then whatever. I don't uh care. So first of all, thanks so much for tuning in with me today. Thanks for following us online, following us on podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, Instagram, Facebook, whatever it is. I appreciate you. Please share this, please like it, please rate the podcast, please uh um review it, you know, give me some feedback if you hate it, if you love it. Let me know if there's any certain drivers or teams you guys want to hear about that I haven't really spoken on. I know I try to give a good little touch on everybody, but it's mainly just the headlines, just because it's kind of hard to follow 22 drivers in a 20 to 30 minute episode. So let me know what uh what you guys think, and thanks so much for hanging out. And let's just hop right back into it. We are here for the Barcelona Grand Prix wrap-up. Like I said, I just got back from my cruise. It was freaking amazing. Possibly the best eight days of my life, you know. Definitely at least two or three of those days were up there. Um, I got so much done, I was so productive. I was I read so much, I watched so much YouTube, and it was just a really uh nice time to just kind of disconnect, turn the phone off, turn the Wi-Fi off, and just read and relax and not have a schedule and not have a plan. And uh it was very much needed. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I feel rejuvenated and ready to get this construction rolling again, um, you know, get back in the barber shop, get back in the print shop, get back to the church, just get back to day-to-day routines, get back in the yoga studio. I try to do as much yoga and work out as much as I could while I was on the boat, but the gym was packed and there just wasn't many yoga spots for me to pop up. So I did get some sessions in, but um I definitely feel you know a couple pounds heavier coming back and uh feel a little bit out of shape. So working on it, every day is a battle. You know, after I got my goal weight like five times, I figured at some point I was gonna start inclining, uh increasing a little bit. So can't get discouraged about that. But uh the cruise man, very cool, very excited, happy that it's like finally done in my head. Similar to like the wedding, where it was like not that I'm happy to get it over with, but just happy that it's not like lingering over my shoulder anymore where it's like, oh, this is coming, this is coming, this is coming. Like, you have to do this for that, you have to do this for that. So that's been cool. I woke up last Sunday morning at at like seven and um just like race knowledge, race knowledge, and I got to watch the race, and then we left for the cruise. So it was like a perfect morning, other than the fact that my boy Kimmy, bro, crashed out, or not crashed out, the car mechanically failed on him right after the pass on Russell. We're we're gonna go ahead and start. Okay, we're gonna go ahead and start because I'm I'm still depressed. The weekend of this story was tire management. So we haven't really seen a race that had tire management problems in this circuit in this season yet, because all the team's batteries and engine stuff and the exertion, all that, and none of the races have been that hot, and all the circuits have been um a lot of straights and stuff. So this weekend that it was hot all weekend long. So, first of all, the track the track temperature being that high adds in adds into a play for the tires already. But then just how much the drivers were trying to push this weekend, they were all pushing to the very limit. So it it eats up those tires. And um basically most teams were gonna go for a two-stop um race. So you pit stop twice strategically and get it going. Lewis started only driver to start on the hards, I think, and everyone started on mediums, or he started on softs. No, he started on softs, yeah, because he wanted to get a good jump off the start. And then um basically the whole league, the whole um rest of the field knew that he was gonna go three stops, which is risky, but in his situation, he got the great start. He was already out in front, so he was figuring if he could cover the Mercedes through the first lap and get enough space, then he would be okay, which he did. So um well we'll start with Kimmy. Kimmy had an amazing start, flew off the lights, went out, gained a couple positions, and I thought that he was gonna go win it. I l truly was like, he's gonna go from third to to win this race, covering Lewis, George, Charles, and Max like this dude is a is a demon. So he kept the pressure on, bro. He did not let these guys think for a second. Like it was it was so good putting the pressure on him. Hadjar had a horrible start. People were flying by Hajjar. He flew back like eight positions, really bad start. Um corrected a lot of it, but he and he was I think he had the fastest uh clocked speed this weekend, him or him or Lindblad, but it's just a really, really rough start for him. Mercedes, they both had good starts, but I think I don't know. It was it was hard to tell if they were trying to not favor George. I mean to favor Kimmy, because they kind of made they put George in a weird position where they exposed him to Kimmy when they Kimmy Pity f when they um pitted Kimmy first. So I think it was just it kind of created they were trying to sandwich the Ferrari, but in George's mind they were trying to get Kimmy to go around him, which I don't think they would have this early in the season. But um at the end of the day, Kimmy has more pace than you, bro. Kimmy's faster than you, he has more points in the championship than you. Like, why wouldn't they? And if his car didn't break down, he was getting second. He might have caught in Hamilton for free. We don't know. Obviously, it's hard, you can't just play the guessing game, but the his pace and his like calmness and collectiveness, like he literally is racing with guys twice his age that have been doing this for longer than he's been alive, and he is ripping it up with them, holding composure. He didn't even practice, he didn't he sat out for practice three a whole session behind all these guys, ends up top three qualifying, and then ends up should have been on P2 finish. Like four laps to go. That's when his car breaks down. I am pissed, bro. He 62 laps he the they want him to back off from chasing Russell the first time. Um and he did, he would have passed him. Later in the race, they do it again, he finally gets past him, the car breaks down. It's like Mercedes has mechanical issues, it's like a third time. Something's gotta happen with that car. Like, I I don't I know that it's a rocket ship, but damn. So the undercut worked really well for straight for Mercedes strategy. The I think the mur the decision to sp uh pit George under Hamilton worked out fine, except for the safety car. We didn't know we were gonna get the virtual safety car. So that's what brings us into Ferrari's strategy. So Ferrari made the right decisions, they didn't panic, they didn't get confused, there was no radio drama, just solid execution. They knew they were gonna do three stops no matter what. It just happened to be that that safety car was perfectly timed for the rest of the field. And Lewis knew once he got out of that pit in front of Russell, he knew that this is my race, and I just can't mess up. And bro, Hamilton, vintage Hamilton. When he knew that he covered Mercedes out of the pits, bro went for the fastest lap. Bro was gaining two seconds of lap. Like, he he wanted this win so bad, you can feel it through the TV. Very strong race, all the credit in the world to Lewis Hamilton. He's a freaking go, amazing pace. He manages tires, he man, he managed his he picked and chose his overtake to get back in there. If he would have had the safety car, wouldn't have had it, he would have been like in fourth, fifth behind Lando and LeClaire and and the Mercedes, both of them. He might have passed them. I th I still think Kimmy would have won, but he probably would have gotten up to P2. The Kimmy and Russell battle for third or second and third at the time was fantastic. They're both racing super hard, they're both giving each other space, wheel-to-wheel action, but it's still a battle that you want to see in Formula One. And especially around this track, there's history at these last couple tracks for Mercedes drivers, so it's cool to see them like actually battling. And it's cool to see these guys lock up. It's cool to see them go wide, like they are pushing. They they found out the limit on these cars, and they have been ripping them, which is really cool. And I mean, like, everyone thought this was gonna be a Barcelona stinker, like a Monaco stinker. Like, whoever's in front, that they're gonna stick it out, no overtakes, blah blah. This race was sick, bro. If you didn't watch this race, I highly suggest you go watch it because it was super good, very entertaining. I'm glued to my phone, my TV again, like multiple overtakes, multiple strategy decisions. We didn't know if we were gonna get if it was gonna cool down, how hot it was. They were so hot, they were brutal out there. There was some um debris, there was some bad starts, there was overtakes, there was mechanical failure, like it was just it was it was crazy. The the race was absolutely nuts. Max Verstappen, very quiet weekend, didn't even see him on the TV barely at all. Uh McLaren, same kind of idea, quiet, got points scored. It was just really fun to watch. The drivers were being really aggressive. It added into the tire degration with the heat, so there was even more action going on. Late breaking moves, switchback attempts, um, some good overtake battles. It was just cool to see the different strategies, the different thought processes, the different fights in battle, in-team fights, um, Haji coming back into the play, which was cool. Leclerc with a late crash. Like Charles Declare has had the worst luck of a season I've ever seen. After the extension, this dude, even before the extension, he was having a rough year, but this is really bad, especially considering how good Lewis Hamilton's doing. Ferrari could be leading the the drivers' champ the constructors championship right now if LeClaire had some more points to him. So just something to think about. RP22, of course, is Lance Stroll. Classic, rough day for him. He uh the weekend was effectively over before it started, just literally the worst car on the field by a very long shot, and it's insane. Driver of the weekend, Lewis Hamilton, bro. I I would I was gonna give it to Kimmy, but bro's leading free practice, bro. Won the race, overtook all the young bucks. I mean, it was the perfect picture perfect weekend for Lewis Hamilton. So excited for him, so proud of him. He was like crying, very emotional. Dude's 40, 41 or something like. I mean, props, bro, props. He didn't just get it handed to him. He had to go out there and take this race, and it was very respectful. And I think the fight is on right now between the Ferraris getting better and Kimmy with a DNF. I just think that the door just got swung open a little bit, and I do think that Kimmy can still win it, obviously. I think he can score 15 to 20 points every race for the rest of the year, but the mechanical fares are something to note if you're a Mercedes fan. Final thoughts on the weekend. Barcelona delivered, man. It was a really good Grand Prix, and I'm excited to uh be watching this Grand Prix for the near future. I know we got some bad reputation, similar to a Monaco, like whoever is dominating the season usually dominates Barcelona, but it was a really fun one. Insane he really good strategies for Ferrari and Mercedes. Ferrari executed just a little bit better. Lewis reminded everyone why he's still the GOAT. Kimmy showed everyone why Formula One is on its right path and how the future is going to be very bright, and how the cars and the talented of the driver both impacts these races. It's not just fast car wins type of season. And most importantly, just genuinely good racing across the board. It's been really cool to see the guy, these see these guys grow and watch them progress through this season and through these cars, and these teams have already seen how to figure it out how to manage these cars when two months ago they were everyone was about to quit Formula One. So it's just crazy how much um training and thoughts and knowledge and research goes into advancing these cars, this equipment overall. Thanks so much for listening to P22, guys. My name is Andy, it's been great. No matter where you finish, it's all about the vibes. Don't forget P22. See you guys for the race of Austria. Lit video coming later this week. Peace.