After Monaco, the Formula 1 World Championship's European tour moves on to Spain for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, the seventh round of the season, held at the circuit of the same name in Montmeló.

The venue has hosted the Spanish Grand Prix continuously from 1991 to 2025, but this year Spain's national race moves to the new Madring circuit in Madrid, which is currently under construction and is set to host the event in September.

The Barcelona-Catalunya circuit is well known to all teams and drivers and was used for the very first test of these new 2026 Formula 1 cars at the end of January, which provided teams with their first opportunity to gather data on these all-new cars. It features a combination of high, medium and low-speed corners, as well as a long main straight.

Scuderia Ferrari HP heads into the weekend encouraged by the positive momentum shown in recent races. Dino Beganovic will also take part in Friday's first free practice session, replacing Lewis Hamilton, in accordance with the regulation requiring each team to field a driver with fewer than two Grands Prix starts on four occasions during the season, twice replacing each race driver. For the 22-year-old Swedish Ferrari Driver Academy student, currently competing in Formula 2, it will be another valuable opportunity to gain experience behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, as well as his first outing in the SF-26, which he has so far only driven in the simulator.

Fred Vasseur: We arrive in Barcelona after two race weekends in which we have shown encouraging signs in terms of competitiveness. In Monaco and Canada we got good results, but we know there is still a lot of work to do and that we must continue to focus on ourselves. As always, our objective will be to maximise the car's potential and continue making progress.

Ferrari in Spain

62 GP Entered
1951 (J. Froilán González 2nd; A. Ascari 4th; L. Villoresi ret.; P. Taruffi ret.)
14 (22.58%) Wins
15 (24.19%) Pole Positions
15 (24.19%) Fastest Laps
43 (23.12%) Podiums

Three questions to Dino Beganovic, Ferrari Academy Driver

This Friday you are going to drive the new generation of F1 car on track for the first time. What are your expectations?
Dino Beganovic: My expectations for this weekend and for FP1 are a mix of technical focus and emotion. It's always incredibly special to take part in an FP1 session and, more generally, to be back in a Ferrari Formula 1 car. Putting on the red race suit, getting back behind the wheel, and working closely with the engineers and mechanics is something unique, so I'm really looking forward to Barcelona. I have great memories from last year's FP1 and I want to build on that experience and put everything together this time. Clearly, this is still a very new car for me because of the regulation changes and everything that comes with them, so the priority is to get up to speed as quickly as possible. My aim is to do the job the team requires of me, provide useful feedback, and adapt to the car as much as possible. If I can do that, it will be a positive session for the whole team and hopefully an enjoyable one for me too.

Talk us through a lap of the Barcelona-Catalunya track. What are its main technical challenges and features?
DB: Barcelona is a circuit everyone knows extremely well, which is why the margins are always so tight, especially in qualifying. It is a very complete track, with a mix of low, medium and high-speed corners, so it really tests every aspect of the car and the driver. With track temperatures expected to be much higher than they were during winter testing, tyre degradation could become a key factor over the weekend across all categories, and that is one of the reasons this circuit is always so demanding. On top of that, the return of the high-speed final sector over the past couple of years has made the lap even more exciting in a Formula 1 car, because you can really feel the speed and the G-forces through that section.

How's your F2 season going? Last week you finished P3 in the Monaco Feature Race. What are your take-aways from these first four races, and what are you expectations for Barcelona?
DB: My F2 season has started well. In terms of pure performance, we have been very competitive, and in every Feature Race we have been in the fight for a podium. Unfortunately, two of those races were affected by technical issues, but that only underlines that, in the areas we can control, we have been doing a strong job in terms of pace and execution. The points we scored in Monaco were very important, and I feel they have put us firmly back in the title fight, just a few points off the lead. That is definitely something we want to build on, and it is where my focus is this weekend, alongside the opportunity to drive in FP1 with Ferrari.

Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix: Facts and Figures

1. The 2026 race will be the very first one held at the Montmelo track to go by the name of the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, while also being the 36th Formula 1 World Championship race held at this circuit. Since its opening in 1991, as part of the infrastructure development programme linked to the Olympic Games held the following year, the circuit has continuously hosted the Spanish Grand Prix, a title now attributed to a race at new Madrid venue to be held later in the season. In future, the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix will remain on the calendar to be held every two years in rotation with the Belgian Grand Prix.

6. The record number of Formula 1 wins at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, held jointly by Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton. Michael claimed his first victory there in 1995 with Benetton before triumphing again in 1996 - his maiden win for Scuderia Ferrari, and subsequently from 2001 to 2004. Lewis won in 2014 and then consecutively from 2017 to 2021.

Among Schumacher's victories in Barcelona, two remain particularly memorable. The first came in 1996, during his debut season with the Maranello team, when he started from third on the grid and, in torrential rain, secured a commanding win that earned him the nickname "Rainmeister". The second was in 2002, when he bagged a perfect Grand Slam, taking pole position, setting the fastest lap, leading every lap of the race and crossing the finish line 35 seconds clear of the runner-up.

9. The number of Barcelona landmarks recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 2026, the Catalan metropolis was also designated World Capital of Architecture.

Of the nine listed sites, two were designed by the Modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner: the Palau de la Música Catalana and the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. The remaining seven are associated with the genius of Barcelona's most famous architect, Antoni Gaudí, whose death centenary falls this year: the fairy-tale-like Park Güell, the Crypt of Colònia Güell, four celebrated city buildings - Palau Güell, Casa Vicens, Casa Milà and Casa Batlló - and, of course, the monumental and still unfinished Sagrada Família.

36. The number of languages into which the Gothic novel The Shadow of the Wind by Catalan author Carlos Ruiz Zafón has been translated. First published in Spain in 2001 (and in English in 2004 in a translation by Lucia Graves), the novel became a global publishing phenomenon, selling more than 15 million copies worldwide.

A true love letter to Barcelona, the book vividly evokes the city's atmosphere, neighbourhoods and landmarks. The success of The Shadow of the Wind led Zafón to write three further novels, independent yet interconnected, now collectively known as The Cemetery of Forgotten Books tetralogy, a cycle exploring the power of books, love and memory.

Zafón, who passed away in 2020, is today the second most widely read Spanish author in the world after Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote.

1000+. The number of Ferrari Tifosi and Scuderia Ferrari Club members who will enjoy the on-track action this weekend from a special dedicated grandstand: Grandstand M, sectors 11-12-13, located at Turn 5 and already sold out.
This is the first time that the Ferrari grandstand, a regular feature at Monza and Imola, has also been set up for a Grand Prix outside Italy. Throughout the weekend, Ferrari and the Scuderia Ferrari Club association will organise a range of activities to make the experience even more memorable.