Circuit de Catalunya, in the parched hills above Gaudi’s Barcelona, is the circuit best known to the bejewelled cockpit superstars of F1.
It has been on the calendar since 1991 and the wide variety of corners also make it an ideal annual pre-season testing venue, as it was in February.
What there is to be learnt about the circuit was done so long ago by drivers pounding around it until sunset.
So this race, above all others, has always been an ultra-tight affair in which gigabytes of accumulated testing data can be bought to bear.
Since the onset of the hybrid era this has been a Mercedes track, Lewis Hamilton winning six times in the past eight years – five times from pole.
Fernando Alonso has triumphed (at his home race) twice and Sebastian Vettel once.
Then there is Max Verstappen’s victory on his Red Bull debut at 18 thanks to Hamilton and Nico Rosberg skidding into the kitty litter on the first lap while scrapping over the lead. But surprises are rare.
F1 arrives in Spain with the new ground-effect formula still very much on public trial.
The racing is definitely closer this year but there is no indication it has improved overtaking.
Maybe then tracks need to change, too. Circuits like Barcelona, where one corner flows into the next, mean cars naturally criss-cross the tarmac, legitimately preventing overtaking bids from their pursuers on the shorter straights.
Lining up the everlasting bend that is T3 to overtake down to T4 doesn’t work, as Hamilton and Rosberg proved in 2012. Ditto T5, which dips to the apex. Dive down the inside and you’ll lose on the exit. T6 is effectively a straight. T7 is challenging but just too fast for an overtake.
The flow takes you to the inside of T8 and then immediately back to the outside for T9, Campsa, which is a very tricky, fast and bumpy uphill right-hander. The redesigned T10 is for Hail Mary lunges only. If you try to go around the outside you are out of the game for 11 & 12. Then 13, 14 & 15 are a technical and messy hustle requiring precision to fend off a challenge down the only real overtaking spot, the main straight that follows.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the layout. From the cockpit it is a real challenge. But it’s just not conducive to providing a spectacle for fans.
Is the answer, then, a wider circuit? Certainly wider entries and exits for the bends would allow momentum to be carried various different ways in and out of a corner.
Even so, it is encouraging that championship leader Charles Leclerc said all that lay between him and a real bid for victory in Miami was a set-up tweak to improve front tyre wear. That shows how close the fight is.
Ferrari started the season fastest but after successive defeats suspect Red Bull are committing price-capped resources earlier than they planned to.
Even so, the Scuderia bring their biggest updates yet for Barcelona in a behind-the-scenes development war sure to be crucial.
Meanwhile, tempers are fraying at the besieged champions with Hamilton snapping at both his team boss and the strategy team in recent races.
So Barcelona is D-Day for Mercedes’ temperamental diva of a car design, which is taking longer to come together than the Sagrada Familia. The conundrum appears more like one for the catwalk than the pitlane. For the first time they can compare their ‘Size Zero’ diva without sidepod hips to the (let’s say) conventional Size 12 one with sidepods used in the February test. One has to go.
Talking of prima donnas, F1’s drivers have done a spectacular flounce over a reminder from the new race director Niels Wittich that jewellery is banned from the cockpit as a safety risk.
It turns out that diamonds are, apparently, not only a woman’s best friend but a drivers’ too and they are having none of it.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Salayem has stepped in and insisted diamonds are not forever, they are only until 2pm local time (when the race starts). Hamilton’s retort, among others, is that if the ban remains, Mercedes have a spare driver for Monaco, suggesting he will sit out the weekend if confronted.
The official FIA reminder that the fine is an eye-watering £213,000 ($264,000) will surely give even the richest driver pause for thought.
What surprises me most is that Mercedes were the ones leading calls for more consistent application of the rules after the Abu Dhabi debacle. Six races later they want to be able to pick and choose which ones they follow.
But then Catalunya has always had a reputation for revolution.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
What vitamins do we know are beneficial for living in the UAE
Vitamin D: Highly relevant in the UAE due to limited sun exposure; supports bone health, immunity and mood.
Vitamin B12: Important for nerve health and energy production, especially for vegetarians, vegans and individuals with absorption issues.
Iron: Useful only when deficiency or anaemia is confirmed; helps reduce fatigue and support immunity.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA): Supports heart health and reduces inflammation, especially for those who consume little fish.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
TEACHERS' PAY - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
