Two Spaniards on podium in Barcelona? 'Not impossible'

If Sunday's Grand Prix goes as Red Bull Racing hopes (and secretly expects), there will be room on the podium for one car that does not belong to the Austrian team. The Spanish fans in the packed grandstands will no doubt be hoping for Carlos Sainz or Fernando Alonso to slot in alongside Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Preferably even both Spanish assets on the podium is what the Spanish prefer.

Given Red Bull Racing's dominance, that does not seem realistic. Yet Carlos Sainz, telling GPblog and others, said: "No, I don't think it's impossible. I think there's a space in the podium in case the Red Bulls are dominating. There's still that one space that we're fighting every weekend with both Charles and me, with Fernando, Lance and the two Mercedes. It's a constant fight."

Aston Martin stronger

Alonso is now a regular on the podium with Aston Martin. Once again, he seems to be the first to beat Ferrari if the Italians are to have any chance of getting to the podium at all. "Yes, Aston has the upper hand and normally are the strongest package come race day, but that's why we are trying to upgrade our car and trying to become quicker."

To capture a win, Red Bull should probably face problems. Still, Sainz has hope: "And also there's been circuits where we've managed to bother a bit Red Bull in quali, but I do think Red Bulls are going to stay ahead for some more races before someone can really make them tumble a bit because they are on a very, very high level and good job to them because they've done a very strong car this season."