The Spanish GP made its Formula 1 debut in 1951 at the Pedralbes circuit. Since then, the race has been held at Jarama, Montjuic, and Jerez de la Frontera. The Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona was used for the first time in 1991, with victory for Nigel Mansell (Williams-Renault) after a spectacular fight with Ayrton Senna (McLaren-Honda). Michael Schumacher is the biggest winner in Spain with six triumphs, one for Benetton-Renault in 1995 and the other five (1996, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004) for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton also has six for Mercedes, in 201 and from 2017 to 2021.

Learn more about Spain

Spain is a southern European country located on the Iberian Peninsula. It has the Bay of Biscay, France and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east and south, the British territory of Gibraltar to the south, Portugal to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and west. Besides the Iberian portion, Spain also has the archipelagos of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlanticntic, the cities of Ceuta and Melilla (plus several islets and rocks off the African coast), and the enclave of Llivia, surrounded by France.

The country is divided into autonomous communities. Some of these communities, such as Galicia, the Basque Country, the Valencian Community, and Catalonia, have their own languages. Since joining the European Union in 1986, Spain has become a highly industrialized country.

The politics of Spain is the set of administrative conditions that the laws of Spain dictate for the operation that the legislative bodies deem fit for the country. According to the classification of systems of government in the world, Spain has the parliamentary form of monarchy because its legislative branch, (represented in the figure of the Cortes Generales), exercises most of the legislative and governing responsibility.

It is a parliamentarian system because, after the legislative elections, the King of Spain must make the proposal of the President of the Government to the Congress of Deputies, and if the Congress of Deputies approves it, the elected representative remains in office as long as he retains the confidence of the deputies; otherwise he must resign. The King can dissolve the Cortes if there is no uniform criterion of government, and then new elections are called.

Spain's economy is the fifth largest economy in the European Union, and still the eighth largest in the world. The Spanish economy has been experiencing intense financial growth since the 1990s. This growth, however, has slowed down due to the international economic crisis of 2008.

Sports are dominated mainly by soccer, basketball, cycling, tennis, handball, and motor sports, especially motorcycling. Since the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, the country has entered the world elite in several sports. In Spain, the , which is one of the three most important cycling competitions in the world, is held every year in September. The Spanish national soccer team was world champion in 2010. With the success of Fernando Alonso, Formula 1 is becoming increasingly popular in the country.

F1 - Learn a little more about Spain and its GP

The Circuit de Catalunya

The Circuit de Catalunya, located in Barcelona, is 4.627km long and is one of the most used by the Formula 1 teams for testing. For this reason, the GP held annually at the track usually has few surprises, since almost everyone manages to get a setup very close to the ideal to extract the maximum potential from their cars. The track is considered a medium-speed one and it demands a lot from the aerodynamics of the single-seaters due to some long and fast corners.

F1 - Learn more about Spain and its GP