Three weeks after the four flyaway races, now the Europa series of Formula 1 events start on Sunday with the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. This is certainly very exciting, because almost all the teams are having a break from racing for extensive testing and technical modifications to the cars to be used.

So far, the team of Red Bull Racing, McLaren and Mercedes are on the same level, but also Lotus and Sauber are not all too far away from the top. Ferrari’s season had been quite full of ups and downs, and the overall performance was not up to that of the aforesaid teams listed above.

Red Bull has generally been mentioned as a slight favorite for the World Cup again now in 2012with much more intense competition than in the past season. This also confirms the fact that in the previous four races there were four different winners and winning teams.

After the test phase, and the technical and aerodynamic improvements to the bolids in Spain, the cards are shuffled, and so the local hero Fernando Alonso at Ferrari’s is full of energy and emotion in this his home Grand Prix. He sees the race in Barcelona as a key race for his team, though not as absolutely decisive for the 2012 season.

It still remains to be seen how far Ferrari have improved thier car in practice since the last Formula 1 Grand Prix in Bahrain, and whether they can ever fully come close to the top teams. In any case, the Spanish motorsport fans are enthusiastically excited, and there is optimism reigning around the Circuit de Catalunya on the weekend in a true Alonso & Ferrari mania!