Formula One Comes Home - NYTimes.com BARCELONA - After running the first four races of the season either on the other side of the world or in the threatening unknown terrain of Bahrain, Formula One has come home to Europe. And boy, did it ever feel like home as the paddock people arrived in Barcelona for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix. Formula One A view from the paddock with Brad Spurgeon. Of course, there is also a bit of social unrest in Spain, with the country's current economic situation. The tension is far from the atmosphere we found in Barcelona at the height of the Spanish invasion of the series - think back to when Fernando Alonso became the first Spaniard to win his home Grand Prix in 2006. But after four races abroad, returning to a Formula One paddock with the familiar team hospitality suites, massive "motor homes," lining up and down the paddock behind the team garages, there is an electric festive feeling in the air. During the first practice sessions on Friday, the home driver, Alonso for Ferrari, set the fastest lap in the morning and Jenson Button of the McLaren Mercedes team set the fastest lap of the afternoon. Naturally, the return of the series to its cradle - Europe - was fodder for some of the queries by journalists to the drivers and team members - and for the first time in four races the question of whether or not the series was doing the right thing going to a country experiencing social unrest was not raised. Kimi Raikkonen, the Finnish driver of the Lotus team, known as Iceman, gave his usual bloodless response when asked what difference the return to Europe made in his training and his racing: "I arrived in China on the Thursday morning, so arriving for a European race on the Thursday morning is no different really," he said, choosing not to explain how he overcame jet lag and culture shock in just a day before taking to the track in Shanghai last month. Pedro de la Rosa, a Spanish driver on the Spanish team known as HRT, expounded much more expansively on the meaning of the homecoming. "I used to live ten minutes away from the track and this is something - that, when you grow up, you can always listen to the engines," he said, "when you wake up every morning during the weekends. "For me, it's a very special event, absolutely," he said. Even Kamui Kobayasi, the Japanese driver on the Sauber team, sounded, well, almost like a European. I came to Europe 17 years ago and I've been here to Barcelona a lot of times. After long trips, being back in Europe in Formula One is always great and it's always great to see the motor homes in Barcelona," he said. It's always good to be back in Europe for Formula One. But the sense of belonging, of comfort and place that pervades this weekend in Spain raises deeper questions about "Europe" vs. "elsewhere" for Formula One, and the philosophy of this series as a "world" championship. "I think for all of us we're happy to race in Europe," said Sebastian Vettel of the Red Bull team. Surely we have races overseas which we enjoy. For instance, we all love going to Australia. Yes, it's a long trip but once we are there I think we all enjoy being there and it's the same here. I think every country we go to, there is a strong culture for motor sport. We hope for a lot of excitement and for a lot of people to come. It makes us feel very special when we are on the grid, to see that the grandstand is packed," he said. One journalist asked all the drivers a question that only Kobayashi tried to answer, and he didn't really have an answer. "If you look at the drivers in 1992, there were only two non-European countries represented," asked the journalist, referring to all the drivers racing on F1 teams. If you look at the same field twenty years later, this year, there are seven non-European countries represented. Is there a chance that in a few more years, the majority of the drivers will come from outside Europe and how do you think that will impact the sport? Personally, I think it would be great to see far more drivers from outside Europe, reflecting Formula One's truly international following - although the drivers would still have to be the best the world has to offer, of course. Any other points of view on that? While you formulate your contribution to the discussion, my stories previewing the Spanish Grand Prix are online now: The lead story is about how now that the series has returned to Europe, drivers have less travel to the hosting cities, but they have to travel more to the office to work with their team personnel. I interview James Allison, the technical director of the Lotus team, about its environmental projects within the F1 series. And in my ongoing series of portraits of all six world champions now racing, I profile Fernando Alonso. The Grand Prix history story is, as usual, about the current event.