2025 F1 Spanish GP – Key takeaways from Friday: McLaren leads, Ferrari faces challenges. Ferrari shows mixed performance during Spanish GP Friday practice.

F1 arrives in Barcelona for the ninth race of the 2025 Formula 1 season. This weekend, however, represents a big unknown for all teams due to the new technical directive on front wings. FP1 and FP2 were dominated by McLaren, while Ferrari still has plenty of work to do ahead of tomorrow afternoon’s Spanish GP qualifying. Let’s recap the key moments from this first day of free practice.

The new front wings
Teams gathered a lot of data in the first two practice sessions. So far, the new front wings have not altered the pecking order. Some teams, including McLaren, brought a modified front wing to Barcelona, merely stiffened to comply with the new technical directive, whereas Ferrari chose to completely redesign theirs.

Not only front wing changes
At the request of the Federation, each team had to test a new steel skid block on one car during the first practice session. Ferrari installed it on Charles Leclerc’s car, while Red Bull chose Yuki Tsunoda’s. Why this test? Because the titanium skid block, unlike the steel one, generates too many sparks, even causing small fires along the track. The experimental skid is intended to resolve this issue. However, some teams remain unconvinced, as the steel version is much heavier than the current one.

Ferrari struggles in Spanish GP free practice
The two practice sessions were dominated by McLaren. Lando Norris topped FP1, while Oscar Piastri set the fastest time in FP2. After a relatively encouraging FP1 — with Ferrari finishing third and fourth — FP2 confirmed ongoing issues over a single lap. Both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc struggled to put together a clean lap. The seven-time world champion, in a worrying team radio, said: “The car is undriveable.”

Race pace
In FP1, Ferrari had shown excellent race pace, even better than McLaren. In FP2, however, the picture changed. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were the most consistent over long runs, both on medium and soft tyres. Mercedes, on the other hand, initially struggled in FP2 to find race rhythm, but later managed to deliver more consistent performance, even completing a simulation of more than 19 laps on soft tyres.