June begins in the same vein as the previous month, with Oscar Piastri leading a commanding McLaren one-two. Max Verstappen and Red Bull try to compensate with strategy for the shortcomings of a car that has indeed improved in tyre management, but is still not on the same level as the one from Woking. This awareness fuels the world champion’s frustration, and his actions at the end open the door to Ferrari’s third podium of the season and to a second place in the championship, a reward for the progress of recent weeks.
It takes only a few kilometres for McLaren to shut down Red Bull’s hopes of fighting on equal footing in terms of race pace. Oscar Piastri’s slow escape at the front and Lando Norris’ pressure in the laps following the start echo the pattern seen in previous days, with the MCL39 clearly possessing an extra gear in race trim. The Woking cars once again display excellent management of rear tyres, whose overheating proves to be the limiting factor even in the Spanish race. “From a wear perspective, the front left was certainly the most stressed, but the degradation was mainly at the rear,” explains Andrea Stella.
Recognising they couldn’t contain the overwhelming McLarens, Red Bull’s pit wall, led by Hannah Schmitz, tried a different approach, opting for a contrarian strategy that was immediately spotted by rivals. “The moment Max came in for his first stop, it was clear he was going for three pit stops,” comments Stella. A move that didn’t unsettle the world champions, whose decision not to cover Verstappen but to stick to their own strategy reflects their full awareness of their strength.
That said, the Dutchman still posed a concrete threat, causing some concern at McLaren. “At one point, we even asked our drivers if they could push more, and they told us they didn’t have much margin,” Stella admits. However, the very three-stop strategy eventually put Verstappen in difficulty, leaving him without soft tyres during the Safety Car period—an absence that cost him composure, positions, and valuable points. The final laps thus turned into a parade for the papaya duo, able to extend their lead both on track and in the championship standings.
McLaren’s Triumph
It was a triple-header full of pitfalls, but over the past month the Woking team has passed every test with flying colours. The back-to-back victories in Monaco and Barcelona showcase the MCL39’s versatility—a car full of resources that doesn’t seem to have a weak track. McLaren was as agile and composed over Monaco’s kerbs as it was stable through Catalonia’s long corners, demonstrating a very broad setup window with many options. Rivals try to close the gap, but the papaya car maintains its superiority despite not having received major updates.
Some had believed that part of McLaren’s supremacy came from the use of flexible wings. In Formula 1, it has become common to suspect that a team’s success hides a single secret, but the harmlessness of the Barcelona technical directive once again confirms this isn’t the case. It is the sum of many small but crucial qualities that makes the MCL39 the best car on the grid—like the efficiency of its cooling system, which allows it to handle Barcelona’s scorching heat with a tightly packaged and aerodynamically efficient bodywork.
The strength of the driver pairing is another key advantage for the British team. Oscar Piastri still leads the standings, his composure and calm often mistaken for the iciness of Kimi Räikkönen—a mischaracterisation of a young man the team sees as a great communicator. The 24 points gained on Max Verstappen could be a major blow to the Dutchman’s hopes, and his closeness in the standings may determine whether further updates will be brought to the RB21.
Joining the McLarens on the podium once again is Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who capitalised on Verstappen’s late-race struggles on the hard tyre. The Monegasque lost 10 seconds to the papaya duo in the last six laps, a gap possibly linked to an unspecified issue on his SF-25, perhaps associated with repeated lift and coast. Despite this, in the race’s middle stint on medium tyres, the Ferrari driver was lapping just 1–2 tenths off the times of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, only to fall back after being overtaken by the recovering Verstappen.
This encouraging race pace is matched by qualifying improvements in making the most of new tyres, already evident in Monaco, though Fred Vasseur urges caution: “With tyres you need to be humble; every weekend starts from a blank sheet. Canada will be a different story. The asphalt is different, it’ll be colder, and the corners are different. We shouldn’t assume that what we’ve understood here in Barcelona will apply in two weeks’ time.”
Ferrari will head to Montreal as second in the constructors’ standings, a result that reflects its recovery after a disastrous start to the season. The current position mirrors the on-track hierarchy, with McLaren untouchable and Red Bull still overall faster with Max Verstappen, but limited in points by a car undrivable for anyone besides the Dutchman. Holding the title of “best of the rest” falls short of the expectations set before the season, but the hope is that the planned upgrades will at least bring some stage victories.
Bright Green
The Prancing Horse has overtaken a Mercedes team emerging from a decidedly difficult triple-header. Antonelli’s retirement due to an oil pressure loss followed Russell’s battery issue during Monaco’s Saturday, raising concerns about reliability. Once again, the Silver Arrows couldn’t replicate in the race what they’d built on Saturday. “There’s still the same tendency to overheat the tyres, whether front or rear,” commented Wolff. “But I have the feeling that it went a bit better here.” His optimism comes from Russell’s race pace, as he consistently trailed Hamilton before surprising him with an undercut, as well as from the positive feedback from the latest updates.
The surprise of the day, however, was Nico Hülkenberg, the only one with a new set of soft tyres after the Safety Car. He even overtook a stunned Hamilton and then benefited from Verstappen’s penalty. The fifth-place finish still owes a lot to the German driver, who made the most of the new floor introduced in Spain—the latest product of the rich development program Sauber has pursued since the start of the season. To the delight of the home crowd, Spain also brought the first championship points for Fernando Alonso, driving an Aston Martin that has reached Q3 in every race since the Imola upgrades. Small but significant steps—just as McLaren has shown—are the foundation of success.
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