The Spanish Grand Prix was interesting, though not particularly thrilling except for the final laps. From a technical point of view, a lot was on display, as is to be expected on a track like the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, called by some an “open-air wind tunnel,” and long used as a testing ground by teams. The news for the rest of the 2025 Formula 1 season’s show, however, doesn’t look promising. McLaren’s advantage proved especially solid across all fronts—performance-wise and in tire management—which made it nearly impossible even for Max Verstappen to pose a real threat to Lando Norris, and especially to Oscar Piastri, despite an aggressive and well-judged strategy from Red Bull, at least until the Safety Car.
TD018 changed some things but not the pecking order. Looking at the Barcelona weekend as a whole, the perception is that the new directive limiting front wing flexibility has indeed complicated matters for many teams, particularly those who heavily relied on it, like McLaren or Mercedes, especially in the pursuit of the ideal balance between slow and fast corners. In McLaren’s case, they opted to unload the rear end, likely relying on the car’s ability to control rear temperatures thanks to its innovative brake ducts. This led to some balance differences even between the two drivers, with Oscar Piastri complaining during the race of earlier rear tire degradation—perhaps from a front-heavy setup—while Lando Norris suffered graining on the front-left. Clearly, though, this did not stop or slow down the McLaren duo in the slightest. These were minor effects from the new wings, nothing that impacted the on-track hierarchy, where the MCL39 continues to excel.
The ability to run the car extremely low gave the two papaya-colored arrows the chance to generate very high levels of aerodynamic load while maintaining efficiency and good balance. It is no coincidence that both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were able to extend their stints—especially the middle one—controlling the pace without any drop-off in tire performance. This was helped, of course, by excellent management from both drivers. Lando Norris seemed to have a bit more in the middle stint, likely because he was busier keeping Max Verstappen at bay, but he never seriously threatened a flawless and ice-cold Piastri, who was fast and dominant all weekend.
Red Bull was inferior but smart with a three-stop strategy, which was undone at the end. The Milton Keynes team found themselves technically inferior on a track that should have highlighted the RB21’s strengths in downforce and tire management. Already by Saturday, Christian Horner’s team had to concede that their tire management wasn’t on par with Woking’s. The setup, aimed at protecting the rear, hindered a more aggressive qualifying run, with rear-end issues so pronounced that engineers shifted Yuki Tsunoda’s balance even further rearward than Max Verstappen’s—with the result being the Japanese driver finishing last in the qualifying session.
Once it became clear that Max Verstappen had no chance of competing with the McLaren cars under equal conditions, Hannah Schmitz and her strategists went for a three-stop race, also to maximize use of the soft tire—the best compound in the race. The plan worked until the Safety Car, placing Max Verstappen just 1.5 seconds behind Lando Norris, though the gap was quickly growing again, compared to the 15–20 seconds he would likely have lost on the same strategy.
The chaotic finish involving the hard tire, the only one left, and Max Verstappen’s outburst undid what had until then been the best possible race for the reigning World Champion. A blunder that was certainly his own, but also the team’s: they first pitted him during the Safety Car to fit new hard tires, a compound everyone else had avoided this weekend, when perhaps it would have been better to try defending with used softs, at least to secure a podium, and then instructed him to give the position to George Russell, something that, according to the stewards’ notes, may not even have been necessary. From that point, the Dutchman’s fury was unleashed. He was visibly less composed than usual. Typically, even in tense moments, Max Verstappen remains calculating his actions, sometimes unsporting, but always deliberate. The incident with George Russell, however, appeared to be pure irrationality, possibly driven by frustration at McLaren’s currently unreachable form, and the realization that keeping the number 1 on the car now looks increasingly unlikely.
Looking at Ferrari’s race at the Circuit de Catalunya, and the weekend in general, for the Maranello team, some technical specifics stand out. First, in Barcelona, the SF25 showed the highest level of aerodynamic load seen on the car this season. This came at the expense of top speed, with a clear push for extra downforce through the upper aero surfaces. But not only that: it seems the Maranello engineers and technicians tried to run the car lower to the ground than they had so far. This would be supported by Charles Leclerc’s early pace and by a late-race balance shift he experienced—something not previously observed. The lack of very slow corners likely allowed for an extremely stiff suspension setup, possibly alongside a small initial update, hinted at by Frederic Vasseur in several interviews, and this may have enabled a lower ride height than usual.
At the end of the race, however, Bryan Bozzi instructed Charles Leclerc to do an enormous amount of so-called Lift and Coast, which the Monegasque openly criticized for how much time it cost. Normally, teams are open about brake or engine temperature issues, since they do not impact regulations, so Frederic Vasseur’s refusal to explain the need for such heavy Lift and Coast might suggest they were trying to preserve the plank, by reducing cornering speeds that, as the car lightened, were increasing and causing more contact with the track surface before braking zones. It is just a hypothesis, but the impression of a different longitudinal setup is further supported by Charles Leclerc’s brief conversation with the McLaren duo on the post-race stage, where he asked whether they too had experienced a significant balance shift late in the race, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri implied they had not at all.
Charles Leclerc’s lap times show that, from mid-race onward, tire management started to become more problematic. The SF25 appears to have reached its limit in this configuration, pushed to the lowest possible ride heights. That’s likely why Charles Leclerc strongly called for updates to face the next part of the season with a real shot at podiums and wins, because after this Grand Prix, the Championships now seem to be McLaren’s alone.
As for Lewis Hamilton, there is not much to add. The British driver made a number of post-race comments that were puzzling: he described the race as one of his worst ever, said he could not wait to go home, claimed he had no answers, and even suggested the problem lay within himself and not the Maranello team, implying that since Charles Leclerc found the podium, he must be the one unable to make the SF25 work. A complete surrender on all fronts, compounded by comments earlier in the weekend that he would soon ask the team to focus entirely on the 2026 Formula 1 car. Unfortunately, Lewis Hamilton appears to be in clear difficulty and is evidently more affected than he lets on by comparison with his Maranello teammate. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion is seemingly lost in a generation of cars that never suited him, combined with an SF-25 car that clearly does not match his driving style. It is now a moment of crisis, a desert he must cross while waiting to rediscover both himself and a car that can once again showcase the talents of the most successful driver in Formula 1 history.
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