Mark Hughes: Needless F1 team order enraged already-beaten Verstappen

There was a belief in some camps that the regulation reset of Technical Directive 018 concerning front wing flexibility would form a competitive reset when it came into force for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. It did nothing of the sort and Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris converted their front row lock-out to McLaren’s third 1-2 of the season.

But it had looked in the balance for a while as Max Verstappen and Red Bull took the challenge to them with an aggressive three-stop strategy. As the two-stopping Piastri and Norris were urged to up their pace to counter that threat, they reported they weren’t sure the tyres would take it. Eventually it was Verstappen’s tyres which surrendered first and McLaren’s dominance remained intact.

Furthermore, circumstances were set to punish Verstappen and his audacious strategy. There were several points of consequence which shaped these circumstances.

The Minimal Effect of the TD

To meet the stipulation of the halving of the flex tolerance of the front wing, McLaren introduced support stays between its elements. That was it. They tried the wing on Norris’ car for a few laps of practice at Imola – and he’d felt virtually no difference.

“Yes, I was a little surprised that we had such a clear advantage,” said McLaren’s Andrea Stella, “as I’d expected Red Bull to be a little closer based on some of the similar circuit characteristics we found at those tracks. But in hindsight I think the very high temperatures associated with the rear axle and that’s where our car performs very well. One characteristic of Spain is that the corners are very long unlike Imola where they are short. In these long corners the MCL39 carries over some of the qualities of its predecessor which you saw in long corner circuits like Zandvoort where Lando was dominant. Even if the speed range of the track was similar to others where Red Bull have been very strong, the length of the corners helped us today.”

Piastri took pole by the margin of 0.2sec over Norris and 0.3sec over Verstappen and the Mercedes of George Russell.

Although Verstappen took advantage of a bit of excess wheelspin from Norris to go second at the start, the McLaren’s tyre advantage was irresistible by the 13th lap as Norris made a simple DRS pass at the end of the pit straight, finding no resistance at all from Verstappen. Piastri was by then over 4sec in front.

Recognising they weren’t going to beat McLaren by doing the same, this was when Red Bull switched Verstappen to the three-stop, pitting him on the very next lap.

That strategy was quicker than McLaren expected and in Max’s second stint, on another set of softs while the McLarens remained on their original set, he really applied the pressure. But ultimately it couldn’t be maintained. He made his third stop just before McLaren responded with their second, with Norris rejoining just ahead but then pulling away. That’s how it was set to finish, with Verstappen comfortably clear of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and Russell’s Mercedes, the latter having undercut his way past Lewis Hamilton who’d passed him into the first corner.

Safety car timing

Kimi Antonelli lost oil pressure on his Mercedes with 12 laps to go and pulled off at Turn 10. Out came the safety car and like that the race received a late shot in the arm. Almost everyone pitted, not wanting to be sitting ducks on the restart with such high-deg tyres.

The problem for Verstappen was that the three-stop meant he’d used up all his available soft and medium tyres. The only fresh set he had were of the hard C1 compound. Which around Barcelona were slow, ill-balanced and difficult to warm up. In hindsight, he may have been better staying out on his old softs and at least trying to defend the lead from the new-tyred McLarens.

Instead, with Piastri slowing the field right down on the restart lap with just six laps to go, Verstappen had nowhere near enough temperature in his tyres and had a big moment out of the final corner onto the pit straight – allowing the soft-tyred Leclerc to pounce. Side-by-side they ran, and even rubbed tyre sidewalls, but with Leclerc prevailing. As they rushed up to Turn 1, Russell got in on the act too and dived inside the Red Bull. He had his front axle at least alongside the mirror of Verstappen and so was entitled to the corner under the racing guidelines. But they are only guidelines. He took up his line and Verstappen took to the run-off and short-cutted back ahead.

Verstappen’s Red Mist

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Just as he was demanding that Leclerc give him third place back, Verstappen was told by the team to give Russell fourth place back. This clearly enraged him. Slowing into Turn 5, Russell got alongside, only for Verstappen to then bang into his side to demonstrate his displeasure at the situation. Was it deliberate? “Does it matter?” countered Verstappen. Later in the lap, he pulled aside properly and Russell went by for fourth.

Race control later confirmed it had not been about to take any further action about the Russell incident. But the clearly deliberate collision was given a penalty of 10sec. Which, with the pack so closely-packed so soon after the safety car, dropped him from fifth to an official 10th.