2025 Spanish Grand Prix

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.