The 2025 Spanish Grand Prix Was A Breath of Fresh Air

After 78 formation laps in the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix, Formula 1 fans around the world were desperate for some on-track wheel-to-wheel action. And the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona delivered.

First things first, Oscar Piastri wrapped up a dominant weekend by leading from lights out to chequered flag. Additionally, he secured pole position with the fattest margin so far in the 2025 F1 season. Now, he has extended his championship lead to 10 points (with 186 points total).

His teammate Lando Norris finished a respectable second, propelling McLaren further ahead in the constructors’ standings. The Woking-based outfit now has 362 points on the board — 197 clear from the current runners-up Scuderia Ferrari.

It’s quite evident that this season, despite being advertised as one of the most exciting ones because it was the last one with the same set of rules and the cars were converging in terms of engineering, is a two-horse race and a one-team show.

Regardless, you can’t be mad at Team Papaya for retaining last year’s form and continuing to dominate the season so far.

While it was all smooth sailing for the Piastri and Lando up front, there was chaos behind them, particularly during the last 10 laps of the 2025 F1 Spanish Grand Prix.

There are a few interesting top stories, but the biggest one, again, involves Max Verstappen, so let’s start with that one.

Red Bull’s mistake and Verstappen’s agony

Max was about to get on the podium

Until lap 55, things were looking good for the four-time world champion. Verstappen was on his way to secure a solid P3, the best result they could manage considering their pace deficit to the McLarens.

However, Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes engine gave up, and he had to retire the car. Race control deployed the safety car to remove the stricken vehicle from the track before resuming the session.

Everyone in the top ten, except Fernando Alonso, dived into the pits to change their tires in a bid to make up positions after the race start. Considering there will only be a handful of racing laps at the end, the goal was to put on a set of softs and destroy them until the chequered flag.

Some drivers, including Verstappen, didn’t have a new set of softs. They had two choices — put on new hards or go with used softs from a previous stint.

Red Bull went with the first option for the Dutchman, and everybody else put on used softs.

By the time the safety car entered the pits, we only had six racing laps to go. Verstappen was still behind the McLarens in P3. Behind him were Charles Leclerc and George Russell, both on used softs.

The oversteer and ramming

The hard tires take longer to heat up compared to the softs.

Max was pushing his brand new hard tires to the limit in a bit to get some temperature into them and close the gap to the McLarens ahead in order to mount a challenge for track position. 

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the tires, he suffered an oversteer instead and lost traction, allowing Charles Leclerc to close the gap. The Monagasque overtook the Dutchman in the start-finish straight, a few meters before the braking zone.

To add salt to the injury, George Russell closed the gap and was looking to take advantage of the situation. He divebombed but was a bit too far and carried some additional momentum into the corner.

As a result, he gave Max a gentle tap, wheel-to-wheel, forcing the Dutchman off the track to take evasive action. After the safety manuever, the Red Bull driver emerged ahead of the Mercedes driver.

Verstappen’s race engineer, GP, got on the radio and requested him to give the position back. This was the second mistake from the Red Bull crew because it was practically a racing incident.

In fact, the stewards looked into it after the race and decided to take no further action.

Again, GP, potentially oblivious to the fact that George actually forced Verstappen to take evasive action, recommended Max to relinquish the position, infuriating the Dutchman.

Of course, Max, being the guy that he is, decided to take matters into his own hands and deliberately rammed into George Russell before letting him through, earning a 10-second time penalty in the process, which dropped him to P10.

In hindsight, a P3 turned into a P10 due to Red Bull’s dumb strategy call and Max’s temper.

11 penalty points

Apart from a 10-second time penalty, the stewards also awarded three penalty points to Max Verstappen’s superlicense in the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix. Currently, he is one point shy of receiving a race ban.

Considering the pace of the Red Bulls and how far they’ve dropped back in both championships, the four-time world champion couldn’t care less, especially after how this race has panned out.

Until the Milton Keynes outfit fixes the stability issues of the vehicle and finds some much-needed race pace, Max will continue to operate in a “yeah, whatever” mode, which can lead to further damage in terms of points.

Nico Hulkenberg finishes fifth

The Sauber driver crossed the finish line in P6 and got promoted to P5 after Russell-Verstappen shenanigans.

As if that’s not enough in itself, the German started from P15 on the grid and pulled off a magnificent move on Sir Lewis Hamilton on the last lap of the race to finish ahead of the seven-time world champion.

In the post-race interview, he explained how getting knocked out in Q1 enabled him to finish where he did. 

Basically, he had one additional set of brand-new soft tires that he put on during the Kimi Antonelli safety car. Lewis had used softs. This allowed Nico to send it down the inside into T1 and secure the position by the time he exited the corner.

If you look at the race pace of the Saubers since last year, objectively, you’d speculate they need another crazy weekend like Melbourne 2025 to score some points. Fortunately, we were wrong, and the latest round of upgrades seems to work well.

With 16 points on the board, Sauber is now P8 in the constructors’ standings, ahead of Aston Martin and Alpine.

If the Barcelona results came on merit, there is no reason to doubt Hulk and Gabriel Bortoleto can score some points further into the season. Furthermore, AMR and Alpine are going through their own internal strife, which could give the advantage to the boys in green.

Lewis Hamilton is officially washed out

No, I am not saying it because Nico overtook Lewis’s Ferrari in a Sauber. These kinds of overtakes, when looked at individually, aren’t rare in Formula 1.

It’s how the overall weekend has panned out and his Ferrari stint so far.

Since late 2023 and early 2024, we have had our suspicions about whether the GOAT of the sport is losing his edge on track. Initially, we blamed it on Mercedes, both the car and an increasingly toxic environment that wanted Hamilton out and Kimi in.

When the Stevenage-born moved to Ferrari, I, being a deeply closeted Lewis and Scuderia fan, became happy. I wondered if he could win his elusive eighth world title with the team he adored the most.

Additionally, Ferrari finished 2024 on a high, with both drivers on the podium and 14 points shy of McLaren, the constructors’ champions.

Moreover, Angela Cullen, his longtime trainer and friend, joined him in the sport’s most successful team. There was literally no reason not to believe that Lewis would score multiple wins in 2025 and challenge for the world title.

After a few spots of sunshine, particularly the pole and win in the China 2025 Sprint, the painful truth was apparent — Ferrari showed up with a trash car, and Lewis Hamilton, the sport’s most successful driver so far, is washed out.

I can’t lie to myself anymore.

He has been struggling since the start of the ground effect era. This occurred due to his traditional driving style, which he couldn’t edit. Usually, Lewis brakes deeper, takes the corner slowly, and accelerates early in the exit.

The ground-effect cars demand something different. Drivers need to brake moderately, coast through the corner carrying medium speed, and get on the throttle a bit later in the exit.

Hamilton has been struggling to adapt to this change, leading to rear instability out of corners, especially medium-speed ones. Younger drivers who aren’t vegan, such as Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, had no issues adapting and are enjoying more success.

And I don’t think Lewis can adapt to the new regulations in 2026 for the exact same reason.

Old age hampers your learning ability, which is made worse if you don’t get any meat into your system. Vegan diets reduce growth hormone and testosterone, affecting your ability to grasp new concepts or pick up new habits.

So yeah, we are seeing the twilight years of the most decorated driver in the field. Let’s enjoy as these lead to the inevitable darkness of irrelevance. I’ll pour a drink, or five, to combat misery.

Looking forward: Red Bull’s dark days

Yuki Tsunoda, the other Red Bull driver, had a terrible weekend. He qualified P20 and finished P13. The engineers and others discussed how they made the wrong setup calls, but there’s definitely more to that.

The crux of the matter is that the RB21 is a midfield car on most days if they are lucky. Max overdriving that vehicle has masked its apparent limitations. Year after year, we saw experienced drivers struggle to tame the second car.

As the season progresses, Red Bull will drop further back in the championship standings, and Christian Horner will go through a complete existential crisis. Their only hope is to nail the 2026 car, which, to me, seems impossible.

They don’t have Adrian Newey anymore.

Apart from Red Bull’s implosion, I want to see how Ferrari reacts when they realize Hamilton is a dying star and they bet on the wrong horse. You’re as good as your past race or season, and it’s been a while since Lewis had a good one.

Finally, I am hopeful about the Saubers due to their sudden competitiveness. If they can pip AMR and Alpine in the championship standings, I’ll have a couple of shots to celebrate.

Until next time,

Tara