Spanish GP conclusions: Verstappen ban threat, McLaren secret, wildcard Tsunoda solution

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri claimed his fifth victory of the F1 2025 season at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Piastri dominated from pole position to extend his lead in the World Championship with McLaren team-mate Lando Norris second and Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari. On a day Red Bull’s Max Verstappen suffered a late-race meltdown, here are our conclusions from Spain.

Max Verstappen’s volcanic temper makes him hard to love

If only Red Bull had kept Max Verstappen out.

Or at least had something better to offer him at his final pit stop in Barcelona than a set of cold, hard tyres for the restart.

It was at that moment and with that decision under the Safety Car – would it have been made under the old Jonathan Wheatley-led regime, you wonder? – that they started to lose him as confusion turned to anger and anger turned to uncontrollable rage.

If George Russell had not got it, it would have been Charles Leclerc, safely up the road in third by the time Max exploded.

And if it did not manifest itself out on track in front of the watching world, it would have happened behind closed doors in the Red Bull motorhome on Sunday evening.

Hell hath no fury like Max Verstappen scorned.

He is his very much his father’s son, Max, in that way.

Those who know the Verstappen family well speak of him as a sensitive soul born with the same emotional intelligence and tenderness as his mother Sophie.

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You often see it in the heartwarming moments in the paddock with his stepdaughter Penelope and there will be more to come now he has become a father himself for the first time too.

But when he turns?

Goodness, does he turn as the Jos inside him ignites. Stand well back when that fuse is lit, because it’s gonna blow.

In an arena in which injury and death are ever-present dangers, there is no more repugnant sight in motor racing than a car being used as a weapon.

Yet let us not pretend that we haven’t been here before with Max and quite recently too.

He would, even if only for the faintest moment in the heat of battle, have quite happily seen Lando Norris in the hedge in Mexico last year when the injustice of being overtaken off track drove him to another rash form of retaliation.

For a more pertinent example, see Hungary last year, a race also characterised by a descent into madness that played out live and uncut over team radio, his judgement blinded long before the dangerous final lunge on Lewis Hamilton.

The thread running through each of these incidents?

Every single time Max ends up being his own worst enemy and compromises himself in some way.

For a driver otherwise so gifted (his save at the restart was among the most brilliant pieces of car control you could ever witness) and intelligent, who learned last year the value of maximising the bad days, it is a defect that he keeps allowing himself to be lured into such self-defeating spasms of anger.

And where has it left him this time?

Just a single penalty point away from the humiliation of a one-race ban with two weekends (Canada and Austria) still to navigate before his tally – now at 11 points out of 12 for the current 12-month window – begins to reduce.

Finishing fifth in the Spanish Grand Prix would not have been the end of the world for Max’s ambitions of retaining his title in 2025; being banned for a race for a total loss of perspective and a lack of self control most certainly would be.

There will inevitably be calls for the FIA to ignore standard protocol and impose an immediate ban in this case, but Formula 1 in 2025 is not in the business of pulling drivers out of races with a black flag or handing out race bans.

That has been clear ever since Sebastian Vettel escaped with barely a slap on the wrist for banging wheels with Hamilton behind the Safety Car in Baku in 2017, and it is a stance, with the drivers and their personalities central to the sport’s appeal in the modern era, to be applauded.

An F1 race taking place without Max Verstappen, the finest driver in F1 today and on a trajectory that should see him remembered in time as the greatest in history, would be an F1 race not worth watching.

Yet on days like this, when that volcanic temper of his takes over and Verstappen just wants to watch the world burn?

He becomes hard to love.

He becomes the very definition of a flawed genius.

Oscar Piastri has mastered the complete elimination of doubt

The complete elimination of doubt.

That, as noted by this column after the Monaco Grand Prix, is where you will find the true difference between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

It is the stage when a driver really starts to grow into the status of a World Champion, best captured in those snapshots when he sets pole position or takes the lead of a race and never once looks like losing it.

It is the point at which confidence morphs into certainty, the removal of jeopardy rendering victory not only inevitable but also somehow making it seem a matter of routine.

As impressive as Norris’s win might have been in Monte Carlo last weekend, there were still enough holes in his performance – those little mistakes under pressure to keep Charles Leclerc keen throughout – to suggest that he is not yet fluent in the language of victory.

Piastri? He’s getting there now. And getting there fast.

For all the talk of Piastri’s superior composure and temperament, the last couple of races have brought the first tiny little hints of uncertainty to his title challenge.

Max Verstappen’s move at the first corner at Imola, wondrous though it was, did not reflect well on Piastri, simply caught sleeping by a driver with more agility in wheel-to-wheel combat.

The response, too, was not pretty, Piastri and McLaren overcomplicating things in their attempt to get back at Max and only succeeding in pitting into traffic, ultimately costing him a further position – and points he cannot afford to give away so freely – to Norris.

And Monaco? True, he never recovered the momentum lost when he ploughed into the barrier at Ste Devote during FP2.

Yet that great drivers’ circuit also revealed the lingering limitations in his technique – recall how many time-sapping slides Piastri had to catch on exit from Rascasse – and his ever-so-slightly spikier inputs compared to Norris, who remains the faster McLaren driver on balance at this stage.

Spain, the scene of Piastri’s least convincing race of last year when his lingering weaknesses with tyre management came to the fore, also had the potential to be another uncomfortable weekend.

It was too close to call in the early stages and, indeed, Norris held the advantage after the first runs of Q3.

Then came the pressure. Then came the doubt.

Then came the difference between the merely good and the potentially great.

Watch the onboards of those final Q3 laps and you will find Lando drawn into the fatal mistake of overdriving, whereas Oscar visibly allows the lap – the missing time from the first run – to come to him.

It is that psychological stillness – the ability, shared by all successful elite athletes, to hold your technique firm even in the most crucial moments – that secured pole position.

And when Oscar Piastri starts from pole position these days, there is no stopping him.

All doubt has been eliminated.

The secret behind McLaren’s speed? Simple

So it wasn’t the mini DRS. Not the tyre water either.

Definitely wasn’t the rear brakes, found entirely legal after an ‘extensive’ post-race inspection by the FIA in Miami.

And on the evidence of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, it can’t be a flexible front wing.

So what’s left?

Maybe, just maybe, McLaren’s rivals will just have to concede that they’re simply doing a better job.

Spain was billed as the weekend it would all change in 2025, but everything – not least the MCL39’s pace advantage over the opposition – stayed exactly the same.

It should be a source of great satisfaction for McLaren – consistent from the start in their stance that there is no technical trickery to be found here – that they have been completely unaffected by a rule change their noisiest neighbours in the pit lane claimed would alter the shape of the entire season.

It is hard to think of another front-running team in modern times accused so often of bending the technical regulations to their advantage.

When Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were dominant with Mercedes and Red Bull respectively, there was an inescapable sense of nature taking its course as these exceptional drivers went unchallenged in exceptional cars.

The atmosphere among their peers in those years was more grudging admiration than accusatory with a respect for engineering feats like Merc’s split turbo and Adrian Newey’s anti-dive/squat suspension.

Maybe there is something in the idea that neither Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris are considered the best driver on the grid – that accolade is still very much safe with Max – which has led so many to become convinced that McLaren must be up to something to have put them in such a commanding position.

It is far less likely that McLaren have found a silver bullet – “it’s great that people want to spend their time trying to find a ghost,” Zak Brown recently told PlanetF1.com – than it is that they just have the most aerodynamically efficient car.

Which allows them to access the car’s peak potential in a broader range of conditions and a wider variety of circuits than any other team on the grid.

Just like Red Bull up until this time last year, in other words.

Andrea Stella, the team principal, alluded to this after qualifying in Barcelona after Piastri set pole position with a lap more than three tenths quicker than Verstappen’s Red Bull.

“Once again, I want to take this opportunity to thank the team who have managed to design, construct, race such a competitive car,” he said.

“Barcelona is one of the most important testing grounds, especially in terms of overall aerodynamic efficiency, and I think we proved that the McLaren car is very competitive from this point of view.”

The real secret behind McLaren’s success in 2025?

Simple, actually.

Why don’t Red Bull just sell Yuki Tsunoda’s seat to the highest bidder?

Max Verstappen came up with a very interesting answer on Yuki Tsunoda’s struggles back in Monaco.

Asked in Thursday’s FIA press conference in Monte Carlo if he is keen for Tsunoda to now step up and help him take points away from the McLarens in the title fight, he told media including PlanetF1.com: “I think as a team you want both cars in the best possible position.

“But look at 2023, for example.

“If we have a good car, you will be fast and then it doesn’t matter what the other teams do in terms of strategy because you will beat them.”

Max’s point?

Any contribution Tsunoda can make is largely immaterial when Verstappen has already demonstrated that when provided with the right car, he can win the lot – every race, the Drivers’ title, even the Constructors’ title – all by himself.

It became clear over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend that the very sizeable wobble Tsunoda had with his qualifying accident at Imola is fast developing into a full-blown crisis, the kind of which Red Bull have become painfully familiar.

After the brave resistance of his early weeks as a Red Bull driver, Yuki is entering Liam Lawson territory – nailed to the bottom of the timesheets when he’s in the car and, revealingly, carrying that shaken, haunted look on his face when the helmet comes off.

The abiding image of Lawson’s brief stint as Verstappen’s team-mate?

Staggering around parc ferme at the end of the race in China, looking like he did not know what had just hit him.

As Tsunoda is now discovering too, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

So what now?

Calls will no doubt grow for Isack Hadjar, highly impressive in the Racing Bulls car so far in his debut season, to be the next one sent to Max’s meat grinder and have the light taken from his eyes.

Yet with so many promising Red Bull juniors sent to slaughter over recent years – Lawson and Tsunoda have merely followed in the footsteps of Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon – now is the time to finally say enough.

Why not, at this stage, give up on the second seat entirely as a competitive entity and sell it to the highest bidder?

No, seriously.

Take the pressure entirely out of the situation of being Verstappen’s team-mate. And, crucially, be transparent about it too.

Just come out and admit that for as long as Max, the point around which the team’s world revolves, remains a Red Bull driver, anyone we sign – be it youth or experience – is going to have his face rubbed into the mud anyway.

So rather than subject another driver to such unrelenting, career-wrecking punishment, we’re just going to take the money and have a pay driver instead.

But hang on.

Isn’t that precisely what Red Bull had with Sergio Perez?

A second driver left to plod around mostly in the midfield – occasionally contributing with a podium, sometimes even a sneaky victory – as Max got on with the serious business of storming to titles, all while paying Red Bull for the privilege via his vast sponsorship?

What a mess.

Who could replace Lance Stroll for the Canadian Grand Prix?

The discomfort that forced Lance Stroll out of the Spanish Grand Prix is, we’re told officially, a legacy of the injuries sustained in his bike accident in early 2023.

Seems a long time ago now, but it was around then that it seemed Stroll had finally gained F1’s acceptance, fast tracking his recovery from multiple fractures and a broken toe to make it to the first race of that season in Bahrain, where he drove through the pain barrier to finish sixth.

For someone whose motivation and commitment has been questioned throughout his F1 career, that achievement served as proof once and for all that the racer’s spirit burns brightly inside the billionaire’s son too.

There will be no rushing back this time, you suspect, even with his home race in Montreal on the horizon.

In a statement provided to PlanetF1.com on Saturday night in Barcelona, Aston Martin confirmed that Stroll will undergo ‘a procedure’ after experiencing pain in his hand and wrist ‘before focusing on his recovery.’

So let’s assume that Stroll will not be fit enough to compete in Canada two weeks from now and that Aston Martin are forced to find a temporary replacement.

PlanetF1.com understands that Felipe Drugovich and Stoffel Vandoorne, Aston Martin’s two stated reserve drivers for 2025, will be considered the priority options to partner Fernando Alonso.

Now 33, a return to an F1 cockpit seven years after his last grand prix appearance is unlikely to do much for the career of Vandoorne, but it could be transformative for Drugovich.

Why has he struggled so badly to find an F1 race seat since winning the F2 title in 2022?

Nothing to do with talent, but because he backed the wrong horse.

In aligning with Aston Martin, where there was no hope of him ever dislodging Stroll or Alonso, Drugovich’s pathway to a full-time seat was effectively blocked the moment he signed the contract.

Replacing Stroll for Canada would give Drugovich – who, perhaps tellingly, was chosen over Vandoorne to deputise for Stroll in pre-season testing in 2023 – a chance he will not get in normal circumstances for as long as he remains attached to Aston Martin.

The complication here?

The Canadian Grand Prix clashes with this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, where Drugovich and Vandoorne are set to drive a Cadillac and Peugeot respectively in the elite hypercar class.

The emotional pull of F1 is obvious – recall how quickly Kevin Magnussen got out of an endurance deal when Haas came calling again in 2022 – yet equally so is the way a driver’s reputation can be terminally damaged by a lacklustre cameo, especially in this era of tricky ground-effect machinery.

Perhaps, then, the door may yet open for a return for Valtteri Bottas just as his hopes of a comeback appeared to be receding.

It is believed that Aston Martin’s current status as Mercedes customers means Bottas is available to the team (just as he is to Williams and McLaren, with whom he carried out a private test in Barcelona in March) as a reserve option.

Bottas has had the air of a sleeper on the driver market lately with Sergio Perez instead emerging as the leading candidate to be the experienced driver for the Cadillac F1 team in 2026.

In the fashion business that is F1, there was a sense that Bottas was so 2019 when he left Sauber at the end of last year and that any team with serious ambitions would need a younger, more exciting, vibrant talent in the cockpit.

Forget that Bottas himself felt he was driving better than ever in his final year at Sauber, for once the perception hits that a driver is too old and too slow and too uninspiring it tends to stick.

Hence Sauber’s decision to sign Gabriel Bortoleto when Bottas had already physically signed a contract to stay with the team for 2025.

An outing in Canada, then, would offer Bottas the ideal opportunity to remind everyone in the paddock of his talent and re-emerge as a serious candidate in this year’s driver market.

Enough of a reminder to pique Red Bull’s interest in the search for a new Verstappen wingman, maybe?

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