Last Updated on June 1 2025, 12:33 pm
Round nine of the 2025 Formula One season may prove to be a critical weekend for Max Verstappen and Red Bull. For the team from Milton Keynes they arrived in Barcelona full of hope on two counts. The first was that the FIA’s new TD on flexible front wings would clip those of McLaren MCL39 and bring them back towards the pack.
Red Bull’s second big promise for the Spanish Grand Prix came from the performance jump they made two races ago in Imola, where with an upgraded RB21, Verstappen dominated the McLaren’s on Sunday. His win at the Emilia-Grand Prix suggested Red Bull had solved their tyre problems in race trim and could now match the championship leaders come the next proper race track after Monaco.
Yet the prima facia evidence in qualifying at the Circuit de Catalunya was the McLaren’s remained dominant, locking out the front row for the Grand Prix and with pole sitter Oscar Piastri some 0.3 seconds quicker than third place Max Verstappen.
Red Bull long run pace is good
In the post session interviews, Verstappen presented as neither excited nor down trodden, yet theire appeared an air of inevitability in the words from the Dutchman who seemed resigned to his fate. “The aim for me tomorrow is a podium, preferably in the middle, but that’s not realistic. Unless, of course, you get lucky, but it’s also tight behind me,” said the world champion in his post session press briefing.
Despite the obvious disappointment of not challenging for pole, Verstappen appeared strangely sanguine explaining: “I always think, when I go into a weekend, I don’t want to be too positive or too negative about it. I just want to be neutral. Then you eventually see in the qualifying where you stand. It’s close behind me, so that will be a battle.”
Yet all is not as it seems in Formula One land as despite the qualifying result Red Bull are secretly content with their long run pace evident in Friday practice. The big strength of the McLaren this year has been in how it has managed its tyres better than the rest of the field during the longer form races. However, Friday’s runs in Barcelona would suggest that Red Bull’s upgrade from Imola is doing a fine job in this respect.
Coming into Barcelona, Verstappen was level with Piastri on three pole positions for the season, so in the hands of Max the RB21 was on a par with McLaren over one lap pace the margins between the three contenders was small. In an understated fashion, Verstappen’s comments over his long run pace may well be part of Red Bull’s plan to hijack the party for the Woking based team.
Rosberg claims McLaren drivers ‘scared’
“It’s going to be tough, I think,” he acknowledged. “My long run wasn’t bad, but if you look at the difference today, it will be tough to put up a really, really good fight. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not going try. So, we’ll see tomorrow.”
Another key tool in Verstappen’s tool box was exposed by Nico Rosberg who believes the McLaren pair are “scared” of their Dutch rival. “I think it’s time to shine in Turn 1, yeah. Make it three-wide for the pictures!” the reigning F1 champion quipped. And its this the former F1 champion claims is the weapon the McLaren drivers fear the most.
“It’s always so uncomfortable to have Verstappen behind you. Always. Especially, both McLaren drivers by now are traumatised by Max Verstappen,” said Rosberg on Sky F1. “Because Piastri had Verstappen overtake him at Turn 1 in Melbourne, he had Verstappen overtake him in Imola; he has for Norris overtaken him the last ten times.”
“Both of them are scarred and they underestimated [Verstappen]. Then you’re scared, because you see this guy behind you and you know he’s gonna dive bomb,” suggested the 2016 world champion. The move in Imola by Verstappen on Piastri remains an astonishing video clip which Sky F1 showed repeatedly throughout their qualifying coverage, such was its genius.
McLaren boss expects his drivers to collide
Yet McLaren will be confident that they should retain the lead of the race after turns one and two, given Verstappen has to pass both of the papaya liveried cars. However, there are murmurs emanating from the Woking teams camp in Barcelona that the team have tuned the MCL39 more for qualifying this weekend where they feel Max has had an advantage, and this may in turn compromise the race pace of the MCL39.
That said, the Circuit de Catalunya is statistically the most difficult track to win a Grand Prix from outside the front row. 31 of the 34 races have been won from there and it was something Christian Horner identified as crucial to Red Bull’s hopes for the race on Sunday. “Ideally we need to split the McLaren’s” he told Sky ahead of the qualifying session which despite several mistakes from Lando Norris in his final running Q3, Verstappen was unable to do.
Yet there’s another spectre at play here in the Iberian peninsula as McLaren will be haunted by the ghosts of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg himself back in 2016. Both drivers entered the weekend as the only realistic prospects of claiming the drivers’ title that year and in turn four on the first lap the Mercedes’ pair battling for the all important lead, took each other off.
McLaren boss Andreas Stella was asked in Imola how the team would ensure their drivers would continue to give each other room when racing head to head. The Italian’s response was unexpected. Stella stated he expected at some point this season his drivers would have a coming together, but until then he was prepared to let them race so long as it was in the interest of the McLaren team.
Hopes fading for Max
The McLaren team boss has repeatedly stated his team is primarily focused on winning the constructors’ team title for a second year in a row. Given the Woking based F1 team’s current lead over Mercedes in second place sees them more than double the points ahead of the former champions, with both Red Bull and Ferrari and handful of point behind the silver arrows.
So were Piastri and Norris to take each other out, it would be Verstappen who profits the most, although with just one driver regularly in the points, Red Bull have little hope of closing McLaren down in the team title race.
For Verstappen now 25 points behind championship leader Piastri, its crucial he does not lose further ground in Spain to both of the McLaren’s. Never has the start of a Grand Prix been more eagerly awaited given the number of possibilities which may occur in the first lap of the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix.
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Briatore snaps over Schumacher as Alpine’s summer lineup looks shaky – With the Formula 1 paddock gathering in Barcelona for another high-stakes Grand Prix weekend, Alpine’s team principal, Flavio Briatore, is at the centre of mounting speculation — not about his current drivers, but about a former driver: Mick Schumacher.
The son of the seven-time world champion is once again being linked with a sensational return to the grid, and the rumour mill is churning louder than ever this time around. However, if Briatore has any patience left for the topic, he certainly didn’t show it during a tense media appearance on Friday…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
