STRATEGY: How did Verstappen almost beat the McLarens with unexpected three-stop strategy?

Although McLaren had been expected to display a dominant performance at the Spanish Grand Prix, reigning champion Max Verstappen appeared to match the Woking-based outfit's drivers despite being on a different strategy. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis.

Oscar Piastri won last Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix to round off a pretty much perfect weekend for him and his McLaren team. Apart from Lando Norris setting the fastest time in FP1, the Australian topped every other time sheet, including all three sections of qualifying.

It was Piastri’s seventh Formula 1 win, the fifth this season, as well as his second hat-trick (the win, pole position and fastest race lap). McLaren now has 196 wins to its name, nine of them in this Grand Prix.

With Lando Norris finishing second, the team notched up its 52nd one-two finish. The last time that happened at this track was in 2000, when Mika Hakkinen won ahead of David Coulthard.

Unexpectedly, Charles Leclerc finished third to claim his 46th podium finish, his first in this event. It is Ferrari’s third podium of the season, the 39th at this race.

The Barcelona round presented the teams with strategic challenges. In the practice sessions, it became clear that the hard tires on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya were not coming into the working window.

As a result, the drivers had to make do with softs and mediums and adopt two-stop or even three-stop strategies, which meant that the pit crews had to maintain maximum concentration throughout.

Having elected to withdraw from the Spanish Grand Prix amid medical advice, Lance Stroll did not take part in the race and for the start, most of the remaining 19 drivers opted for the Soft for the first stint: ten went with a used set and eight with a new one, while Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to fit Mediums for his start from pit lane.

The appearance of the Safety Car in the closing stages prompted almost all drivers to make an additional stop, with the Red Bull drivers pitting in total four times, having previously decided on a three-stop strategy. That meant Verstappen had to take on a set of Hards for his fifth and final stint, thus providing a small splash of white on the race’s tyre usage colour chart.

The long run simulation conducted on Friday had indicated that McLaren would enjoy a significant competitive advantage over its rivals. However, Verstappen was incredibly strong on his second stint, which prompted McLaren team principal Andrea Stella to admit that Red Bull's three-stop strategy caused some headaches for his outfit.

"When we saw Verstappen stopping, we thought it would be a three-stopper - and we thought it's not going to be a problem because we have already overtaken him on track," Stella is quoted as saying by Autosport.com.

"We thought we should have a decent pace advantage. But the reality is that he was fast. He was fast and when we went on the medium tyres in the second stint, we were pushing, controlling the pace and he was catching up very rapidly. More rapidly than we hoped.

"So at some stage we even asked our drivers to push more. And both gave answers like, 'I'm not sure I have much more pace than this At that stage, we were a little worried that it could have been a more open situation than we thought it would be in the first stint.

"It would have also been tricky for us because [at one point] we had Oscar and Lando that were like 2.5 seconds apart or something," concluded Stella.

Reflecting on the strategy at the Spanish Grand Prix, Pirelli's motorsport director Mario Isola said that "there were no surprises" in terms of wear and degradation.

“A very interesting Sunday in terms of tyre usage. As happened last year at this track, the Soft turned out to be the most competitive tyre, maybe even more so than in 2024.

"In terms of degradation, the data we saw is pretty much in line with what we got from Friday free practice, namely that it was significant but manageable.

"Wear was also significant but there were no surprises, even if in some stints, the limit was reached on the front left, the tyre that comes under the most stress at this track.

“Some drivers did over 20 laps on a set of Softs, even though they started with a full fuel load, while others managed to do 30 or even more on a set of Mediums. Then there was the Red Bull variable, as they tried to mix things up by going for a three-stop strategy, which on paper was clearly slower.

"They had nothing to lose with Tsunoda, as he was starting from pit lane, but with Verstappen it was a gamble that should have ensured a podium, allowing him to finish not far off the McLarens.

"However, the Safety Car in the closing stages changed things for Max, who had driven a very aggressive race up to that point, always pushing to the maximum, but then his chances were wiped out."