Andrea Stella: "We end this European triple-header with a strong performance in Barcelona and further confirmation of the MCL39's competitiveness. Throughout the weekend both drivers and the team were able to extract a very high level of performance from the car, which enabled us to secure this one-two today, our third of the season. The team executed the strategy and the pit stops well, making what could have been quite a tense race very smooth. We now head back to Woking to regroup and prepare before heading to Canada in two weeks' time."
Christian Horner: "From the way the race was panning out, we elected to take a three stop approach and we committed to that pretty early on. The pace advantage and the tyre advantage that the McLarens' had in a straight fight meant that we took the gamble. We took the first stop early on and McLaren committed to a two stop, and our strategy was looking like it was on track to be the quickest approach. We went for the potential undercut with Max, but he then had used all of his soft and medium compounds. The safety car came out at the worst possible time for our strategy and we decided between staying out on older tyres and be exposed at the restart, or take the gamble with the new set of hard tyres. Hindsight is always 20/20, but we made the best decision at the time with the information we had. There was then contact with George that the stewards deemed an incident and resulted in a penalty. It's something we will discuss internally and look at further. It's a frustrating result as it was looking to be an easy podium for Max today. The safety car hurt Yuki's race today, he would've been very close if not in to the points otherwise if you look at the trajectory he was on with pace and tyre advantage. It was a tough weekend, the results weren't what he wanted, but he will be busy working with the Team over the next week to make some set-up improvements for Montreal."
Scuderia Ferrari HP picked up its third podium of the season with a third place from Charles Leclerc, secured in the exciting final stages of the Spanish Grand Prix, thanks to a Safety Car and the race resuming with just six laps remaining. The team picked up 23 points and is now in second place in the Constructors' championship. It is the Scuderia's 832nd podium, a 46th for Leclerc. He had sacrificed some qualifying performance to save tyres and that paid off today given that in the final stages, he was in fourth place having started seventh. Lewis however struggled after the restart, losing a place to Nico Hulkenberg.
Lewis and Charles got off the line well, getting ahead of the Mercedes. They swapped places on lap 10, as they were on different tyre strategies, running fourth and fifth behind the McLaren duo and Max Verstappen. Hamilton switched from Soft to Medium on lap 16, followed by Leclerc on lap 17, with positions remaining unchanged. At his second stop on lap 40, Charles fitted his second set of Mediums, which he chose not to use yesterday. Lewis would have to finish the race on the Soft compound so he stayed out until lap 46. With 15 laps to go, Charles was fourth with a comfortable lead over George Russell, while Lewis was sixth, running a strong pace and catching his fellow countryman. When Kimi Antonelli went off track on lap 54 the Safety Car came out which changed the picture of the race, with all the top ten coming in to fit newer Soft tyres, including Leclerc. But Verstappen only had Hards left having made three stops. At the restart with six laps remaining, the Dutchman almost lost control of the car coming out of the final corner and that allowed Charles to come alongside and then pass him going into turn 1 to take third place. Lewis struggled more and had to give best to Nico Hulkenberg on new Softs, which he had having failed to get further than Q2 yesterday. Leclerc was third across the line with Hamilton seventh, but he was promoted to sixth after Verstappen was given a penalty for causing a collision with Russell.
Canada in a fortnight. There are two weeks to go now before the next round of the championship, when the cars will be back in action in Montreal for round 10, the Canadian Grand Prix.
Today's race was quite intense. Like most teams, we struggled to clearly understand the performance delta between the Medium and Soft tyres. In the end, we saw better pace and consistency on the Soft, which played into our hands with Charles at the end. Of course the Safety Car also helped, as it allowed us to get ahead of Verstappen, who was on Hards. It was a good recovery, and the strategy worked.
Lewis also had strong pace until the final stint, where he reported some balance issues. We'll look into it, but it was important that still managed to bring home some points.
Since Miami, we've shown consistent progress, apart from qualifying in Imola. McLaren is still ahead, but we're closing the gap step by step. We need to keep improving, and stay in the fight.
George Russell finishes P4 after an eventful ending to today's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. Kimi Antonelli unfortunately had to retire from the race 11 laps from the end because of a Power Unit problem, which led to a loss of oil pressure.
Kimi's retirement from the race brought out the Safety Car, after which, with six laps to go, George was able to chase Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen ahead. George battled Verstappen in Turn One before the pair made contact at Turn 5. Verstappen was subsequently given a 10-second penalty.
Having gained the place on Verstappen, George pushed hard to chase down the Ferrari of Leclerc but ran out of laps, eventually finishing P4 on the road. Kimi was running P7 and managing his tyres well before the Power Unit issue curtailed his race. A two-stop strategy was selected for the race, starting with the Softs, before moving to the Medium and then back to the Softs.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: That was a difficult weekend for us overall. We typically struggle a lot in warmer conditions and tyre management is our main issue when the tarmac is as hot as it was like here in Barcelona. P4 for George is obviously not where we want to be racing but it is a better result than we thought was possible pre-race. Unfortunately, Kimi did not have the chance to score points due to his Power Unit failure.
We now have time to delve into all the data collected throughout the weekend and focus on unlocking the potential of the car. We know there are clear areas that we need to work on. We need to get on top of our tyre overheating challenges. Fortunately, there is still a long way to go in the season, and we're determined and will keep working hard to make progress with the car.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: As expected, we faced a very hot track in Barcelona today and the tyre overheating challenge did not spare us. George could have been in the fight for the podium though; his pace looked good enough to close on the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in the last laps but with the tyres overheating, it was hard for him to get close enough to attempt a pass. With the unfortunate loss of positions on the opening lap, battling back to P3 was just too much of a stretch.
Kimi meanwhile had a tough afternoon. He was suffering from some instability in the high-speed corners, which isn't ideal in these hot conditions. His race pace was solid but there were a few points in the race where he had to drop into traffic, which cost overall time. Unfortunately, he lost oil pressure in his final stint and his car switched off at Turn 10. We don't know the root cause of that issue yet; the Power Unit will be returned to Brixworth for investigation. It's always disappointing to lose a car from the points with a reliability issue; we've not been strong enough in that area over the last three races so we will need to tackle that urgently.
We've got some time now to regroup after what has been a challenging triple header, but we will be working hard to come back strong in Montreal.
Andy Cowell, CEO & Team Principal: "We are pleased to come away from this race with some hard-earned points after great battles on track by Fernando in front of his home crowd. We were involved in some early scraps for the top ten and we wanted to extend Fernando's first stint on the Softs, but the tyres didn't quite have enough left in them by the time we pitted. From then on, he fought to get back into the top ten before a well-timed Safety Car bunched up the field for a sprint finish to the end. Fernando then showed his racing skill and overtook three cars in the remaining six laps and stayed within 10 seconds of Max [Verstappen] to finish P9. We'll digest and analyse everything we've learnt over this busy triple-header and we are all wishing Lance well and a speedy recovery."
Flavio Briatore: "As a positive, we come away from Barcelona with some points after a tough weekend for the team. We know we are not where we want to be with the car and that has clearly shown in the last three back-to-back races. Pierre drove a solid race and the strategists made a good call to give him a free pit-stop when the Safety Car came out, which meant he had fresher tyres to hold his position to the end. Franco's afternoon was always going to be tough starting at the back and had a disappointing race, not progressing as much as we hoped. As a team, we must regroup and dig deep to get ourselves out of this position."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team finished with Esteban Ocon 16th and Oliver Bearman 17th, at the Spanish Grand Prix, held Sunday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Ocon took the start from 16th place on Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires and maintained his position through the opening lap, before pitting on lap 21 for Yellow medium tires. Ocon made his second pit stop on lap 44, again taking on mediums, before staying out when the safety car was deployed due to Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli coming to a stop. Ocon cycled through to 11th position but on used tires was unable to hold back rivals on fresher and softer rubber, and greeted the checkered flag in 16th position.
Bearman started from 14th position, also on soft tires, and came in on lap eight for medium tires, working his way through to battle for the top 10 positions. Bearman pitted again on lap 36 for mediums, before boxing on lap 55 under the safety car for softs. Bearman again contended for the top 10 positions but was issued a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage during an earlier battle with Liam Lawson. The application of the sanction post-race relegated Bearman to 17th position.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team holds seventh position in the Constructors' Championship, on 26 points.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It wasn't a very good day today, the car didn't quite have the pace, but I also don't think we put it together very well operationally. It's not just today, what happened today stems from Friday as well so we really need to investigate how we can refine our operations, get more out of the car, more out of our drivers, and work better together. We'll reflect on this one and try to do better in Montreal."
James Vowles, Team Principal: Our race was over from the first lap following incidents breaking both front wings. We executed the stops as quickly as possible. From that point onwards, we weren't quick enough. We need to review what damage there was elsewhere on the car as they were fairly large knocks at the beginning of the race.
Carlos did fantastically, keeping his nose in the race as much as possible. He could see the points in front of him, but ultimately, we lost out too much at the beginning. We knew this would be a difficult race for us coming into it, and unfortunately as much as we've improved elsewhere, we haven't improved sufficiently here. We need to go back and make sure we completely understand everything before we go into 2026.
In regard to Alex, he was in a very similar position to Carlos. He did his best, but ultimately from both the first lap incident and the following front wing damage, the race was over.
Oscar Piastri won the 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. This is 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.
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.
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.
Mario Isola: "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 today 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.
"Pirelli will stay at this circuit for two days of testing on Tuesday and Wednesday, which will be very important for 2026. On this occasion, Mercedes, Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls will provide cars and drivers. On Tuesday, George Russell will be on track for Mercedes, while Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson will both drive a Racing Bull. On Wednesday, Kimi Antonelli will be at the wheel of the Mercedes, while Yuki Tsunoda will drive a Red Bull."
