F1 - Spanish GP

The triple header ended with a very very eventful and interesting Spanish GP! We got to see the new flexi-wing technical directive in action, and it did... absolutely nothing really to performance at the top. McLaren are still the dominant team, and looked even better this weekend. But there's still so much to unpack about this race. We saw some masterclasses and disasterclasses from many drivers this weekend.

Performances

McLaren - great win from pole for Oscar to reestablish his lead in the WDC. Lando did what he could and P2 isn't a disaster, he stays close to Oscar. The pace looked amazing this weekend for them, that car is just so dominant when it comes to tyre temperatures! It's so evident especially in hot races like this. Good 1-2 for the team.

Ferrari - Charles with an awesome P3 podium. He sacrificed his quali for an extra set of mediums in the race and it paid off. He's been cooking this season - fix the car Ferrari. Lewis had no pace again :( and he sounded so depressed in his post race interview. He was trounced again by Charles in the race after a decent quali... I think it's just this generation of cars that he struggles with. No confidence too. Just bring on 2026 for him. Still waiting for the first podium.

Red Bull - Mad Max is back! But seriously. What was he thinking with that move on George???? He literally just drove straight into him. I get that he was angry about the whole give back the position thing but come on... that's not good conduct. The team did fumble though - he definitely didn't have to give the place back! The penalty was fair though. The incident reminded me a lot of Seb and Lewis at Baku 2017 (and Schumacher and Villeneuve at Jerez 1997 too, when Schumacher was disqualified from the championsip! So he got lucky.) Otherwise he actually had a good race, did very well with the three stop to keep up with the McLarens. But it was all ruined at the end, as he only had a set of hard tires left and they had no grip. He should have taken the P5 and the points but instead he's lost so much ground to the McLarens with that P10 after the stupid penalty. Yuki had no pace again - that second Red Bull seat has to be cursed!

Mercedes - What is going on with their power units this year??? Like Kimi had another DNF from PU failure, his 2nd of the year. Fernando (Aston uses Merc engines) and George also had in Monaco. Especially in an era where power unit failure has become so rare. The pace was down from both but we expect that when the temperatures are hot, Mercedes seem to have an issue with them. George got a very decent P4 considering the pace of the car. He got away with his move on Max - I wish we could see the Max vs George title fight in better cars! It would be amazing! But this whole triple header has been a disaster for Mercedes - it could cost them in the fight for WCC P2.

Aston Martin - Fernando points finally! Very good racecraft and overtaking at the end after the Safety Car to get a points finish. Hopefully he can kick on and score some more - the car still has pretty bad pace though. Hopefully Lance gets better, but it would also be cool to see Drugovich in an F1 race weekend to see what he can do!

RB - Hadjar had a really good race once again to pick up some more points and move to P9 in the WDC. Amazing job so far, he's really impressed me this season. Hopefully he can avoid that second Red Bull seat lol. Lawson had decent pace and was probably unlucky with the safety car to miss out on points. He was very aggressive - looks like his confidence is back away from the main team. But their pace looked very good and they are more competitive in the midfield.\

Williams - this was their worst weekend of the season so far surely. Albon retired and Carlos only came home in P13. They just had no pace - very disappointing. Hopefully they can fix the issues for Canada.

Haas - also disappointing with no pace. They are so inconsistent this season.

Alpine - Great quali from Gasly and awesome race to score points. I wish the car was better so he could show his talent more often! Franco was better but still not good enough.

Sauber - NICO HUUUUUULKENBERG! What an awesome drive to come P5 from 15th on the grid! Overtaking a Ferrari at the end too! Those are mega points for Sauber. Their pace looked much much better this weekend and Gabi was also close to points. But what a sensational result - amazing stuff!

Race rating - 8/10 - really enjoyable with Max on a different strategy, Hulkenberg cooking, and the late safety car with the incidents bumped this one up to an 8. One of the best Spanish GP's in a while imo.

Team radio of the race - it was so boring this weekend lol. Unless I missed something? I guess Max raging at the end was pretty funny.

Driver of the race - Oscar, Charles and Hadjar were good. But there's only one choice here. Nico Hulkenberg for an amazing drive to finish P5 from 15th on the grid in a Sauber. Ahead of a Ferrari on pace. He's still got it.

Next weekend - Canadian GP in Montreal. One of the best tracks on the calendar imo. Always great for racing, and so much heritage and history too. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a track that depends heavily on straight line speed, but also tests braking at the long hairpin and cornering at the Senna "S" corner. And of course who can forget the Wall of Champions heading out of the last corner. It's called that because in the 1999 race, it ended the race of three F1 champions! Some great past races include - 1979 (an epic fight between Alan Jones and Gilles Villeneuve, finishing only a second apart), 2007 (Lewis's first ever win in F1, massive Kubica accident, Sato in a Super Aguri overtaking Alonso's McLaren, Alex Wurz on the podium), 2008 (Kubica's only win, the crazy pitlane crash between Lewis and Raikkonen, Coulthard's last F1 podium), 2011 (the longest race in F1 history, Button and Lewis colliding, Jenson coming from running last to overtaking Seb on the last lap!). Last year's race was also very very good. Hopefully more of the same!