Adam CooperIn the latest of our post-race debriefs, Adam Cooper picks the bones out of the first ever Spanish Grand Prix to be hosted a the new Madring circuit.
McLaren: Luck runs out for Lando Norris
There’s little doubt that Lando Norris lost victory in the Spanish GP as a result of the virtual safety car timing, and while everyone understands that there are always winners and losers in such situations, he was extremely unlucky.
As race leader he was past the pit entrance when the VSC started, and he was approaching it – and committed to stopping come what may – when it was withdrawn.
And what was so frustrating for Norris and his McLaren team was that he was the only driver in the whole field who didn’t have the option to take advantage of a cheap stop under the VSC.
A slow tyre change under green didn’t help, but the damage was already done, and the best he could recover to was P3.
“We were just insanely unlucky today,” he said. “I was the only one on the whole grid who didn’t get the chance to do the pit stop. That’s just unfortunate.
“It’s happened in races and there’s been plenty of times where I’ve gained from it in the past and times where I’ve lost from it, and it’s racing, but never when fighting for a win.
“So, I think it’s probably one of the first times a win has been lost simply because of it.”
He added: “I had to come in at the end of the lap because it was the only chance,” he said.
“The fact that everyone’s kind of on colder tyres and you’re still minimising the pit loss. The medium tyre was destroyed, and the hard tire was amazing.”
Team boss Andrea Stella conceded that not much else could have been done.
“It was a shame with the start of the virtual safety car and the timing,” said the Italian.
“But it was also a shame with the end of the virtual safety car and the fact that we then pitted without gaining the time that you can gain under virtual safety car.
“We considered staying out, but you have to you have to accept the fact that now you are on relatively used medium tyres, and the people behind you will be on new hard.
“So you’re never going to open a gap on people on a new hard. Therefore, we kind of needed to accept that that was what we should have done, and the fact that it was incredibly unfortunate.”
Stella is a logical guy who only deals with numbers and facts, but this time he had to concede that sheer bad luck was involved.
“Sometimes we talk about being unlucky,” he said. “I think at times the being unlucky is used for too many applications.
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“But in this case, it’s almost a mathematical definition of being unlucky. So we are happy that what we could control was good, and we take on the chin that we could not control just played against us.
“But in fairness and for completeness, we had a seven-second pitstop. So there’s definitely takeaways, even when it comes to our operations.
“I’m leaving this element at the end, just because it would have not made a difference for the final result, because probably Lando would have pitted anyhow behind Russell, and even if not, it would have not been possible to overtake Verstappen and Antonelli.
Hear from Lando Norris as he believes the Virtual Safety Car rules should be changed 🤔 pic.twitter.com/XS0jqng3o4
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) September 13, 2026
“So definitely, we take note that there’s a lot of work to do in our operation, and it’s not the first time that we have a slow stop.
“But in terms of the race itself, it didn’t make a difference.”
Red Bull: Verstappen still knocking on door of first 2026 win
The Spanish GP saw a strong second place for Max Verstappen, who crossed the line some four seconds behind winner Kimi Antonelli, with Norris pushing him hard.
It was the Dutchman’s third runner-up spot of the year, and proof that at some tracks the RB22 is capable of knocking on the door of a first victory of the season.
“At first it’s a strong performance,” said RBR team principal Laurent Mekies when asked by this website about the race.
“Whether it’s the best of the year, I’m not sure, but it certainly is the best in a long time. It’s a good confirmation of where the pace was in Monza.
“In Monza to be to be so close to the fastest cars, to Kimi, and again today, we were one and a half tenths from pole yesterday, on a much more complicated track, if you allow me to say, or a very different track with much more variations of corner speed. So it was encouraging to be on such a small gap on a track like that.
“And today in the race, I think it’s the same thing. I think it’s fair to say that Kimi was faster than us in the race, of course, and also Lando was probably faster in the race.
“So definitely an improvement compared to where we were in Zandvoort a few weeks ago, and probably in Budapest or in Silverstone. So that’s positive.”
There was one element of frustration for Verstappen – the fact that he was obliged to hand a place back to Lewis Hamilton after cutting across the chicane at the start.
Verstappen was convinced that he was pushed wide, but the team took a conservative approach and asked that he let Hamilton by.
The problem was that by then Antonelli was in between, and Hamilton had already lost ground with brake issues, so in handing the place back was costly – although Mekies played it down.
“When it comes to could we have won the race?,” said Mekies. “No, I don’t think we could have won the race, A) because they were faster, B) because I think as much as it is a painful and difficult decision to make at that moment.
“I think the guys on pit wall did a very good job analyse the situation in as cold manner as they could, and took a fast and strong decision, and I think it would have been very, very difficult to think we could have avoided a penalty, as much as it is frustrating to be in that situation.
Max takes us through a positive race result at the Madring 💬#F1 || #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/6RdNUCHVXi
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) September 13, 2026
“But I think it would have been very difficult. And then, once you have a five or 10 seconds penalty, it can affect your race in many different ways.
“But certainly doesn’t get you in a better position than P2.”
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Meanwhile Mekies gave an intriguing insight into the rear-end performance degradation that Verstappen has highlighted at times this season.
“I don’t think we are going to explain what it is, and how we are going to fix it,” he said.
“I think Max is right that there is an element of car performance degradation that is happening through a session, as through a race.
“He is right in saying that it is not a new issue. We are not sleeping on it.
“We have been trying to tackle that in different ways. Obviously, I consider it a complex issue. Otherwise, we’ll get to the bottom of it.
“But everyone is very constructive about it and try to make small steps at a time to be able to get to the bottom of it, finally, and we had a couple of positive steps in that regard this weekend.
“It will never be the full picture, but we certainly, through pain, we have made progress into our understanding, and we don’t have all the solutions yet in the car.
“But I trust that we are on the right way. It will not be fast, so it’s something that probably will take us through next year.”
Ferrari: Leclerc rolls the dice after early Madrid promise fades
The Madrid weekend started well for Scuderia Ferrari, and a cynic might suggest that the team got some useful info from its summer filming day with the SF-26, despite all concerned insisting that the track was dirty and unrepresentative.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were second and third behind Kimi Antonelli at the end of Friday, and Leclerc was again second to Antonelli in FP3, when Hamilton’s session was ended early by a crash.
However when it mattered in qualifying Norris and Verstappen got ahead, leaving Hamilton ahead of Leclerc in P4 and P5.
Ultimately, the Monegasque driver wasn’t helped by having to revert to the old spec power unit after his huge Monza crash meant Ferrari had to park the brand new one fitted that weekend, but there was also a ride issue.
“I just think that generally our car is just a little bit weaker in qualifying than it is in the race with lower fuel,” he said.
“When you’ve got to really attack the kerbs, particularly yesterday, McLaren was very, very strong, and we were a bit on the wrong side of things on that.
“So we paid the price this weekend probably because of this. But as a whole, I always felt like we are a bit on the back foot in quali.
Intriguingly they chose different strategies for the race, with Leclerc starting on hards and Hamilton on softs.
Alas the latter had brake problems from the off, and we never saw how that might have panned out.
Leclerc meanwhile was the only guy in the leading group on hards, so it was natural for him to stay out when the cars ahead stopped under the VSC (or not quite in the case of Norris!).
He thus took the lead on his long-lasting hards, and kept going, waiting for help from a VSC, a full safety car, or even a red flag – which would have guaranteed that he would have had pole for the restart with a free tyre change.
At one point he asked what was happening in the race and who he was racing. In the end there was no intervention, so after 48 laps on the hard he pitted for softs and ran to the flag in P4.
“Obviously Bryan [Bozzi] and I didn’t speak too much during the race,” he said when asked by this website about his afternoon.
“Because on a track like this, I just wanted to have as little communication as possible.
“But at one point I just checked to understand exactly what we were fighting for, because I didn’t really know inside the car.
“But yeah, at the end of the day, I think the pace was quite strong on the hard, on the soft.
“At the end, I couldn’t really push for other reasons [he refused to elaborate]. But the hard stint was a good one.
“Eventually, where we are paying the price of our qualifying pace because when you are starting further away, then you get to the race, it’s very difficult to make up those positions.”
In reality fourth was pretty much all he could have hoped for without something happening, but the long opening stint was worth a punt.
“We could have done many different things, but I think the best thing for us today was what we did,” he said.
“I mean, if I had to do the race again, I would do exactly the same thing, because starting on the soft at the beginning wouldn’t have given me the opportunity to do anything special.
“I will have ended up in the same strategy as the guys in front of me, and it wouldn’t have been very helpful, considering there were no overtakes.
“So the hard/soft was the was the right strategy, and waiting for the safety car at the end was also the right thing to do. But unfortunately, it never came.”
Williams: An unhappy last outing before Baku upgrade
The Spanish GP saw the final appearance of the Williams FW48 before the major upgrade package is introduced at the Azerbaijan GP.
In recent weeks drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon have been counting down the races, knowing that it wasn’t to get much better until Baku.
Madrid was particularly painful for Carlos Sainz, who missed out on progress to Q2 by just 0.005s, courtesy of team mate Alex Albon.
He tried to make amends with a good start but ended up hitting Yuki Tsunoda – which left him carrying floor damage.
“I had a really good start off the line,” he said when asked by this website about the collision.
“I think I got three or four positions on the hard tyre, and then a lot of bunching up into Turn 1 caught me a bit out, and I had a small contact with Tsunoda that damaged my floor.
“Unfortunately from there on, I had damage in the car, and it was a race of survival, because I had no rear downforce in the car for the rest of the race.
“So yeah, we had nothing to lose on that lap one, and I wanted to get a good start to see if we could get anything going in this race.”
It got worse, as later he had contact with Fernando Alonso that triggered a five-second penalty.
Sainz played the clash down: “Nothing to say really. I think he complained on the radio – so he managed to get me a penalty, like always.
“I think it’s the nature of that corner, it’s always going to lead to these kinds of crashes, because there’s only space for one.
“There’s not even space for two, and you cannot keep looking in your mirror while you’re turning, and doing a right/left because you need to look forward.
“So at one point you need to focus on your own driving line. And I don’t think Fernando was alongside me, or anything.”
Albon did at least make the flag after struggling to get his tyres to work.
“I think one of my stronger weekends,” he said. “But at the same time, just super, super sketchy. Realistically, the pace isn’t quick enough.
“And I think, especially on the harder tyres, we don’t have the load to keep the tyre alive.
“So that tyre has actually got very little degradation, but it just cools down once the tread comes off the tyre. You need to keep pushing on it to keep the temps up.
“We don’t have the grip to do it. Just the tyres get cold, basically. So yeah, it’s frustrating in many ways. Just waiting for Baku…”
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