F1. Spain 2026 Review

Graeme: I’ve never heard my man Lance Stroll talked about so much during an F1 weekend.  But after the race, his name was everywhere.  Way to get yourself into the spotlight Lance, stop your car 5 metres from safety and cost the fastest car on track the race.  You’ve gotta feel for Lando Norris.  His pole lap was excellent and he gunned it at the start of the race to lead by 6 seconds before Stroll ruined it all and the Virtual Safety Car did the rest.  With the track not offering any overtaking chances Norris settled for 3rd on a day where even the race winner felt bad about winning.

Chelsea: Franco Colapinto has gone from strength to strength this year, having now finished in the points in eight races. After qualifying 9th, he pipped hapless Oscar Piastri to the line to finish seventh, bagging six valuable points for Alpine. For a newish driver on a newish track he put in an excellent performance, punctuated only briefly by a Q2 snafu at La Monumental. Qué grande, Franco!

Gavin: Max Verstappen. There is no way that the Red Bull is the second best car in any way right now, yet here is Max hunting down the leaders and picking up the pieces. If Kimi Antonelli slips up you just know who will strike (and no, it’s not George Russell). Honourable mention to Charles Leclerc who led the race for a long time due to not pitting under the Virtual Safety Car, eventually he did but because we have a track with no overtakes that tyre offset was of no use this weekend.

Aiden: I’m not quite sure where Lando Norris pulled that pole position lap from on Saturday, but I don’t think many people saw it coming. He followed it up with a strong drive on Sunday, with the eventual race winner Kimi Antonelli admitting that he was second best on the day and had Norris not had bad luck with the virtual safety car, the world champion would have taken home the victory.

Talking Point

Graeme: The excitement levels were high for the new Circuito de Madring track on the outskirts of Madrid.  But it soon became apparent that this was to be a track where overtaking was nigh on impossible.  It wasn’t actually a very exciting race at all.  I sat there hoping for a crash so we could see a Safety Car to mix things up and add some pizzazz to the race.  But no, we had just the one interruption (mentioned earlier) courtesy of Lance Stroll.  He failed to finish for the 10th time this season, this time lasting 14 laps.

Chelsea: Lewis Hamilton had one of those painful lingering race deaths where you wish they’d just butt into the wall and get it over with. From an exciting squabble with Max Verstappen in the initial laps, Hamilton was complaining about his brakes only two laps later, and dwindled into last place before finally calling it a day. It was Hamilton’s first retirement, and indeed first points-less race of the season, but somehow felt inevitable after less-than-impressive performances in practice and qualifying. On the other side of the Ferrari garage, the race could easily have been Leclerc’s if it weren’t for that bothersome imperative about changing your tyres during the race.

Gavin: A brand new circuit that has no overtaking opportunities and was as much a procession as Monaco is not what was ordered. Even the track ambassador Carlos Sainz is distancing himself from the design saying that by the time he came on board the design had been set by the designers and approved by the FIA. According to the talking heads during the race, for more than 40% of the track the drivers are in a corner. Tell you what, at least they didn’t have to watch the race at 6am on a Monday before going to work, lucky buggers. Like all new things they will take the lessons from the weekend and make it a better for next year… I hope…

Aiden: How many Real Madrid players does it take to fill a Grand Prix straight? Martin Brundle pretty much had them coming out of his ears on his gridwalk. Thibaut Courtois was tapping him on the shoulder, Jude Bellingham could have chatted all day, and even Jose Mourinho gave him a few sentences as the Spanish national anthem was getting going. Good job they won the day before and were all in a good mood! Brundle also managed to have a talk with Rafa Nadal. All it needed was for Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz to turn up and he would have got the grand slam!

Gossip Time

Graeme: I didn’t hear it mentioned, although that’s not to say it wasn’t, but when Norris did pit, right after the VSC, he had a 7 second pit stop due to issues getting the right front tyre off.  Considering he finished within 3 seconds of the race winner, this proved crucial at the end of the day.  Whether it would’ve changed the result is unknown due to the aforementioned overtaking challenges, but it could’ve got spicy if he’d had a 2-3 second pitstop like normal.

Chelsea: The major discussion point out of the weekend seems to be around virtual safety cars and… fairness? Race leader Lando Norris found himself in an unfortunate spot  on lap 15 when a Lance Stroll Moment (cue klaxon) found the Aston Martin sitting stationary off track. A VSC was called until track safety could be confirmed, and unlucky timing found Norris passing the pit entry at that precise moment. Cue a cheap pit stop for almost everyone running second or below, and a subsequent slow pit stop by Norris meant he emerged with an unrecoverable deficit. Was it unlucky? Hell yeah. Was it fair? What a bizarre question. Luck plays into so many aspects of a driver’s race, team, career… if we started balancing on “fairness” we’d devolve into farce. As the kids say, take the L and move on.

Gavin: When will Cadillac be competitive? The commentators keep telling us about how professional and dedicated everyone in the team is but the results are just not there. Aston Martin and Williams must just be happy that there is another team even worse than them. And the whole genius Adrian Newey storyline has gone missing too, as has the Williams revival under James Vowles (who every time I hear explaining away another bad weekend just sounds more and more like a middle manager infected with LinkedIn-speak and TED Talk vocabulary – no substance at all).

Aiden: Fizzydrinkgate – can I get that into the dictionary? Lando wasn’t interested in the Pepsi Challenge in the cooldown room…he wanted a full fat Coke AND NO-ONE WAS GOING TO STOP HIM! “ I just did a race, so I’m allowed to drink what I would like. Thank you so much,” said the crazy Brit, who will surely get more of a penalty for his actions than Lewis Hamilton did when he kept driving his damaged car around the Madring track during free practice.

Looking Ahead

Graeme: While the Madrid organisers work out how to tweak things to generate a more interesting race next year, we say farewell to Europe now as we all take a 1 week break.  Next up we head to Asia and a triple header, Baku, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.  Two street circuits and a track we haven’t visited for a few years.  Take a breath and we’ll be back soon enough.

Chelsea: Next up, Baku! It’s a Saturday race this time, in order to avoid Azerbaijan’s Remembrance Day, which means we in NZ can endure an almost palatable 11pm Saturday live event. Baku is one of my favourite cityscapes on the calendar, so I’ll be grabbing a cup of tea, a cat, and probably nodding off somewhere around lap 15.

Gavin: Baku in two weeks time is next on the calendar. I think we will see a return of Isack Hadjar which means Liam Lawson goes back to Racing Bulls and Yuki Tsunoda goes back to food blogging. The way the season is unfolding I don’t see a change at the top, but at least Ferrari mostly got things right this weekend (at least for Charles). Lance to continue his Q1 elimination form and to not finish another race.

Aiden: A rare Saturday F1 race in Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix  – the race has been  moved to a Saturday this season to accommodate the nation’s Remembrance Day.  It’ll be the start of a triple header with Malaysia and Singapore following on consecutive weekends.

Bonus Picture(s)