Why Verstappen's 2023 Spanish GP win wasn't as simple as it looked

“I was just in a daze out there. I didn’t even know it was the last lap at the end. That’s how zoned in I was. I was ready to keep going.”

This was not how Max Verstappen felt finishing the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix, but how the driver behind him last Sunday at Barcelona had three years earlier.

But where Lewis Hamilton was serene in the 2020 event, Verstappen had several visible and audible distractions from what, on paper, looked like an equally simple blast from pole to victory.

When the starting tyres were revealed, it was little surprise to see Sergio Perez had fitted mediums instead of the softs that most of his rivals ahead in the top 10 were on. They’d gone with the soft for optimum launch grip on the long, plunging run to Barcelona’s first corners. But Verstappen, surprisingly, was also armed with a set of the yellow-walled rubber.

“We were concerned that the soft tyre would degrade quite quickly and could put you on the cusp of a three-stop,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner explained. “So, we were a little bit more conservative.”

The choice left Verstappen slightly more exposed than usual at the start – when the long dash would offer a slipstreaming opportunity to Ferrari driver and home hero Carlos Sainz, who started second. The Spaniard had been left somewhat ruing that, as it meant launching away from the grippy racing line and without a tow on which to immediately latch.

But Red Bull’s tyre choice meant Sainz felt he actually had “a bit more grip” and then Verstappen also solved his tow conundrum. When the lights went out, the Dutchman launched well, but quickly moved right to cover off Sainz’s soft-shod surge.

That allowed the Ferrari to continue closing on the Red Bull, with Sainz gaining such momentum he was able to send a lunge to Verstappen’s outside. It was an ambitious move – and one that might have come off had Verstappen not sent his car shooting down the inside line and running his rival to the Turn 1 run-off. It was reminiscent of his actions against Hamilton in the 2021 event here.

Verstappen was demonstrating his uber-aggressive tendencies still remain – even though Red Bull’s straight-line speed potency this year (Verstappen had only been topped by Nico Hulkenberg in the qualifying speed trap) meant he surely would have been quickly back past Sainz had he come out of Turn 1 behind.

Despite Sainz's apparent tyre advantage, Verstappen held the lead into the first corner with some robust defending

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

In fact, Verstappen had insisted “I'll be fine” even if something went wrong early in the race after securing pole, but his demeanour when discussing the subject of his defence was surprisingly spiky post-race.

“Just imagine it the other way around – it would have been the same story,” he stated. “I defend my position like they would have defended their position.”

Sainz, in any case, had no problems with Verstappen’s defence, saying: “He defended well, he ran me wide and did what he had to do.”

Although that hard, just-about-fair racing was to have big consequences for one driver in the pack behind, Verstappen now romped clear. By the end of the opening lap he was 1.1 seconds ahead and out of the Ferrari’s DRS range threat. Then he eased away, pulling out a comfortable 7.1s lead before Sainz stopped on lap 15.

The bigger and higher profile issue for Verstappen – and why his Barcelona victory cannot be said to have been as straightforward as Hamilton’s in 2020 given the obvious parallels – was his bizarre late struggle with track limits

By the time of his own stop, Verstappen was actually leading the yet-to-stop Perez, who, like Verstappen, ran long as the soft starters inevitably came in first. Although for some not as early as Red Bull had expected when deciding to take the mediums for the race’s first phase. By the time he emerged on the hards for stint two, Verstappen had no opposition.

The question became whether he would be able to one-stop, as had been theorised by paddock sources following Verstappen’s crushing race simulation run, actually on the softs, in FP2.

But, actually, the middle phase of the race was the hardest for the world champion – a relative term considering he extended his lead to 16.3s before the second round of stops, with a quarter distance left to run, when he took on softs. This was because Verstappen was rather unhappy with this car balance on the hard compound, which left him sliding more than he had been expecting.

As the race was a test of controlling thermal degradation, Verstappen was concerned this would raise his temperatures too much, eat into his tyre life and risk knocking him towards the three-stopper Red Bull had wanted him to avoid. Again, it was a relative worry given the massive chasm to the chasers.

A tricky middle stint on hard tyres and flirting with track limits too much gave Verstappen minor jeopardy on his way to victory

Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images

“It was a worse medium, to be on the same kind of deg and it was just sliding a lot more,” Verstappen said of his feeling on the hards. “Luckily we had another pitstop, but it was definitely not the most enjoyable stint I’ve ever done in my life.”

Pirelli didn’t “have any explanation”, per its motorsport boss Mario Isola, regarding Verstappen’s complaints as “the lap times were not clearly indicating that he had no grip”. And indeed, Verstappen’s laps went from the high 1m19s before his first stop to the low 1m19s and high 1m18s, as he further increased his lead – with the fuel burn-off factor included too.

All Isola could theorise was that the track evolution factor may have contributed to Verstappen’s relative struggles – that as ever-more rubber went down it was having an impact when he moved even slightly off-line.

The bigger and higher profile issue for Verstappen – and the second key reason why his Barcelona victory cannot be said to have been as straightforward as Hamilton’s in 2020 given the obvious parallels between the two dominant drives – was his bizarre late struggle with track limits.

On the 39th tour, with his lead a commanding 15.6s, Verstappen had his lap time deleted for straying too far beyond the white line at Turn 5, despite being in full control. Nearly 10 minutes later, he lost his effort on the 45th lap for a similar thing. And for a third time, he was warned for his conduct exiting the Turn 10 uphill hairpin on lap 56, which this time brought with the time deletion a black-and-white warning flag.

To transgress again would earn a five-second addition – perilous if there’d been a late safety car. Verstappen, who was the only driver other than Kevin Magnussen (with two times lost to track limits infractions) to earn multiple warnings on this problem, shrugged it off – blaming his handling on the hards. This ignores the fact his final track limits slip came when running the softs, having moved onto them on lap 52.

“It happens sometimes,” he said. “Some tracks it's a bit easier to do and I was struggling a little bit with the harder tyres to keep it within the white lines. Once I had that last warning then I had to keep it within the white lines. But it's not an issue really.”

Horner was more forthcoming, stating that Verstappen was “very surprised” to be told his lines were flirting with sanction because “at [Turn] 10, I think he didn't realise there was a limit there”.
By this point, there was still something to settle – the fastest lap bonus point.

Fighting through the field after a poor qualifying, Perez's only real challenge to his team-mate was for the fastest lap bonus point

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Perez had moved into pole position to secure it with a DRS-assisted run very early in his final stint. But Verstappen, once informed of his team-mate’s pace, had enough of his own in hand to blow that away and set the fastest lap at 1m16.330s on the 61st tour.

His engineer Gianpiero Lambiase then, somewhat sarcastically, asked if he wouldn’t mind driving to “bring it home within the white lines – thank you”. “Yeah, yeah,” came the no-nonsense cockpit reply.

“The relationship they have is one like an old married couple, almost debating about which channel of television they should be watching,” Horner said of this final strange late episode, which echoed Verstappen ignoring Red Bull’s requests to drive to a set pace in Jeddah. But all was ultimately well. “Max was totally in control,” Horner concluded. “And he was aware of the risk and was still able to do the fastest lap quite comfortably with the tyres that he had on the car.”

Verstappen finished with a winning margin of 24.1s and reflected that he was “happy in the car”.

“The last few race weekends have definitely been a lot more positive for me,” he said, having been informed in the post-race press conference his championship lead is now 53 points. “But this was one where I think it went really well.”

“Max was totally in control. And he was aware of the risk and was still able to do the fastest lap quite comfortably with the tyres that he had on the car” Christian Horner

Verstappen’s gap at the flag was over Hamilton, who’d started the race fourth thanks to Pierre Gasly’s pair of qualifying impeding penalties. The story of how the Mercedes driver reached the finish was rather less straightforward and all the more exciting for it.

While Verstappen was towing Sainz down to the first corner, Hamilton was attacking compatriot Lando Norris.

The McLaren driver had stunned the pack in qualifying third, but lost what should have been an optimum spot in Verstappen’s slipstream to the Red Bull jumping over to cover Sainz on the run to Turn 1.

This meant Hamilton, who had gained running in Sainz’s tow when the lights went out and forced Norris away from it when the McLaren moved right too in Verstappen’s wheel tracks, could surge alongside and then seal third at Turn 1’s apex.

After a stunning qualifying performance, Norris endured a nightmare start when he ran into Hamilton as he checked up to avoid the front two

Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images

Then, when Verstappen and Sainz were moving back onto the racing line having both gone partially off-track thanks to Verstappen’s trademark attacking defence, they were moving slower than the Britons approaching fast behind.

Hamilton “got in the wake” and so “had to be patient and then I got a hit from behind”. This was Norris, who was “too close to Lewis to be able to react and brake – just an unlucky moment".

The damage was solely on Norris’s MCL60, as the blow had struck Hamilton’s left rear and he somehow got away without a puncture. But Hamilton lost enough momentum that Lance Stroll was able to get a good run through the rest of sector one and launch an opportunistic attack inside at Turn 5 that dropped Hamilton back to where he’d started.

Only briefly, though. On lap eight, Hamilton repassed the Aston Martin with a forceful outside line move at Turn 1, having just got ahead enough with DRS to swing around Stoll.

Hamilton was then soon surging after Sainz, who simply had no real response. “I just couldn't push,” Sainz explained afterwards. “We know it's a weakness of our car. We were just managing the whole way trying to make it to target laps of the stints and still falling short in a few of them.”

Indeed, Sainz was surprised to be called in to switch from softs to mediums on lap 15. But what was more interesting was how well the red-walled rubber was holding up on the Mercedes.

Hamilton was able to run nine laps deeper in the opening stint, while team-mate George Russell followed him in one tour later on lap 25. The Black Arrows duo were benefiting from the softs holding up better than many teams had expected based on the data gathered during FP2.

Temperature comparisons between the two sessions falling from 27°C to 23°C played a big part – the race taking place under heavy cloud cover that teased rain that never came beyond a few spots falling on the grid. Plus, the thermal deg affair meant the drivers could push on with the softs if required if they didn’t encounter one particular problem.

“We had less graining than Friday,” explained Isola. “That's probably due to track evolution. After the rain [in FP3] we had some support events and obviously Formula 2 and Formula 3 are using our tyres so it's the same philosophy of compounds.

An intriguing range of tyre strategies were in play, opening up opportunities for Mercedes to strike

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“I believe the track was better plus the cooler temperature was helping. If you don't generate graining, it's helping for sure to manage the temperature of the soft compound. We saw that the level of degradation was lower than expected.”

This all combined with significant strategic variation for the leading pack last Sunday. The Red Bulls and Sainz would get through all three compounds, albeit in a different order, while the Mercedes drivers avoided the hards.

They’d come into the race with just one new set each – with some teams boosted on this front by establishing the prototype new C1 hard compound they were allowed to test ahead of its Silverstone introduction was so similar to the existing C1 they could save a set of those for the race. This included Ferrari.

Russell was by now a major factor in the race, but had had two big scares – including one with ‘rain’. The first came when he tried to go three-wide with Oscar Piastri and Hulkenberg at Turn 1 and instead chose to bail left and take to the lane ended by two bollards into Turn 3 the FIA demands the drivers traverse if taking to the run-off.

Hamilton said the updated Mercedes W14 “felt great” as he ran adrift of Verstappen to the finish. But he “just couldn't match the times that Max was doing” up ahead

The stewards investigated Russell’s move as possibly leaving the track and gaining an advantage, but in fact, he came out behind Hulkenberg, who’d pinched and slowed Piastri through Turns 1 and 2.

Russell’s five spots gained on lap one followed a Q2 exit stemming from his slightly shambolic clash with Hamilton in the middle part of qualifying. This included Norris’s scene exiting to get a new nose and Russell blasting past Perez off the line and powering straight by Gasly too.

Perez had started 11th and one spot ahead of the Mercedes thanks to his own Q2 misery, but his initial rise was less rapid than Russell’s – the mediums inevitably taking longer to fire up to optimum operating temperature.

As Hamilton was closing on Sainz, Russell passed Esteban Ocon with a bold, late Turn 1 swoop and had Stroll pit out of his way – reaching a net fourth by the time of his stop. The first stint was ended for the leaders when Perez pitted on lap 27 – one after Verstappen – to take the hards.

In stint two, Hamilton eroded a 2.3s gap to Sainz in three laps and seized second with a DRS blast inside at Turn 1. From there, Hamilton said the updated Mercedes W14 “felt great” as he ran adrift of Verstappen to the finish. But he “just couldn't match the times that Max was doing” up ahead.

While Hamilton was pleased the Mercedes upgrades carried over gains from Monaco to Spain, he knows there's still plenty to do to catch Red Bull

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Russell had shown slightly quicker pace than Hamilton early in their second stint on the mediums, but this fell away slightly as the laps wore on. During this phase, Russell feared it was raining as spots appeared on his visor under the dark clouds. This had a rather complex explanation.

“I had my hair dangling down – I think I didn’t quite get it in my balaclava and that was annoying me because it was in my peripheral vision,” Russell stated. “And then as I was sweating because it wasn't in my balaclava, it was dripping down onto my face.

“Then when I was braking, it was coming onto my visor. So with the grey clouds, and then the spots of water on the visor I thought it was rain. Bit of an embarrassing one…”

Through working all this out, Russell caught and passed Sainz at Turn 1 too – his move on lap 35 rather harder to pull off than Hamilton’s as he came from much further back. But he did it with aplomb and earned, deliberately muted, praise from engineer Marcus Dudley.

Ferrari then pitted Sainz for hards on lap 41 and four laps later Mercedes moved to cover this with a stop for Russell to retake the softs. This raised the prospect of Perez being left out on a one-stopper, at which Russell promptly tore chunks from his 13.4s advantage.

Perez had also pulled off a series of passes on a day when Barcelona’s restored final sector layout aided overtaking, as the front left tyres were wearing “a bit more” this year thanks to the punishing high speeds in the re-glorified right-hander, per Isola.

This combined nicely with DRS to produce a surprisingly action-packed race behind Verstappen. Red Bull in fact called Perez in for softs on lap 50, just as Hamilton had done likewise. Now the Mexican had an 11.3s gap to close to reach Russell’s podium berth, which would also mean passing Sainz too. Perez achieved that with an easy run to Turn 1’s inside on lap 53, but he fell 3.4s short of catching Russell.

“The sim said on a clean race [he would reach] P5,” Horner said of Perez’s pre-race expectations on climbing from 11th. “He did one better than that in P4.

“We felt maybe the Ferrari would have better race pace than it had. It was a very good recovery, particularly the second half of the race. That'll give him a lot of confidence coming out of this.”

Mercedes had managed to beat one quicker Red Bull, but team boss Toto Wolff concluded that his squad must remain “realistic” and the relative factor here is Verstappen’s utter dominance up front. But for Mercedes, “the [race] temperatures really suited us – it was nice and fresh”, said Wolff. “Not too cold. Not too hot. The car was in the absolute mega window.”

Can Mercedes hunt down Verstappen and Red Bull in Canada next time out?

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images