2025 Spanish Grand Prix Preview: 5 Big Talking Points Heading into the Weekend

Linus O'Howell
May 29
4 min read

One Last Dance in Barcelona

This weekend marks the 35th Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and as of right now, it’s set to be the last! From next year onwards, the Spanish Grand Prix will be held at the new “Madring” Circuit in Madrid, but it’s not quite confirmed whether Barcelona will leave the calendar completely or will appear as a second Race in Spain (like Imola for Italy)! Either way, whilst it’s never been the best circuit for Racing, there has been some iconic moments here, from a Fernando Alonso home victory to the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg colliding, resulting in a then 18-year-old Max Verstappen taking his maiden win! In fact, the last 9 Spanish Grand Prix’s have either been won by Verstappen or Hamilton, so let’s see if one of them can make it 10 straight!

What’s Happened to Mercedes?

For a lot of the first part of the 2025 Formula 1 Season, Mercedes have been talked about in a pretty positive light, they’ve been consistently scoring good points every weekend, with George Russell being one of the drivers of the season whilst Andrea Kimi Antonelli has impressed massively as a Rookie! However, something changed after Imola Qualifying, George had no pace in the Race and finished P7 whilst Kimi Antonelli retired! In Monaco, things went even worse as Antonelli crashed in Q1 whilst Russell suffered a failure of his own, meaning he had to start only 1 place higher in P14! The Race itself was an absolute mess, Merc’s strategy was awful, they couldn’t pass anyone, and neither driver scored points, with Kimi finishing 3 laps down and last! Because of these 2 poor weekends, George is now 62 points off the lead of the Championship whilst Mercedes as a team are only 5 points clear of P4 in the Constructors’! Ultimately, Mercedes really need to turn things around this weekend, but the positive for them is their track record around Spain is very good, even in this era of cars too!

Will Fernando Alonso Ever Score Points?!

Honestly, it’s getting ridiculous at this point! Aston Martin have been very poor this season, their car has lacked severe pace compared to the highs of the start of 2023, but despite that, Fernando Alonso has still been able to put in some strong performances, including Qualifying 5th in Imola and 7th at Monaco! Now, both of those tracks are known for being almost impossible to pass, and yet, Alonso hasn’t come away from either weekend with any points! It’s not been Fernando’s fault in the slightest, he’s bad luck this year is absolutely insane, but the question still remains as to whether the Spaniard will score points any time soon! Now, Fernando Alonso is a 2-time winner of the Spanish Grand Prix so he knows how to succeed at home, but at this rate, a point this weekend would be an achievement to celebrate!

Can Racing Bulls Continue Their Momentum?

Monaco could well prove to be the turning point in Racing Bulls’ season, they’ve had good pace all round, with Isack Hadjar consistently pushing for points, but the team has never quite executed a perfect Race which has cost them dear! However, after scoring a couple of points in Imola, VCARB pulled off the master strategy of Liam Lawson blocking the entire rest of the field to give Isack 2 free pit stops, but it also didn’t end up costing Lawson as he came home in P8, 2 places behind his teammate in 6th! Those 12 points for Racing Bulls moved them up to 7th in the Constructors’ Standings, with them now only 4 points behind Haas in 6th! If Hadjar can keep doing what he’s been doing all season, and Lawson builds from Monaco, there’s no reason why VCARB can’t rise to 6th over the next couple of weekends!

Carlos Sainz’s First Home Race for Williams

After years of wearing papaya and scarlet red, the Spanish fans will be decked in blue for the return of their home hero, Carlos Sainz! It’s been a tricky start to life at Williams for Carlos, the pace has been there, but the results haven’t followed! He is on a 4-Race points-scoring streak, but it does feel like points were left on the table in pretty much all of those weekends! I mean, Sainz is 30 points behind Williams teammate Alex Albon which is a big gap at this stage of the season, but if everything is to click into place, this might be the weekend it happens! See, Carlos has driven in 10 Spanish Grand Prix’s for Toro Rosso, Renault, McLaren, and Ferrari, and he’s scored points in every single one of them! That is a very impressive record given some of the cars he’s had, and I think Carlos Sainz’s motivation for this weekend is going to be just as high this time around!