Red Bull will review Verstappen Safety Car call: Did they slip up? Race data analysed

Red Bull took a characteristically aggressive approach to the Spanish Grand Prix, putting Max Verstappen on a three-stop strategy in a bid to take the fight to the McLarens.

Yuki Tsunoda, starting from the pit lane, shadowed his team mate on the same strategy. Or, rather, foreshadowed him, making his pit stops earlier each time around. This resulted in a very short first stint of just eight laps on the medium tyre, before Red Bull brought him in, shortly after he and Carlos Sainz Jnr passed Franco Colapinto.

Race winner Oscar Piastri was impressed by how well Verstappen’s three-stop strategy worked out for the most part. By lap 40 he had got close enough to the McLarens that Lando Norris had pushed closer to Piastri.

But as McLaren neared the earliest point at which they expected Verstappen would risk making his final pit stop, Piastri put the hammer down. By the time Red Bull felt bold enough to pit Verstappen – lap 47 – Norris was 4.4 seconds ahead of the Red Bull and safe from a one-lap undercut, while Piastri was even further ahead of his team mate.

By lap 50 the trio had pitted and resumed their prior order, albeit all slightly closer together due to the undercut effect. Then came the moment which exposed the weakness in Red Bull’s strategy: Andrea Kimi Antonelli retired and triggered a Safety Car period.

Staying out on worn rubber risked a chance of being overtaken by anyone who pitted for fresh – or at least fresher – tyres. That very scenario played out in the Formula 2 sprint race the day before.

Verstappen and the McLaren duo all started the race with four sets soft tyres – one new, three used. But by this point Verstappen had run three stints on softs – one more than Norris and Piastri – and Red Bull feared his final set were too old even for a final sprint to the flag.

They therefore faced a choice of staying out on soft tyres, inheriting the lead but facing an immediate threat from the McLarens, or switching to his new set of hard tyres. How undesirable an option this was can be gauged by the fact not a single other driver touched the hard rubber all race.

Red Bull’s decision will inevitably be judged by the fact Verstappen sank from third to 10th at the finish, but much of that was due to how he conducted himself on-track. Arguably, he had the potential to hold onto third place, certainly fourth, had he not had a snap of oversteer at the exit of the last corner on the restart. Once the first corner drama was behind him he looked quick enough to keep George Russell behind.

Whether this was preferable to the alternative comes down to how vulnerable Verstappen would have been on his old soft tyres. If Red Bull were thinking he could at least bank a safe third on a set of hards, they must have feared leaving him out would have risked him falling lower than that.

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The team will review whether they took the right call. “The Safety Car came out at the worst possible time for our strategy,” said team principal Christian Horner. “We decided between staying out on older tyres and be exposed at the restart, or take the gamble with the new set of hard tyres.

“Hindsight is always 20/20, but we made the best decision at the time with the information we had.”

2025 Spanish Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2025 Spanish Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2025 Spanish Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2025 Spanish Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

2025 Spanish Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2025 Spanish Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

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