F1 News: 2025 contest 'doesn't feel like a fight'

(GMM) Max Verstappen is not holding out hope that the flexi-wing clampdown in Barcelona will affect McLaren’s pace. [He knows that McLaren’s Rob Marshall is the best designer in F1. In fact, McLaren might widen their gap on the field in Barcelona]

Up and down the pitlane, insiders and experts are split over whether the master of bendy front wings that pass the FIA tests – McLaren – will be slowed down.

“McLaren aren’t going to end up P8,” smiled Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, “and we’re not going to end up at the front.”

Led by Oscar Piastri, McLaren’s two drivers are P1 and P2 in the drivers’ championship, with Red Bull’s Verstappen third. “I don’t expect any major gains or losses for any of the teams,” the Dutchman said in Barcelona.

Lando Norris agrees with that sentiment, with Piastri commenting: “Our secret is that we have no secret.”

Norris, however, thinks writing off quadruple world champion Verstappen just one third into the season would be “silly”.

Verstappen responded: “To be honest, it doesn’t really feel like a fight to me.

“I just try to do my best and have a bit of fun.”

An upgrade package pushed Verstappen to outside pole and the win in Imola, but he slipped back to P4 in Monaco last weekend. Either way, the 27-year-old says he won’t give up.

“I always fight – that never goes away,” said Verstappen. “But that doesn’t mean that I am enjoying it or am loving it. I like it, but it’s not like I will remember this season forever.

“I have more fun when I win consistently. I think that’s clear,” he smiled.

Barcelona is certainly more of an Imola-type circuit than the highly unique Monaco, but Verstappen shrugged: “I don’t really know whether we were very strong in Imola, or McLaren was weaker than usual.”

Finally, Verstappen admitted that he recently asked the FIA to assign him a classification for GT3 racing. The governing body decided he was the highest classification possible – Platinum.

“You fill out a form, you pay, and a week later you get the answer,” he said.

“I was secretly hoping for a Bronze classification. Maybe I’ll appeal against Platinum and at least get Silver,” Verstappen joked.