© Getty ImagesBarcelona Weekend ReviewFrom qualifying battles to race day grit — we’re recapping every key moment from the Spanish Grand Prix with the VCARB crew.
Round9ofthe2025FIAFormulaOneWorldChampionshipishere,andit’sawarmone,friends.Sun’sout,(wheel)gunsout.VCARBareattheCircuitdeBarcelona-CatalunyafortheFORMULA1ARAMCOGRANPREMIODEESPAÑA2025.
Liam and Isack are fresh off the back of their first double points of the season, so what better opportunity for them to do their finest Michael Scott impression? But hey, at least we managed one successful video this week. As you can see from our mannequin challenge bloopers, we all suffer from the giggles from time to time.
There was also some football fever in the paddock! Our Friday debrief had a few dribbles, and Isack ditched his VCARB teamwear for another kit. We hear his favourite team had an eventful match on Saturday night.
So, how did our weekend go?
Well, on Friday we had a good baseline setup, and we were up to speed pretty quickly. P6 for Liam and P8 for Isack in Free Practice 1 showed that we’d brought our point-scoring pace with us from Monaco.
We backed this up with both drivers in the top 10 of Free Practice 2 and consistent race pace in Free Practice 3. During Qualifying, Liam and Isack made it through Q1 with their best laps good enough for P8 and P15 respectively. In Q2, Isack launched his VCARB 02 into P6, securing himself a place in Q3 once again and Liam’s best Q2 lap landed him in P13. McLaren’s Piastri took pole position with a time of 1:11.546 and Isack’s best time sat him in P9 for Sunday’s race, just +0.706 off Piastri.
Día de la carrera en Barcelona.
Isack and Liam started on the soft tyres in what would be a battle for grip as well as positions. Barcelona is notorious for being cruel to tyres, so management and strategy would be the aim of the game for our VCARB boys.
Form an orderly line© Getty Images
Liam and Isack maintained their starting positions until the first phase of pit stops. Liam made contact with Alonso, but luckily, there was no damage dealt to the cars. Liam was the first to pit, swapping his soft tyres for mediums on lap 19. Isack followed him a lap later and emerged into the path of Bearman and fought hard to keep his position in P11. A few positions back, Liam was in a close battle with Alonso and Albon and emerged victorious to sit in P12.
By the time we hit 50% race distance, Isack was in P8 and Liam P10, and things were looking good. We had both drivers in the points and fighting hard for positions. On lap 46, Liam pitted for his second change of tyres and re-entered the race in P13. A few laps later, he was in a tight battle with Bearman into turn one, but he had to end the battle early due to blue flags for the race leaders. Nevertheless, he held P11.
Isack had pitted for hard tyres and re-emerged P8, giving him a great position to continue his streak of point-scoring finishes. Lap 55 brought out a safety car for Antonelli’s mechanical failure. Isack made one final pit stop to swap his hards for softs for the late dash after the safety car restart and brought his VCARB 02 home in P7. Liam marginally lost out on P10 and finished in P11.
Crew Goals, Right Here© Getty Images
Laurent Mekies, Team Principal of Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, weighed in on the final leg of this European triple header:
“Very strong weekend here in Barcelona and the end of the triple header. We’ve had three visits to Q3 and three visits to the points, so it’s been mega. The car has been strong and our drivers have been incredible. Isack was super strong and Liam was very quick, so we’ll have two strong cars for Canada in two weeks’ time.”
Next up: Montreal. We’re taking a trip across the Atlantic Ocean for Round 10 of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship. Join us in two weeks, from 13-15 June, for the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2025.
Vamos. Gracias Barcelona.
