Prime Tire: Farewell to F1’s lab track? Plus, Piastri sets the early pace in Spain

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Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s twice-weekly F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox on Tuesday and Friday.

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where I’ve once again wrestled control of this newsletter from Patrick Iversen. Plans for Prime Tire world domination will be complete when I send my first Tuesday edition to your inboxes next week. Just kidding, Pat’s just on a well-earned vacation — he’ll be back soon!

The Spanish Grand Prix is getting underway in Barcelona, which means Formula One has passed the first third of the 2025 season. It feels like just five minutes ago Max Verstappen and Christian Horner were being booed in London’s O2 arena. The FIA got a brief, figurative kicking that night, too, and now the governing body is central to one of the season’s major talking points, which is playing out in Spain right now, over flexi-front wings. Fascinating.

I’m Alex, and Luke Smith will be along later.

Beautiful, Ugly Barcelona

What F1 will miss about is top test track

In three separate conversations this week, I’ve been reminded that this actually isn’t the final F1 race planned to be held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Madrid is taking the Spanish Grand Prix moniker from 2026 and gaining plenty of interest in the layout of its new Madring circuit. But F1’s current race in Spain — set some 16 miles north of downtown Barcelona — will still be on the calendar next year, alongside its sibling in the Spanish capital.

This feels like something of an oversight from F1 commercial rights holder Liberty Media, but that extra $$$ from having both tracks signed will surely more than make up for slight calendar awkwardness for just one year. Hey, the definitely-still-the-Brazilian-GP, aka the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, is an F1 mainstay, so expect the Barcelona Grand Prix or Catalan Grand Prix (a title already used in MotoGP) to arrive soon.

Here’s what I’ll miss:

• First, there’s something to be said for just how this place truly tests an F1 car. It has earned its reputation as F1’s laboratory track through years of private and official test events — because its layout examines cars and drivers to the extreme.
• The teams know this place so well, too. The data gathered from years of running around the 2.9-mile course is invaluable for building any new F1 car. Now the 2025 varieties have rocked up in Spain, their engineers will learn exactly where they’re strong and weak — if they didn’t already.
• And then there’s what this place is. A place dedicated to the pursuit of motor racing. All the concrete and asphalt poured down, the miles of cables laid and the access points dug into the earth. The labor and effort that resulted in magic F1 moments such as Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell almost banging wheels in 1991 (below), Michael Schumacher’s stunning wet win here for Ferrari in 1996 — or Verstappen’s first grand prix victory after that intra-Mercedes collision in 2016.

One of the most iconic wheel-to-wheel battles 👀

Nigel Mansell makes the move stick on Ayrton Senna in 1991 👌#F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/HPRvErAGEX

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 29, 2025

There aren’t any more purpose-built tracks coming on the seemingly ever-widening horizon that is F1’s modern calendar. There’s an environmental argument that there shouldn’t be any more built, period. I get that city venues such as Madrid bring this sport directly to the people, without the need to schlep out into the countryside. And, as good as racing can be on these city courses (Hello, Las Vegas), they just don’t excite me like this place. Or, say, Austin.

I like venues that were created purely for the fearsome racing beasts and the talents that tame them. But I do get that Barcelona — and others — have serious flaws (more on this later). It shouldn’t be forgotten that F1 as entertainment must serve the masses, but I’ll miss this track when it finally does drop off the calendar.

Perhaps Barcelona’s main hope of sticking around is as one of the revolving cast of “classic” tracks, which will start sharing slots from 2027. Imola, which Luke beautifully lamented recently is already facing the chop, is already slated for such status.

I know the racing can be dull here, yet in the Pirelli era it’s been half-decent. But I’ll have to be content with the memories of freezing, pre-dawn starting pre-season test days, the knot of trees inside the final corner where you can be the only person in the whole world watching a particular slice of F1 on-track action, and the platefuls of jamon iberico to enjoy in the evening. That was F1 and Barcelona to me.

Now over to Luke to outline exactly why this race has got to go…

The Barcelona paddock got a face lift in 2023 (Jay Hirano / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images)

Inside the Paddock with Luke Smith

What F1 won’t miss about Barcelona

I hope Fernando Alonso didn’t catch my eye roll in the press conference room when he mused about F1 staying in Barcelona for decades to come. Actually, to heck with it: I hope he did.

If I were to rank my least-favorite grands prix on the F1 calendar, this would be toward the bottom. I love Barcelona as a city, but we’re not in Barcelona, really — we’re in Montmelo, which is basically an industrial estate.

The track itself has delivered some pretty woeful racing through my time in F1. Ditching the ‘Mickey Mouse’ chicane, as Lewis Hamilton dubbed it, a few years ago definitely helped, and the high levels of tire degradation can lead to some strategic variety (Monaco could never). But it’s hardly stood out among the European tracks, to me anyone, as being a truly classic circuit.

It’s also not a race I’d move to recommend to fans. After traffic turned a 45-minute drive into the track into a two-hour shlep this morning, I took the bridge to the paddock that goes over a train line — but there’s no train station built at the track…

In 2022, the track couldn’t cope with the number of fans attending the race, running short on water and dealing with overcrowded trains arriving a long walk away in central Montmelo. While steps have been taken in recent years to deal with the post-pandemic swell in popularity enjoyed by F1, I still think there are better European events for fans to attend to get a great grand prix experience.

I get people don’t like the shift toward city-based street tracks, and I’m curious what kind of product Madrid ends up being. But Barcelona, to me, doesn’t stand along the likes of Spa, Monza or Silverstone as a true European classic.

Mandatory two pit stop rules got a firm thumbs down from F1 fans overall (Mark Sutton / Getty Images)

Vilified Monaco Pit Stops May Return. Sorry

What the FIA is planning next for iffy rules

Luke was busy yesterday. He wasn’t just working up a sweat proving me wrong, he was hot on the trail of a news story that has dominated what is the second of three triple headers this season. Or the “constant state of grand prix” as life has become known in a jaded paddock.

This is the sporting spectacle of the Monaco Grand Prix — where street track F1 racing is awful. Obviously, this means the mandatory two pit stop rule that came in for the 2025 event, held last week and won by McLaren’s Lando Norris. There’s no denying the changes resulted in a livelier Monaco race than many held before in the principality. But overall, they got a thumbs down from F1’s fanbase. Luke even got the data from his followers on X:

Quick post-race poll: did the two-stop rule make the Monaco GP better? #F1 #MonacoGP

— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) May 25, 2025

Like many things F1 tries, the Monaco-specific race format is set to be formally reviewed by the FIA and other championship officials, as Luke revealed yesterday. The early chatter from the paddock suggests that those with power in F1 think the 2025 race was an improvement overall, which suggests further tweaks will arrive rather than the format being dropped.

But any changes to the approach for Monaco for 2026 will likely be known after the F1 Commission meeting that’s between the Silverstone and Spa races in July. Watch this space.

Plain Piastri Leads So Far In Spain (No Rain)

McLaren still on top, still flexing

Here are the main takeaways from today’s on-track action in Spain:

• After Lando Norris set the quickest time in FP1 in Barcelona (a 1:13.718), championship leader Oscar Piastri forged his McLaren ahead in FP2.
• Piastri led the way with a 1:12.760, ahead of George Russell by nearly 0.3 seconds, Max Verstappen and Norris.
• Judging by the onboard camera footage from Norris’ car in FP2, the McLaren front wing is still flexing plenty..

Final practice in Spain takes place at 6:30 a.m. ET and 11:30 a.m. UK on Saturday, with qualifying to follow at 10 a.m. ET and 3 p.m. UK. Follow it all with us.

Outside the points

‼️ The other big rules saga of the week is what’s currently playing out in Barcelona over the FIA’s new clampdown on flexing front wings. Madeline Coleman explained exactly how these tests work in the latest entry in her superb Between the Racing Lines series.

🔥 The official F1 website has a great collection of Spanish GP passing battles in Barcelona. My personal favorite is Vettel vs Hamilton 2017 – I watched the race from the F2 trucks car park, obviously.

🎥 Sonny Hayes, aka Brad Pitt, will pop up in F1’s virtual world too.

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(Top photo: Andrea Diodato / NurPhoto / Getty Images)

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