Through the opening five rounds of the 2025 Formula 1 season, one narrative has become clear — McLaren remain the team to beat.
Fresh off narrowly winning last year’s Constructors’ Championship over Ferrari, McLaren have continued their upward trajectory. While Ferrari’s design philosophy seems to have sent them in the wrong direction, Red Bull and Mercedes have shown signs of improvement. Still, they’ve yet to consistently match the performance of McLaren’s driver duo, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Max Verstappen and George Russell have stood out as top performers this season, but even they’ve struggled to close the gap to the Woking-based outfit.
With a rule change looming, many would expect teams to hold off on major development — especially so close to a new technical era. However, the upcoming technical directive at the Spanish Grand Prix — which will limit how much front wings can flex — has stirred hope that McLaren might be reeled in.
Yet according to technical analyst Matthew Somerfield, that hope may be misplaced.
Flexi Wing Rule May Impact All Front-Runners — Not Just McLaren
Speaking on the Missed Apex podcast, Somerfield addressed speculation that the new front wing regulation could hinder McLaren more than others. Red Bull, reportedly pushing for clarification on flexi-wings, have their fingers crossed.
But Somerfield isn’t convinced.
“That would be true if only McLaren had a flexi wing — but they all do, just to different extents,” he explained.
“Red Bull have zeroed in on McLaren because they think it’s helping them gain an edge. But from what I’ve seen in the first five races, Red Bull’s own wing has shown significant flexing too.”
In short, McLaren may be affected — but so will everyone else.
“Will McLaren lose performance? Yes. But so will their rivals,” Somerfield added.
“All the teams push their parts to just meet the load and deflection tests. It’s a balancing act — moving the needle, not breaking the rules.”
While flexing beyond the allowed limits isn’t legal, under motion and race conditions, some degree of movement is unavoidable. All teams, Somerfield suggests, are exploiting this reality to some extent.
Verstappen Continues to Lead Red Bull’s Development Push
Meanwhile, behind the scenes at Red Bull, Max Verstappen continues to work tirelessly to extract more from the RB21. With Yuki Tsunoda replacing Liam Lawson this season, Verstappen’s experience has been critical in pushing development forward.
Team principal Christian Horner has praised Verstappen’s dedication at the factory, noting he’s never seen the Dutchman more engaged.
Verstappen’s deep technical knowledge has often given Red Bull an edge. In past seasons, he’s even made setup adjustments that the team’s engineers hadn’t anticipated — especially as McLaren and Ferrari began pulling ahead.
That intuition may be needed again. Though Red Bull have shown the ability to improve quickly from practice to qualifying, the compressed Sprint weekend format at tracks like Miami — with just one hour of practice before qualifying — poses a unique challenge.
Bottom Line
The Spanish GP front wing rule tweak may level the playing field slightly, but it likely won’t be the silver bullet Red Bull are hoping for. If anything, it could simply drag everyone down a notch — leaving McLaren’s advantage largely intact unless Red Bull find a breakthrough elsewhere.