The chase for the Formula One championship has rapidly become a two-man competition, and that is unlikely to change whenever the track travels to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix this week.

Mercedes and Red Bull are likely to continue to win at a track that both teams are familiar with, despite Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen divided by eight points after three races.

“The image is beginning to come together. “The two outstanding teams are Red Bull and Mercedes, and the two outstanding drivers are Lewis and Max,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. “If we have a fairly normal Barcelona, I believe you'll have four races and we'll be able to see where our advantages and disadvantages are. Although what we're seeing is that it's fairly tight.”

Hamilton, Mercedes' four-time reigning champion, leads Verstappen after winning the season opener in Bahrain and last week's race in Portugal. Even so, Red Bull has substantially narrowed the gap this season, with Verstappen winning in Italy and claiming pole in Bahrain in the first three races. In the constructors' championship, the teams are differentiated by 18 points.

“The biggest prize is Formula One,” Horner said. “Because if it continues like this for the next 23 races, it will be nip and curl.”

Toto Wolff, Mercedes team principal, stated that the squad has been loving the tight competition from Red Bull.

“While we were behind in trials and in Bahrain, there was a feeling that I haven't felt in the squad since 2013 when we got the first whiff that we can somehow be there,” Wolff said. “The whole place is ecstatic and will continue to be ecstatic. I'd like to be satisfied after Abu Dhabi towards the end of the regular season, but as of now, we'll take stuff one move at a time.”

In the first three races, Hamilton and Verstappen finished first and second. Verstappen would have comfortably led if it hadn't been for track limit breaches that lost him any points.

“The entire track restriction argument is just annoying,” said Horner. “The first three competitions have been rough for us. As a result, it has been very costly for us.”

Verstappen's breaches cost him the win in Bahrain and wounded him in competing in Portugal. Because of the restrictions, he had also been robbed of the quickest lap point.

Teammates of Hamilton and Verstappen are yet to get close to them. Valtteri Bottas, a Mercedes driver, won the pole in Portugal but also has struggled in the races. He is now 37 points behind the leader, Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez, who is 47 points back.

Instead, McLaren driver Lando Norris is third in the drivers' standings, behind Ferrari groupmates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Fernando Alonso, the other Spanish driver competing this weekend alongside Sainz, would be aiming to finish in the points for the third time in a row since finishing 10th in Italy and eighth in Portugal.

The Barcelona-Catalunya track has hosted preseason training for many years, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, F1 tests were performed in Bahrain this season. Because of the pandemic, the Spanish GP will be held without spectators.