Analysis of the Chinese Grand Prix, brought to you by Bahrain International Circuit
F1 – You have to go back over 20 years to find the last time that McLaren won the opening two races of a season. Whilst the team in papaya clearly had the edge in Australia, most still believe that 2025 is set to be the most competitive grid for some time.
As F1 rolled into China for the first sprint race weekend of the year, hopes were high for equally competitive racing and what unfolded in Shanghai across the weekend certainly gave much entertainment for fans, as well as a few surprises along the way.
A resurfaced track in China offered very strong grip, but as is often the case it comes at the expense of tyres. For context, race lap times were about three seconds faster compared to last year, so the impact on tyres would be significant. That would play in an important role in the strategy calls, which, according to Zak Brown ahead of the race was either a one or two stop strategy, with the possibility of splitting driver strategies.
Drivers were given an indication of these new conditions on the shorter sprint race on Saturday. Ahead of that, Lewis Hamilton surprised everyone by putting his Ferrari on pole for the sprint race. After a mixed weekend at the opening race in Australia, it was a hugely welcome early boost for his prospects this season. Verstappen in the Red Bull was almost as surprising in his second-place spot, having complained most of the weekend about underperformance. A few errors for McLaren meant that Piastri could only qualify third, with Norris in sixth. Leclerc and Russell qualified fourth and fifth.
In the sprint race, Hamilton converted his pole into victory. Despite an early challenge from Verstappen, he led the entire race. Piastri managed to take Verstappen for second place, with Russell and Leclerc just behind. Tsunoda finished an impressive sixth, followed by Antonelli, with Norris salvaging and single point in eighth.
In qualifying for the main race, Piastri took pole for the first time in his career, just a whisker ahead of an ever-improving Mercedes of Russell. Norris and Verstappen took the second row, with the pair of Ferraris on the third row, with Hadjar and Antonelli completing the top eight.
Under cloudy conditions for the start of the race yesterday, McLaren produced a masterclass off the start line. Piastri led off and squeezed Russell into turn one. This gave some space for Norris to breeze through the gap into second. The top three remained as they were heading into the end of the first stint, with the McLaren cars having a five second gap at the front. The first pit stops began around lap 13, with Verstappen and Hamilton coming in on lap 14. Russell and Piastri then followed, with Norris a lap behind that. This initially gave Russell race position ahead of Norris, but a clean overtake from the Englishman brought him back to second. Following this, Russell was holding on reasonably well to the pace at the front, as were the two Ferrari’s.
Given the abrasive surface, the second pit stop rounds were expected around lap 34, leaving a final stint of 20 laps on the medium tyres. Or so we thought. As it turned out, the hard tyre was more durable that expected with Hamilton the only one of the top six to take the second stop. For the remainder, it was a case of managing tyres, as the frontrunners carefully sought to eke out their rubber to the end.
Whilst the leaders held position for the last part of the race, Verstappen, who had a noticeably quiet race otherwise, did manage a late overtake on Leclerc on lap 53, to put him in fourth, behind Russell and the two McLarens. There was a scare for Norris towards the end with a brake issue and perhaps another lap might have told a different story but he coaxed his car carefully to finish second, behind a serene and carefree first win of the season for Oscar Piastri.
With Russell taking the final podium position and Verstappen fourth, the two Ferraris had initially been classified as fifth and sixth. However, in a dramatic update after post-race checks by the FIA, both cars were disqualified. Leclerc’s car was deemed under the minimum weight, whilst Hamilton’s car suffered a technical infringement with his skid blocks found to be less than the requirement minimum thickness. Ferrari was keen to stress that both these failures were not with the intention of gaining an advantage and they would learn not to make such errors in the future. They weren’t the only team, however, to fall foul of the post-race checks as Pierre Gasly was also disqualified for an underweight car.
After these disqualifications, it meant that Ocon finished fourth in the Haas – much improved from last week, with Antonelli sixth, followed by Albon, Bearman, Stroll and Sainz who completed the top ten.
As a result of the Gasly’s disqualification, Alpine are the only team without a point this season, whilst at the other end, McLaren has built a 21-point lead ahead of Mercedes in the constructors’ championship. In the Drivers’ Championship, Lando Norris will now take an eight-point lead heading into the next race in Japan in two weeks’ time.
* Laurence Jones is senior manager,
Marketing and Communications,
Bahrain International Circuit
Marketing and Communications,
Bahrain International Circuit
l.jones@bic.com.bh
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