Chinese GP Report
The second round of the F1 World Championship in China confirmed that McLaren is the team to beat in 2025, while Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull are evenly matched and a step behind the pacesetters.
The Shanghai event, which featured the first Saturday sprint of the season, didn’t match the opening race in Australia for entertainment. Nevertheless it was a weekend of intrigue, with plenty of talking points.
Among them were stricter tests on rear flexing hurriedly introduced by the FIA. While some thought that was aimed at McLaren the team insisted that it had to make no changes – Alpine was the only team to openly admit that it had to make an adjustment to meet the new tests.
The sprint format meant there was only one practice session in which teams and drivers could hone their cares, and with tyre usage at premium in Shanghai – and particularly wear on the front left – much focus was on addressing that issue.
The sprint brought something of a surprise when Lewis Hamilton put his Ferrari on pole ahead of Max Verstappen, with Oscar Piastri the best-placed McLaren in third and a frustrated Lando Norris only sixth. In the sprint itself Hamilton drove superbly, managing his tyres well on the way to his first victory for Ferrari. Piastri got ahead of a tyre-troubled Verstappen to log second place, while after a messy first lap Norris could manage only a point for eighth place.
Main qualifying went more to plan for McLaren with Piastri on pole and Norris a little happier in third, and the Mercedes of George Russell in between them. Norris jumped up to second at the start, but Piastri had the race under control throughout as the harder tyre performed better than expected and most teams abandoned their original plan to stop twice and pitted only once.
Norris couldn’t get too close to his team mate for fear of damaging his tyres, and then in the last 20 laps he had to nurse a brake problem. Thus the expected fight between the McLaren duo didn’t materialise, and will have to wait for another day.
Having finished fourth in the sprint Russell was a solid third in the main event as Mercedes led the chase of McLaren. Verstappen dropped behind the Ferraris at the start, but he got by Hamilton when the former World Champion became the only frontrunner to make a second tyre stop, and he then passed Leclerc on track.
Having touched on the first lap Leclerc and Hamilton finished fifth and sixth on the road but then disastrously for the Italian team both were disqualified, Leclerc for being underweight and Hamilton for skid plank wear. It was a simple miscalculation by the Italian team, which cut it too fine on both counts. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who finished 11th, was also kicked out for being underweight.
Ferrari’s woes moved everyone else up a couple of places. After a disastrous Australian GP Haas surprised everyone when Esteban Ocon won the midfield battle to finish seventh on the road, before moving up two spots. He beat the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, the Italian’s race having been spoiled when he ran over debris from Leclerc on the first lap, and was thereafter he was hampered by floor damage.
Alex Albon had a solid run to seventh for Williams, while Oliver Bearman was eighth in the second Haas, ahead of the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz in the other Williams. Stroll’s team mate Fernando Alonso was out early with brake overheating issues.
Racing Bulls was the biggest loser in the main race, with both Yuki Tsunoda (who was sixth in the sprint) and Isack Hadjar losing a shot at points when they made a second stop, and others didn’t. Tsunoda then hampered further by a front wing failure.
The man in the spotlight all weekend was Verstappen’s team mate Liam Lawson. Well off the pace of the Dutchman the Kiwi was only 16th at the flag after starting from the pitlane, although the disqualifications ahead moved him up. However it clearly wasn’t good enough, and his seat is under threat – and he could be swapped with Tsunoda as early as the next race in Japan, the home of Honda.
Suzuka is a race where a well-balanced car is essential, and at least this time it’s not a sprint, and thus teams will have three sessions in which to adjust. The track is new to all of the rookies except Lawson, and it is not the easiest to learn.
Last year Red Bull dominated the weekend, but times have changed, and McLaren should again set the pace. It remains to be seen who will be leading the chase. The likelihood is that it will rain at some point during the weekend.
About Adam Cooper
Adam Cooper logs his 40th season as a motor racing journalist in 2024. Motor racing journalist, author, historian and copywriter. Started writing career in 1985 while still at university, and has been at every Formula One Grand Prix since Japan 1994 without missing one. He contributed to Autosport for nearly 40 years, while other clients have included Motor Sport, Autoweek, Racer, Road and Track, F1 Racing and The Sun.