It may have not been quite the blockbuster that Melbourne was, but there was plenty to talk about from the events at Shanghai. Motorsport Week discusses the six key talking points from the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.
After the rain-affected rollercoaster of Australia, action in Shanghai may not have quite matched that of the week before, but the first Sprint Race of the season provided a interesting outcome, and a red herring for what was to come in the main race itself.
Amidst it all, there was more arrivals in the midfield battle, and a Red Bull driver who could only dream of being that high on the grid, and above it all, the papaya wave continued with Lando Norris firmly receiving a warning that it will not be going all his own way.
Technical directives fails to slow the McLaren juggernaut
Despite F1’s new technical directives on the controversial ‘flexi-wings’ ahead of the weekend, McLaren – the team with the biggest advantage gained from them – continued its rich vein of form by taking 1-2 finish, cementing its favourites status even further.
Its rivals might have hoped that further clamping down on the wings, gaining the ‘mini-DRS’ effect, would perhaps give them a chance to close the gap on a dry track, but it looked impossible regardless.
Once the escapades of the Sprint Race were over, Oscar Piastri looked the clear favourite from Saturday afternoon, taking his first-ever F1 pole position and then winning the race, with team-mate Lando Norris second.
Even late brake problems did not hinder the Brit, who was able to manage the issue and coast to second, ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes.
With the Mercs seemingly quite unable to extract enough to compete, and with Ferrari and Red Bull suffering a myriad of its own on-and-off track issues, the Woking squad is looking good to retain its Constructors’ Championship already.
Piastri lays down the gauntlet
One of our talking points pre-race was whether Piastri could put his Melbourne misery to the back of his head and kickstart his F1 title charge.
He did just that, taking pole by just under a tenth from team-mate Norris, and then taking the race win by just under 10 seconds from the sister McLaren.
Whilst some drivers of Piastri’s age may have been more mentally perturbed by spinning off in-front of their home fans, the Australian seems to be the type who will not let such an incident rob him of any confidence.
With McLaren still looking strong despite what appeared to be, on paper, a weekend where a key element of its advantage disappeared, Piastri put his name firmly back into contention for the World Championship and with it, the potential for a season-long Battle Royale with Norris.
Is Lawson’s time already almost up?
Liam Lawson has endured the most torrid start to an F1 campaign of all the team-mates Max Verstappen has ever been paired with.
Poor qualifying and a DNF in Australia, followed by another poor qualifying, plus further excruciating performances in both the Sprint and Grand Prix races.
Lawson is contending with one key problem that has plagued all of those who filled the unenviable ‘second’ Red Bull seat before him – the car is designed to cater for Verstappen’s very specific driving style, but one problem that has not plagued the others prior is that this car is woefully uncompetitive in comparison and Verstappen’s world class standard is the only thing keeping one towards the right end of the grid.
Christian Horner said after the race that the team has a “duty of care” to the Kiwi and also pointed the finger at the media for accentuating the pressure on him further.
However, speculation mounted in the hours after the race that Yuki Tsunoda, who has displayed brilliant form for Racing Bulls already, will take his place, with Franco Colapinto being loaned to Racing Bulls from Alpine, leaving Lawson without even the possibility of being demoted back to his old team.
Despite Horner’s diplomacy and level-headed response to the question, it is past instances have already shown that Milton Keynes squad is notoriously ruthless in its practices its patience with underperforming drivers is left wanting.
And Horner’s comments were somewhat blown out of the water, with Helmut Marko praising Tsunoda’s form.
By the time the F1 circus rolls-up in Japan in two weeks, will its home driver now have the second seat alongside Verstappen?
From a Sprint gallop to failing to jump the Grand Prix fences – the Prancing Horse’s eventful F1 weekend
Ferrari sought to bounce back from an out-of-sorts performance in Australia and define itself as the second-fastest team behind McLaren as pre-season form suggested.
Things got off to a great start, with Lewis Hamilton taking both pole and the win in the Sprint, but the remainder of the weekend turned sour.
Hamilton said after the race that the team made the car “quite a bit worse,” after his Sprint success, and after early contact with team-mate Charles Leclerc, the pair laboured to a fifth-sixth finish, with Hamilton finishing behind Leclerc.
To compound its misery, both men were disqualified from the final result, with Leclerc’s car being a kilogram underweight, and Hamilton’s underside plank deemed under the required minimum thickness, the team admitting a “genuine error” on the later, not helping its already-tarnished reputation for being a gaffe-prone outfit over the last few seasons.
It didn’t end there, with team principal Fred Vasseur bemoaning F1’s selection of radio broadcasts, with Hamilton’s message to offer his place to Leclerc not played on the world feed, giving the false impression the team had ordered the swap.
The team will now surely arrive in Suzuka under a microscope, but hopeful of being able to fully show the pace the car is supposedly capable of.
Ocon and Bearman spearhead Haas’ return to F1 midfield and beyond
The opening weekend of the F1 season became nothing more than a glamourous and extended test session for Haas, struggling at the back. It was just like the old days.
But China saw the American squad get itself back to where it feels it belongs – fighting in the midfield.
And with the help of Leclerc and Hamilton’s disqualifications, Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were promoted from one double points finish to an even better one – fifth and seventh.
The result teases a potential season-long battle for midfield supremacy amongst four teams, and with Ocon’s experience and Bearman’s raw speed and incomprehensible maturity, it looks as if Haas has the minerals to achieve such a feat.
Second strategy blunder in a row proves a red rag to a [Racing] Bull
Racing Bulls have undoubtedly been the surprise package of the F1 season so far.
It seemed that Red Bull’s ‘B Team’ would have another tough season to keep-up with the midfield, or at least be on the tail end of it, but on pure pace, it’s one of the frontrunners in that particular gaggle on the grid.
Tsunoda’s form is now putting him in prime position to land a Red Bull promotion early – and, ironically, when he may least want it – and Isack Hadjar, despite his first-race formation lap embarrassment, is showing all the promise that his F2 exploits last year was advertising.
Both men looked on course for a double-points finish but, like its failing of Tsunoda in Melbourne, the team once again got it wrong in terms of strategy.
With most teams realising that one-stopping would be sufficient and get them to the finish with minimal issues, it decided to two-stop, leaving them out of the points.
To make matters even worse, Tsunoda suffered disintegration on his front wing late in the race, condemning him to 16th place, with Hadjar initially 13th, but then agonisingly close to the top 10 after disqualifications of others, finishing two seconds of Carlos Sainz’s who claimed 10th.
If the team can rectify its blundering on the pit wall, there will almost certainly be a regular occurrence of the car in the top 10 soon.
READ MORE – McLaren explains cause of ‘unacceptable’ Lando Norris brake issue in China
