2025 Chinese GP: Post Race Analysis

First Sprint Race weekend of the year and tires were the big story. Everyone managing their tires meant there wasn't a lot of attacking going on. Plus 3 DQ's really shook up the official results.

McLaren get a 1-2 finish in the Grand Prix. They looked a lot better in the grand prix than the Sprint race where they finished 2nd and 8th. Piastri simply was the better driver this weekend. 2nd in the Sprint, Pole, and finally the win in the big race. Exceptional job by him. Lando had pace, but seemed to struggle to put it together. In the last 15 laps or so he had brake pedal issues which was close to becoming a brake failure. 1 more lap and he would have plummeted down the grid.

Mercedes still showing to be the 2nd best car. George Russell another lonely podium. He honestly looks to be in great form. Significantly faster than Antonelli this weekend. Kimi getting Driver of the Day is exactly why fans shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Red Bull is such a unique situation. In the hands of Max Verstappen that car has some pace and 4th is a good result. 3rd place in the Sprint. However, Liam Lawson dead last in qualifying for both the Sprint and Grand Prix. Never had a hope at points. They made radical changes overnight to make the car easier to drive and it just proved to be slower for Liam. Lawson has proved he can hold his own against other drivers in a typical F1 car with typical balance. But he's nowhere in the Red Bull. Verstappen himself believes Lawson would be faster in an RB and I completely agree. Yuki who absolutely deserves a shot in the Red Bull, almost certainly would suffer the same struggles as Lawson. Yet if Max went and drove the RB, he would not be as fast as he is in the Red Bull. Christian Horner has finally admitted that Red Bull engineered their car around Max. Someone everyone already knew anyways.

Haas double points. What a difference a week makes. In Australia the Haas was the worst car, and now both drivers in the points and both cars raced their way to deserve it. Ocon finished 7th but got promoted to 5th after some DQ's, and Bearman was promoted to 8th from 10th. Exceptional result for that team.

Williams didn't look quite as strong this weekend. Albon is making a claim as the #1 driver. Faster in all quali sessions and a better finish position in both the Sprint and Grand Prix. Sainz looked so strong in testing but seems to be a couple tenths off Albon so far. Still he picked up a point due to the penalties.

Aston Martin was one of the worst cars of the weekend. Yet Lance Stroll had one of the best weekends of his career. He was on par or better in pace than Alonso. He didn't make any real mistakes. He had a solid race in the Spring, and an even better race in the Grand Prix. Inheriting a couple of points in the process. Shame Alonso had a brake failure in the early laps, not a great start to his season.

RB's had a lot more speed than their results showed. Very impressive in qualifying but failing to get much of a result. Yuki did finish 6th in the Sprint, but neither driver scored points in the race. Hadjar had a tough battle with Doohan. He was clearly faster but just couldn't make a pass stick. He's learning though.

Alpine definitely missed the mark this weekend. Gasly was okay but not as strong as one would expected. Ended up getting DQ'd for being underweight. Doohan had a scrappy race that won't earn him a lot of fans. Weaving all over the track, moving under braking, and even driving cars off the track. A deserving 10 second penalty was given. He's looking to be worst of the rookies so far.

Sauber pulled a reversal to Haas. They looked okay in Australia but looked terrible in China. Nearly a minute off in the Sprint race and a lap down in the Grand Prix. Bortoleto has been impressive though, finishing ahead of his experienced teammate Hulkenberg often.

Ferrari. Another disaster. Pretty amazing that Lewis Hamilton started on pole for the Sprint and converting that to a Sprint win. He proved that being out in clean air was a massive advantage to tire wear. Hamilton shockingly faster than Leclerc in qualifying and Charles wasn't looking too good up to the Grand Prix. However on Sunday, despite a damaged front wing, Charles looked fabulous. MUCH faster than Lewis in the race. Did the front wing damage help Leclerc? I doubt it, but it didn't seem to hurt him too much either.. at least not in pace. It might have made a difference to the weight of the car, as sadly Charles was found to be 1 kg underweight and was disqualified from his 5th position. Lewis was also DQ'd from 6th place for excess plank wear. Perhaps Lewis had a setup with a very low ride height that make the car fast in qualifying and the Sprint race and just suited his style, but was just too low for the race and how he attacks the curbs. What a costly result for their championship hopes.

Driver of the Day. I would have said Leclerc, but he was underweight and got DQ'd. It has to be Estaban Ocon. That Haas is not a top 5 car and yet he officially gets a 5th place result. That is superb! He also had to fight and race for his positions, unlike a lot of other drivers. That of course means more deg to the tires and yet he kept it all together.

 

I don't think Leclerc being a couple kg lighter than Lewis made the difference. I think Charles figured something out between the Sprint race and quali that worked well for him in the race. If Lewis had the car raised 0.5-1 mm higher as it should have been, he probably would have been even further off the pace. So it's all relative anyways.

 

Its only been 2 races, one being a wet race. It looks all the cars have a narrow operating window. McLaren looked dominant in the dry at Australia, but not so much in China. After the updates come, we'll have a better picture. I think the championship is still wide open.