F1 2025’s second race of the season in Shanghai was held in vastly totally different circumstances than Melbourne’s mixed-weather thriller, however this week’s winners-losers part options some acquainted figures.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Picture by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Pictures
If a composed wet-dry-wet win in Australia confirmed Lando Norris is driving like a title contender, then team-mate Oscar Piastri has answered along with his personal assertion of intent over the Shanghai weekend. Eager to take revenge for the unfortunate off in his residence race that dropped him to ninth, the Australian regarded the superior McLaren driver all weekend and produced a cool, virtually boringly beautiful pole-to-flag drive on Sunday – a maiden F1 pole and a 3rd profession grand prix win.
After he bided his time, Norris’ late brake points prevented him from mounting a problem, however Piastri’s win by no means actually regarded unsure, having additionally trumped Norris within the dash qualifying and race. Norris certainly by no means simply assumed he would have it his personal method this 12 months, however Piastri has undoubtedly proven indicators that he has taken learnings from an inconsistent 2024 marketing campaign and turn into a stronger contender already. With one win apiece, each drivers’ title campaigns are up and operating.
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Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Picture by: Jade Gao – Getty Pictures
Lewis Hamilton’s glorious pole-to-flag win in China’s dash was a welcome tonic for each followers of the seven-time world champion and the tifosi. However when it got here to the primary grand prix, Ferrari appeared to fall again to its pure spot in qualifying because the McLarens produced a cleaner Q3 this time. As Charles Leclerc identified after the race, it’s a lot tougher to carry out miracles from the third row, however neither driver regarded notably comfy. They have been finally powerless to maintain Max Verstappen at bay after a woeful medium-tyre opening stint for the Dutchman.
Leclerc’s faucet with Hamilton at the beginning may have ended an entire lot worse, but when anybody can clarify why the Monegasque nonetheless loved higher race tempo regardless of a damaged entrance wing – and Ferrari due to this fact rightfully swapped locations – please ship your solutions on a postcard to Maranello. Ferrari could have prevented this class by hanging on to its 18-point haul on Sunday, however afterwards each drivers have been disqualified for 2 totally different technical infractions: Leclerc for his automobile being underweight and Hamilton for extreme skid put on. The excellent news is there’s potential on this SF-25, the dangerous information is the Scuderia hasn’t been extracting it but on Sundays.
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Winner: Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen, Crimson Bull Racing, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Pictures
It’s a must to hand it to Max Verstappen. One week after swooping in to smash and seize second in Australia, the Dutchman snatched one other consequence his flawed RB21 did not actually deserve. Verstappen has developed an air of inevitability, extracting greater than the automobile appears able to, as we are going to focus on additional beneath. However amid Crimson Bull’s woes, Verstappen one way or the other heads to Japan sitting second within the drivers’ championship.
It stays to be seen how lengthy the four-time champ can keep there, but it surely will not be for an absence of making an attempt. Arguably, the best way he has been manhandling the 2025 Crimson Bull is as spectacular – if no more – than a few of his title-winning campaigns.
Loser: Crimson Bull
Liam Lawson, Crimson Bull Racing
Picture by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Pictures
However even the speedy and mercurially gifted Verstappen would not have the escape velocity to defy the gravity of Crimson Bull’s downturn. Incoming Liam Lawson has been going by means of a shiver-inducing nightmare of a Crimson Bull stint, and even dangers dealing with the axe as early as Japan, in accordance with our sources.
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However whereas Yuki Tsunoda could or could not have been a greater choose, Lawson’s failure to rise up to hurry so far can also be Crimson Bull’s.
Crimson Bull has burnt a number of drivers in that second seat now, and it’s clear the crew has not addressed the automobile steadiness woes that pissed off Verstappen and defeated Sergio Perez final 12 months, with Verstappen asserting that Lawson would have been a lot faster driving the sister crew’s Racing Bulls automobile.
Seemingly linked to the automobile’s lack of consistency, the outfit could have some soul looking out to do to handle its crippling tyre degradation points, with Verstappen nowhere within the opening medium-tyre stint in China, transport a median of round eight tenths to the McLarens. However its season is not headed for full catastrophe simply but, with a lot improved tempo on laborious tyres providing extra hope that inherently Crimson Bull can nonetheless get close to McLaren, given a much-needed spherical of updates.
Winner: Haas
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Crew
Picture by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Pictures
We have been genuinely nervous for Haas after a sobering Australia curtain raiser, however the crew has reacted to the VF-25’s poor maiden outing in the very best method with a double factors end. On the usual medium-hard strategy- however with a really early pitstop that labored out effectively – Esteban Ocon confirmed stable velocity, passing the likes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli with two wheels on the grass to seventh on the street, which turned a spectacular fifth after the double exclusion of the Ferraris.
Credit score additionally goes to Oliver Bearman after the British rookie rebounded from a messy weekend in Melbourne. Having certified additional again, Bearman banked on a reverse hard-medium technique, unknowingly dealing with the duty of an especially lengthy stint on the extra brittle medium tyres. However Bearman held agency and obtained his elbows out in site visitors to choose up a degree, which ended up turning into 4 by the point the Shanghai scrutineers had packed up.
“Everybody has a failure, however failure should not outline you. What defines you is the way you rise up from that failure, and I feel as an entire crew we confirmed that,” a buoyant crew boss Ayao Komatsu mused. The aerodynamic drawback Haas found in Australia remains to be there, even when it went comparatively unpunished in China, however the crew capitalised on the alternatives this weekend threw its method. You’ll be able to’t ask for greater than that.
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Loser: Racing Bulls
Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber, Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Crew, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Crew
Picture by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool
A repeat entrant on this class is Crimson Bull’s satellite tv for pc crew, which for the second consecutive weekend noticed a grand alternative to financial institution huge factors go begging by getting its technique mistaken. Each Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar caught to the anticipated two-stop technique, as an alternative of following the mainstream’s push in direction of a one-stopper. Tsunoda may but have scored factors if his vibrating entrance wing hadn’t alarmingly collapsed, however in the event you have a look at the place Haas has completed… that ought to have been you.
There are positives for the Anglo-Italian crew, although. There’s extra proof its automobile is quick throughout totally different layouts and observe situations, and Hadjar has rebounded admirably from his nightmare Australia exit with a vastly spectacular weekend, outqualifying Tsunoda in all three qualifying phases on Saturday.
George Russell, Mercedes
Picture by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Pictures
Amid all of the chatter about McLaren’s formidable velocity and Hamilton’s dash success for Ferrari, George Russell has seemingly quietly nestled himself proper in between Verstappen and Piastri within the drivers’ championship with a superb weekend. Russell had no enterprise splitting the McLarens in qualifying – courtesy of a Norris slip-up on the hairpin – and gave it go making an attempt to undercut his fellow Briton within the race.
Russell was powerless to withstand the faster McLaren however completed effectively away from Mercedes’ direct rivals to assert his second podium in as many races.
That consistency goes to go a great distance when the highest groups are so carefully matched, and so far he has had the measure of his inexperienced however quick team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, which he admitted he is not taking as a right.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Pictures
Carlos Sainz nearly escapes an entry once more after not getting up to the mark with the Williams as rapidly as he would have appreciated. Just a little bit extra complicated is Alpine, which regarded able to scrapping with Williams and Racing Bulls in Bahrain testing – if not barely forward on long-run tempo relying on who you ask.
However after the China weekend, Alpine is now the one crew to not rating factors but, having missed an opportunity to profit from Ferrari’s double DSQ by Pierre Gasly’s automobile being thrown out as effectively for lacking the load restrict. Jack Doohan is acquitting himself effectively, being very near Gasly on one-lap efficiency, however equally did not have the race tempo to flee the underside of the pack and copped a 10-second penalty for elbowing Hadjar out of the best way.
Alpine clearly has a a lot better beginning bundle than final 12 months’s chubby machine, however in the intervening time will probably be pissed off to only be on the mistaken facet of what’s an especially shut midfield.
On this article
Filip Cleeren
Formulation 1
Max Verstappen
George Russell
Oscar Piastri
Ferrari
Crimson Bull Racing
Racing Bulls
Haas F1 Crew
Alpine
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