Winner – Kimi Antonelli (and his boss)
Cut up screening the printed to chop to vital others is considerably of a pet peeve, however we’ll make a cheerful exception for Kimi Antonelli’s dad Marco, who has devoted a big a part of his life to his son’s profession.
Marco Antonelli should have died a thousand deaths throughout the closing laps, and fortunately made it by way of his son’s late off on the hairpin in a single piece. The reward for his poise was an emotional embrace with a grand prix winner.
On the second weekend of Mercedes supplying him with a championship calibre automotive, Kimi Antonelli has made it occur, vindicating the religion Toto Wolff confirmed in him by selling him to a race seat a minimum of one yr forward of schedule as he rode out an up and down debut season. Wolff was eager to rub that in afterwards, and honest sufficient.
Antonelli’s teenage tears had been a sight for sore eyes, along with his predecessor Lewis Hamilton becoming a member of him on the rostrum to go over the proverbial baton.
Kimi Antonelli repaid Toto Wolff’s religion as Mercedes’ long-term inheritor to Lewis Hamilton.
Picture by: Dom Gibbons / Method 1 by way of Getty Pictures
Loser – McLaren suffers catastrophic begin to title defence
McLaren has now managed to get only one automotive to the beginning of 2026’s first two grands prix, which is just catastrophic. Throughout its three points – first Oscar Piastri’s recon lap off in Melbourne and now two separate electrical points within the energy unit each for Piastri and Lando Norris – the one fixed is it grappling with its provide of Mercedes energy items.
Towards the backdrop of buyer groups struggling to get the identical vitality deployment because the works outfit, that may be a little bit of an issue, and an inquest at Mercedes HPP in Brixworth will now should reveal whether or not there is a matter with its engines or with the way in which the staff has operated them.
In any case, the double DNS is a big setback for McLaren simply because it seemed to have discovered extra efficiency from the deployment aspect in Shanghai, on a circuit that’s much less dramatic for vitality harvesting.
McLaren confirmed indicators of enchancment, solely to be nixed by reliability points.
Picture by: Dom Gibbons / Method 1 by way of Getty Pictures
Winner – Oliver Bearman and Haas make rocket begin
From an honourable point out final week, Ollie Bearman now has to get full credit for an additional excellently managed grand prix, popping out on prime of a fraught midfield battle with team-mate Esteban Ocon, the 2 Haas automobiles and a rotating solid of drivers from the Purple Bull steady.
Bearman was fortunate to keep away from what he known as a “monster” shunt as Isack Hadjar carried out a pirouette in entrance of him, earlier than clearing site visitors and pumping in 40 fast laps to take a properly deserved fifth.
Meaning Haas is now fourth within the standings, one level behind McLaren and 5 factors forward of Purple Bull – a golden begin to F1 2026’s intense midfield battle.
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Loser – Purple Bull wants large upgrades
Purple Bull had fairly a number of terrible weekends lately – final yr’s Hungarian Grand Prix involves thoughts. However a Purple Bull automotive has hardly ever seemed this overtly hostile to its occupant, as Max Verstappen was desperately hustling the automotive to eighth in qualifying, simply forward of Hadjar.
It was all for nothing, as one more horrible begin dropped Verstappen to the rear, after which he was embarking on a powerful restoration drive given the circumstances, and regardless of the poor tyre administration of the RB22. A cooling drawback on the vitality restoration system then curtailed his afternoon.
When Hadjar, who escaped being torpedoed by Bearman after the aforementioned spin, was requested what the impact of April’s cancelled races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia can be, his reply was: “Much less factors misplaced to everybody else.”
Of all 4 prime groups, Purple Bull is most desperately in want of a giant improve bundle, and ideally as quickly as Miami.
Lewis Hamilton is lastly attending to get pleasure from his Ferrari transfer.
Picture by: Dom Gibbons / Method 1 by way of Getty Pictures
Winner – Lewis Hamilton seems to be rejuvenated
Immediately is Mom’s Day within the UK, and what higher event for Hamilton to lastly snag an extended overdue grand prix podium with Ferrari along with his mum in attendance. Hamilton is firing on all cylinders, and that is seen in every little thing he does, from the way in which he interacts with the staff, the media and the way in which he attacked Antonelli initially after which raced team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton is respiratory a sigh of aid that this new era of automobiles is suiting him so a lot better, and you would need to be fairly ill-willed to not be happy for a seven-time world champion to search out his mojo once more. There’s life within the outdated canine but, to cite his former race engineer Pete Bonnington, and that may solely be an excellent factor each for Ferrari and for F1.
Loser – Aston Martin exhibits little signal of enchancment
When Cadillac joined F1, its preliminary objective was to be respectable even when it meant racing by itself throughout its debut marketing campaign. With the best respect, F1’s eleventh outfit most likely wasn’t anticipating to be racing F1’s would-be superteam Aston Martin from the get-go, which is an indictment of how deep Aston’s woes are working.
One week was by no means going to alter the world for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll after a troublesome Melbourne weekend, however there have been only a few indicators of progress in China as Stroll retired early and Alonso needed to cease driving earlier than being shaken aside by the engine’s crippling vibrations.
Aston Martin and Honda might be scrambling to get extra strong fixes in place to keep away from a nationwide embarrassment on the latter’s residence soil in Japan, in two weeks from now. And as a lot as its Saudi title associate Aramco is perhaps reeling, maybe the cancellation of the Bahrain and Jeddah rounds is for the most effective so the staff has extra time to dig into its issues. Let’s get actual, current occasions present there are far more essential issues in life than a vibrating energy unit.
It was an all-action show for Franco Colapinto as he grabbed his first level for Alpine.
Picture by: James Sutton / Method 1 / Method Motorsport Ltd by way of Getty Pictures
Winner – Alpine exhibits its potential
By all accounts Alpine did a poor job in Melbourne getting probably the most out of its Mercedes energy items, however there have been mitigating circumstances at race one in all these difficult rules because it wasn’t the one buyer staff in that scenario. On a more easy circuit for vitality administration, the Enstone squad was capable of present its true potential much more, and with it reveal why the choice to put in writing off 2025 was not made in useless.
Pierre Gasly needed to yield to Bearman for fifth, however was in any other case unchallenged for sixth after an intense opening battle. In the meantime team-mate Franco Colapinto delivered his first level for Alpine regardless of being compromised by beginning on hards, which left him susceptible after the early security automotive. However the Argentine delivered his finest efficiency in blue and pink with some strong defensive driving to gather his first level in additional than a yr.
Loser – Williams is behind on all fronts
A medium-to-hard cease proper earlier than the early security automotive gave Carlos Sainz an avenue to beat the likes of Colapinto, Nico Hulkenberg and Arvid Lindblad to ninth, however aside from that this China weekend provided little to put in writing residence about for Williams.
Alex Albon did not even make the beginning of the race with a hydraulics subject after the staff’s highest qualifier throughout each qualifying periods was seventeenth. Sure, the FW48 is obese, however it is usually missing aerodynamic load and is proving powerful to steadiness and arrange accurately. If Aston Martin hadn’t been so catastrophic, Williams would have been the clear disappointment of the season at this stage and it must pull out all of the stops to develop mid-season, one thing which it hasn’t accomplished for some time (by selection).
Alex Albon felt Williams was slower than Cadillac in sure corners, and was combating the Aston Martins in Saturday’s dash race.
Picture by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Pictures
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