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BEHIND THE HEADLINES – China – Lando’s win hunt continues in tight midfield

Behind The Headlines Features

Max Verstappen had another dominant weekend winning both the sprint and grand prix in China his fourth win of the season. The Red Bull driver took victory with perfection as he beat Lando Norris by thirteen seconds as he controlled the race though it was never really in doubt.

I don’t think I have much to say on Verstappen’s win, I’m kind of now expecting it, but I feel despite that it’s going to be a fight for second behind the Dutchman, that’s possible.

I think the weekend highlighted further growth by Norris, a driver who is perhaps overdue a maiden win in any format sprint or Grand Prix, qualifying in the wet again highlighted his strengths maybe that ability in the wet is something as we see with Lewis Hamilton, George Russell all the brits comes from living in a wetter country.

Norris made up for throwing away the sprint with that mistake when fighting Hamilton for the lead at the start. The seven-time champion made a better start, but succeeded only in sliding off the track and down to seventh place. But there’s something about the English, we produce great drivers, and beating Hamilton shows that once again.

Surely it is only a matter of time and getting the right situation before the Englishman loses this record of most podiums without a win, I wouldn’t rule out this season if Red Bull run into more difficulty or could they go through 2024 without another Melbourne, McLaren could take a victory.

Five races into the season, it’s defiantly clear in my opinion that Ferrari and McLaren have the edge over Mercedes this season. But who can take the fight to Red Bull, if anyone can, can anyone beat Verstappen? Norris I think proves that Verstappen continues to have the edge over Sergio Perez, could like Carlos Sainz pick up a win if he has another retirement.

Norris however has this tendency to be hard on himself, saying “I didn’t make a mistake in Turn One and go off. It’s a good start. And got past the Aston [Martin of Fernando Alonso] and then you can just control the race. And that was very different to yesterday.”

He added, “Whenever I finish behind Max, I feel like it’s a win. A great day, really a surprise, was not expecting a day like today. So very happy for myself and for the whole team, more importantly. Definitely exceeded our expectations but a lot of things went our way.”

Norris said in the week that McLaren’s performance in Shanghai provided “more evidence” that he can claim his maiden victory during 2024. His fifteenth podium extended his record as the F1 driver to have had the most top-three finishes without claiming a victory, having surpassed Nick Heidfeld’s thirteen when coming third in Australia last month.

Norris’ total also matches the highest number of podiums a driver has ever claimed before going on to win a race. Mika Hakkinen, Jean Alesi, Eddie Irvine and Patrick Depailler each appeared on the podium fifteen times before their first victory.

McLaren and Ferrari, while not fighting for wins given the dominance of Red Bull have the feeling of a battle which could continue all season. Both teams I believe have made a big step in these opening races, though Ferrari I think as things stand have the slight edge over McLaren and Mercedes. Sainz has been the star, going into last weekend I thought Ferrari had been on top of the performance in races.

McLaren announced last weekend they would also have upgrades for Miami, these appear to be what the team suggested was a ‘strong result’ for the season would be to establish McLaren as the third-fastest car. But this season could be behind Red Bull I think a much tighter arms race in both the chasing pack and the midfield, it will be interesting out of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes who wins this development war.

But following the race Leclerc was a bit bemused as to why they dropped so much pace which left him four and a half seconds behind Perez. The fact is both Ferrari and McLaren have seemly improved on tyre life and I believe that’s been key in their battle this year.

Leclerc didn’t understand Ferrari’s pace drop on the hards, having switched his mediums for this compound after 21 laps, which left him unable to challenge the rostrum finishers. Maybe it was an outlier given the progress we have seen in the opening races.

However, analysis from Pirelli suggests that without a late safety car, anyone trying this would have struggled late with no neutralisation. But running third after the two restarts, Leclerc would’ve expected to attack Norris given he was showing better degradation on the mediums in their long opening stint.

He struggled in that final stint to get his hard tyres into the right temperature which resulted in him dropping back, thus in the final stint Norris was able to catch and take both Leclerc and Sainz to take second. But what good Ferrari could show on this on the mediums was also compromised by its drivers squabbling at the start and dropping behind George Russell. Nico Hulkenberg also briefly nipped ahead on the first lap before the red pair hit back fast.

Meanwhile, according to McLaren Formula E driver Sam Bird in commentary for BBC Sport and F1 Radio, Norris had been employing clever driving to maximise his tyre life.

At the end of the long, long Turn One into Turn Two combination, Norris was slowing the car at the apex of Turn Two, and taking a much shallower, straighter exit, in contrast to the sweeping, wider normal line. This might be slower through the middle of the corner, but it saves a lot of tyre energy.

Over 50-odd laps, this sort of clever driving pays dividends, as Norris’ pace in the late part of the race demonstrated. This is what you need as part of the skills you need to be an expectational driver, he is getting there, I’m sure say in twenty years when we look back at it will either be an expectational career of a multiple world champion or an career defined by near misses.

McLaren went into the weekend downplaying expectations, on paper the high speed and technical circuit which hasn’t suited them in the last two years in what I describe as ‘damage limitation’, as they weren’t thinking they would be strong.

I feel the consensus that Norris, despite not having a win in any format, is part of the top five drivers which includes Verstappen, Hamilton, Alonso and Leclerc. though the team has announced significant upgrades for Miami could they be feeling that when we get to Imola in three weeks we could start to see a fight?

But for that to happen we would need to see a significant step and/or a bit of bad luck for Red Bull, which they admit. McLaren over the last year, apart from Red Bull, have made a big step forward but the dominance last year but Red Bull has allowed them to stop developing last years car early, thus them becoming more dominant with this years car.

Hamilton from the high of being second in the sprint to the lows of being knocked out in Q1 on Saturday. I think that could possibly highlight where Mercedes are as they failed to finish in the top five in Shanghai for the first time. While they have been in a better position this year, I think they are possibly losing out given the tight top three behind Red Bull.

Russell said his sixth place was about as good as could be expected after struggling to keep up with both Ferraris. He said “This weekend, we know where we’re falling out. The last three races we were kind of in the battle with Fernando and Piastri as well. P6 is where we are right now.”

So, what next in terms of twists in this 2024 season… we will have to I think wait until the flyways are completed after Imola to understand the state of F1….