Formula One Vault

This Grand Prix – Chinese

Hello, the Chinese Grand Prix was again dominated by Max Verstappen who took his fifth win of the season, but while the battle behind is tight one question remains can Verstappen continue his march toward his fourth title. While behind it looks as if Ferrari and McLaren are edging into a battle behind both giving evidence they are ahead of Mercedes.

General News

F1 says it is “on track” to achieve net zero carbon by 2030, after announcing a thirteen per cent reduction from 2018 to 2022. The sport set the target in 2018, following science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), of a minimum 50 per cent emissions reduction.

Despite an increase from 21 to 23 races when comparing the 2018 and 2022 seasons, F1 has worked with its teams, race promoters, logistic service providers and key suppliers to move towards its 2030 target.

The first-ever impact report said its 2018 carbon footprint of 256,551 tCO2e was down 13 per cent to 223,031 tCO2e in 2022, leaving 37 per cent of reductions to be made by 2030 for the net zero goal to be met.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said: “Sustainability is one of the most important factors to us, not only as a sport, but as a business. It is no longer enough for us to simply deliver great action and wheel-to-wheel racing on the track, we need to ensure that we are doing so in a sustainable way so our sport can thrive long into the future.”

F1 said it had moved all of its offices to renewable electricity, implemented travel policies to reduce the number of staff travelling to events, and reduced the amount of freight sent around the world through increased use of remote operations.

The report also announced that Formula One Management’s gender pay gap has fallen by more than 30 per cent since 2018 to 20.7 per cent.

F1 head of environment, social and governance, Ellen Jones, said: “Sport can ignite passion and shine a light on the world around us. At Formula 1, we take this privilege seriously and are committed to continually improving our operations whilst also showcasing technologies of the future.

 Weekend Recap

In FP Lance Stroll was fastest with a 36.302 which put him three-tenths faster than Oscar Piastri with Max Verstappen third. The Canadian took advantage of improving conditions at the end of the session to go fastest. Verstappen had led most of the session on both mediums and soft tyres but was beaten in the closing moments of the session by Stroll and Piastri.

Sprint qualifying saw Lando Norris take back-to-back poles in that format as he went over half a second faster than five-time Shanghai winner Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton put his Mercedes seven-tenths faster than Fernando Alonso, as Max Verstappen looked to struggle in the wet conditions.

Verstappen won the sprint race beating Lewis Hamilton to win by thirteen seconds. The Dutchman made a brilliant start from fourth to take the lead midway through the sprint. Norris after the pole sitter slid off into the opening sequence of corners. The Mercedes driver drew level into the first corner before hanging on to take the lead on the inside of Turn Three

GP Qualifying saw he beat his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez by three-tenths to take pole. Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin third as he improved on his final attempt to go over a tenth and a half behind Perez. The Spaniard beating sprint pole sitter Norris, by nearly two hundredths.

Verstappen was again unstoppable in the GP as he beat Norris to victory by thirteen seconds. While Norris fended off Perez in a tight race-long battle after he passed Charles Leclerc. Perez had looked to be on course for second but two safety cars changed the race, which opened the door for Leclerc to be passed by both Perez and Norris.

Red Bull

Going into the weekend Max Verstappen though was “not the smartest thing” to hold a sprint event at this weekend, which returned after a five-year absence. There were several unknowns given the five-year absence caused by covid and the regulation change in 2022, effectively this was a new circuit given the time lag.

On top of that, the circuit has since been resurfaced, meaning very little existing data is valid at the 5.4km track outside Shanghai and the weekend is harder to prepare. Also there is only one hour of practice before sprint qualifying, Verstappen when asked about the decision to hold a sprint at Shanghai on its first year back, sarcastically: “Yeah, it’s very smart to do that.

“I think it’s not great to do that because when you have been away from a track for quite a while, I think you never know what you’re going to experience, so it would have been better to have a normal race weekend there.”

“On the other hand, it probably spices things up a bit more, and that’s maybe what they would like to see. But purely from a driving and performance perspective of the sport, I think it’s not the smartest thing to do.”

I think it was a bit of a silly decision given it’s been five years and it’s a different formula to than given we had in 2019 but it’s a good race circuit that offers a good possibility to overtake, so a sprint makes sense to have it there.

Verstappen conceded he was happier to qualify on pole for the Grand Prix than with winning Saturday morning’s sprint race. In the sprint, he took a thirteen-second win ahead of Hamilton, before he took a dominant pole for the Grand Prix by just over three tenths.

A long-time opponent of the sprint format, Verstappen said he was more pleased with his pole position than with his sprint win, although he did concede its rejigged format with two separate parc ferme periods is a big improvement.

Verstappen said, “It’s a more logical and nicer format. “I was still happier with pole than with the sprint race, of course. I did think it’s nicer than what we had, just that you also able to make some changes to the car after the sprint.”

The Dutchman and his race engineer opted to change the Red Bull RB20’s set-up ahead of qualifying and Sunday’s race despite his dominant sprint win. Added, “After the sprint race, it gave us a few more ideas for the car and I think the car worked even better in qualifying now.”

Verstappen’s pole was Red Bull’s hundredth pole which he has taken thirty-seven of.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has responded to Toto Wolff’s latest comments about Max Verstappen’s future by telling his Mercedes counterpart to stop “focusing on drivers that are unavailable”.

While Verstappen is contracted until 2028 the fallout from the investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour against Horner by a female colleague, has exposed rifts within Red Bull. Horner, who has always denied the claims, was dismissed. The woman who brought the complaint has appealed the outcome.

Wolff said this weekend “everyone is waiting on what he (Verstappen) is going to do.”

Following the race Wolff suggested having F1’s fastest car – which Verstappen currently possesses at Red Bull in a period where he has won 21 of the last 23 races – would not be the only consideration for the Dutchman and his representatives when thinking about where he drives in future.

Saying “There are so many factors that play a role for a driver joining and clearly when you look at it from the most rational point of view, you could say that’s the quickest car in the hands of the quickest driver.”

Wolff suggested it was not only cars there could be other factors at play, while the story hasn’t gone away despite weeks of dismissal by Red Bull, Verstappen has not said firmly he would stay rather ‘pretty crazy things’ could see him leave Red Bull. There is also a rift between Verstappen’s father Jos who accused Horner of “tearing the team apart.”

Horner then insisted: “I can assure you that there’s no ambiguity as to where Max Verstappen will be next year.”

When quizzed about his future at last month’s Australian GP, Verstappen said: “I don’t think about any other thing because it’s pretty fixed where I’m at, and that’s also where I want to be.”

Mercedes

CEO and team principal Wolff says the team’s competitive difficulties have left him in two minds about the best driver route for 2025. Lewis Hamilton’s decision to join Ferrari next season left the team looking for a new teammate to partner George Russell.

But it needs to first to decide, whether to hunt the most experienced driver it can to help it push to the front, or throwing everything behind its rising junior star Andrea Kimi Antonelli to get him up to speed. But both Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel have also convince them they are better options

When asked about the driver decision, Wolff said “I think you can look at it from various perspectives I believe that we are in a rebuild phase. You need to acknowledge that now three years into these regulations, we have got to do things differently than we’ve done in the past without throwing overboard what we believe is goodness in the way we operate.”

“It could mean putting a young driver in there and giving him an opportunity with less pressure than fighting for victories immediately, or putting a more experienced driver in the car that can help us dig ourselves out of the current performance picture.”

Antonelli already part of its junior stable, Mercedes does not need to rush its decision on what to do with the Italian – so it can sit and wait and see how the future of other options, like Verstappen, plays out. He also completed his first F1 test with the team in Austria on Wednesday.

In a video posted on social media after two days in Austria in which he completed 500km, Antonelli said: “It has been an incredible experience. I loved every second of it.”

“First day didn’t go as planned – we got some snow unfortunately, so we couldn’t really drive – but the second day was dry and got quite a lot of laps [completed], and it was really good fun. Want to thank all the team for all their hard work. Excited for what’s coming.”

Lewis Hamilton was a surprise second in sprint qualifying thanks to the wet weather which had seen him briefly on pole before Lando Norris had a lap reinstated that had initially been deleted for a track limits infringement. Hamilton only missed out on his first pole of the year by roughly a quarter of a second.

He said “It was very tricky. Not a lot of grip for everyone, but I’m so happy. As soon as I saw the rain coming I got excited because in the dry we were not quick enough. So when the rain came I thought we would have a better opportunity and that’s when it came alive.”

Hamilton, who has never won a Sprint since the format was introduced in 2021. Mercedes ran the hard tyre during practice to gather as much data as possible, but the tyre allowance means they may not use the hard compound for Saturday’s 19-lap Sprint and instead opt for mediums.

Meanwhile, Russell was knocked out by almost four hundredths in SQ2 as Guanyu Zhou made it through to SQ3 at his home race. He had a very scrappy first lap, the one which would decide SQ2 as the rain moved in during the middle part of the session.

He said “It wasn’t easy at all. It was basically one lap in SQ2. We tried going as early as we could but 12 cars were ahead of us in the pit lane, so we lost tyre temperature. It was close. One more tenth and you are four or five positions higher, just a shame to be on the bottom end of that.”

Despite qualifying second for the sprint Hamilton was knocked out in Q1 only managing eighteenth, because of ‘his own mistake.’ The seven-time champion said it was the lock-up at Turn Fourteen rather than set up changes which cost him.

Hamilton says he “never had so much understeer in my life”, as he fought from eighteenth to finish ninth in the Grand Prix. But he had initially failed to make much progress on his soft tyres, rising to fifteenth before moving on to the medium compound.

He said his car had so much understeer during the first half of the race that he thought something was broken. Hamilton explained, “I thought maybe at the beginning I tapped someone because I have never had so much understeer in my life, so I was turning in at slow speed and waiting, waiting, waiting.”

“So, I thought I had damaged something like some of the others because there was debris going everywhere at one point but it was just the set-up that I chose.” Hamilton never looked comfortable this weekend and didn’t get the set-up right but he wanted to keep fighting, with the aim of fighting in Miami.

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 [Oscar] Piastri as well. P6 is where we are right now.”

“It was an interesting weekend managing to have two different set-ups on the car between Friday and Sunday. So, some info to go through but ultimately we just need to dig into the data and just keep on adding performance to the car.”

Ferrari

Hamilton said his decision to join Ferrari doesn’t need “vindicating” as he criticised “talk” around his move from Mercedes next season.

He told the press conference on Thursday, “I don’t feel like I need my decision vindicating. I know what was right for me, and that hasn’t changed since the moment that I made the decision. There’s not been a moment where I questioned it, and I’m not swayed by other people’s comments.”

Carlos Sainz says he would need to “survive with what we have” in the sprint race after not feeling comfortable with his Ferrari. Sainz qualified fifth for the sprint and teammate Charles Leclerc seventh after they both struggled to get heat into the tyres and went off in SQ3.

Sainz explained “With the intermediate tyres we waited a long time at the pitlane exit, they got cold, and then Charles and I struggled a lot on that out-lap to warm up the tyres. I’m lucky I didn’t suffer the same [spin].”

“We couldn’t do a good SQ3, but I think I saved the day with fifth. This is a very difficult track to get to and almost go straight into qualifying.” He also suggested it wasn’t only about the conditions in SQ3 but Sainz looked to have struggled all day to find the set up.

It has dampened his expectations for Saturday morning’s sprint, which is expected to be dry, but on the positive side the new parc ferme rules allow teams to work on their cars again ahead of grand prix qualifying later on.

Team principal Fred Vasseur hopes the team’s tyre gambit in free practice will pay off in the sprint race. he explained to Sky Sports Italy, “We were the only ones who left one more set of medium and hard tyres this morning. We have the advantage of still having a set of new medium tyres for tomorrow, while our rivals will have to use a set of used mediums. This means that we will have a wider choice in terms of tyres for tomorrow.”

Following the clash between Leclerc and Sainz in the sprint they both said they had cleared the air. Following the sprint, the Monacan said their clash in the sprint Sainz was “over the limit” with his defensive driving, but after grand prix qualifying later on Saturday in Shanghai, Leclerc stated he had spoken to his fellow Ferrari driver to clear the air.

Leclerc said “Yes, it is all done and it is all good. No problems. I am not going to disclose all the details of our discussions because it is always private discussions and it should remain private but the discussions went well and we are all fine.”

However, in his own media briefing, Sainz appeared to contradict Leclerc while blaming the new sprint race weekend schedule for preventing them from having an in-depth discussion. He said, “The reality is that we didn’t manage to talk, because obviously with this format it’s not like you get time to talk with each other much. We will probably do so tonight.”

I think both are keen to move on and focus on the Grand Prix, the incident I believe they will move on as it looked to be a racing incident and a communication issues between the team.

Leclerc was left bemused by Ferrari’s poor pace on the hard tyres in the Grand Prix as he failed to join the podium fight. The Monacan lost out at the start and later made his way back to fourth but then despite having appeared to make progress on race pace in the opening races couldn’t make progress finishing four and a half seconds behind Perez.

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.

Leclerc said, “I don’t think we found it [the pace] as a team, especially on the hard tyres, which is a bit strange because the strength of this car since the beginning of the year is it’s very solid in all conditions with all tyres. Today is a bit an outlier because as soon as we put on the hards, we were half a second off. So that is very strange. We will look into it and try to understand what went wrong on that run.”

I think that Ferrari were doing OK but the mid-race safety car reset the strategies and this weekend they just haven’t got it together but you can’t always get it right.

McLaren

Team principal Andrea Stella hopes his team can repeat last year’s scenario by out-developing its rivals in a “race of upgrades”. During last season the team made a huge leap from struggling in the first half of the year then from Silverstone onwards took nine podiums and a sprint win on its way to fourth in the constructors.

This season it looks as if it has consolidated its place in the chasing group behind the dominant Red Bull team. Its form suggests it is third behind Ferrari, who have themselves made big steps with its biggest weakness in race performance, and ahead of Mercedes who look to have stagnated

When asked if the developments that are in the pipeline will be enough to catch Ferrari, Stella replied: “It becomes a race of upgrades and one step of upgrades won’t be enough, because [Ferrari] will also upgrade. But last year we were able to out develop our competitors, in a season we brought more lap time than competitors. So for us, this remains the objective.”

“As long as we see that what we plan to bring trackside actually materialises, then we are happy because we know that we are in our trajectory, which we think is a strong trajectory.”

He suggested that a ‘strong result’ would be holding third this season 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.

Ahead of the weekend, Lando Norris shared that optimism saying if the team gets the right upgrades and the right circumstances they could win races. He said, “Everything went pretty much as expected. I don’t think we did a perfect job and we probably should’ve finished one place higher up, potentially. But I don’t think it was far off. We’ve been the same place all season – behind Red Bull, behind Ferrari and we’ve been a bit of a step ahead of the other two teams come the race.”

Lando Norris took sprint pole on Friday by a second with a brilliant final attempt in mixed conditions beating both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso with his late improvement.

Reflecting on the achievement post-session, Norris said: “I’m extremely happy, first of all. A big thanks to the whole team. It was tricky, you’re always nervous going into a session like this, especially for quali when you almost know it’s going to rain.”

I think that was a good lap given we had tricky conditions and a new track surface which was always going to add the difficulties and we saw Norris abort his first two runs in SQ3 which would have added pressure. But as we saw in Sochi in 2021 he kept it together and took pole in similar conditions

Norris went onto to qualify for the race in third around a tenth and a half behind Perez, but believed going into the Grand Prix he was going to be able to hold off boot Ferrari’s. In the sprint he slipped from pole to sixth after losing places after going wide.

Norris qualified fourth on the grid for the Grand Prix, behind the two Red Bulls and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, and ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri and the two Ferraris. But when he was asked if a podium finish was possible in the race, Norris laughed the prospect off.

he said, “Yeah, no chance. The Red Bulls will probably lap everyone multiple times! Ferrari, I think, will not be as quick as them but they’ll be close enough. I think they’re out of our league. As soon as they had clean air this morning it was quite easy for him to pull away.”

“So not expecting anything surprising. We said before the weekend we’d struggle, I think we’ve done a better job than we thought in low fuel, but definitely in high fuel everything that we expect, happens, and I think that’s why we struggle so much.”

Norris thought going into the grand prix that McLaren’s battle was with Aston Martin and Mercedes.

Well Norris’s prediction of his race being with Mercedes and Aston was wrong as he finished the race a “surprising” second, thirteen second behind Verstappen and six ahead of Perez. I think based on the pace on Saturday second wouldn’t have been possible without the two safety cars allowing him to have the edge over both Ferrari’s.

Norris also comfortably saw off the challenge of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who finished fourth and fifth respectively, as the Italian team missed out on a podium for the first time this season.

He told Sky Sports, “I was surprised by many things. The lack of pace from Ferrari, our good pace, and I guess us comparing to the Red Bull which was so surprising. I just wasn’t expecting today. I got everything ready to go home early and not be on the podium, so it’s a pleasant surprise. But it shows the team have done a good job, have worked hard and it’s paying off.”

The conditions were warmer in the race and Norris could have control of that battle with pace and tyres which he couldn’t do in the sprint and I think that was key in him finishing second after a bad sprint race.

Andrea Stella has confirmed McLaren’s first round of upgrades of the season is set to arrive at the next round in Miami. That would be on target with the teams planned upgrades for this season and these upgrades are suggested to allow the team to pull away from its main rivals Ferrari and Mercedes.

But with the team realistic about needing perhaps another year of rolling development to really fight at the very front, Miami’s upgrade package is the first of several steps in that direction.

Not only adding pure performance, the update is also designed to improve how the car takes care of the tyres, with rear degradation a key differentiator at this weekend’s Shanghai event.

Stella explained “These upgrades will also include some attempts to improve tyre degradation, so we will try and see if we can take a step forward. Considering the amount of improvement we should do to get closer to some of our competitors, I would say that we need more than one round of upgrades in terms of helping the behaviour of the tyres.”

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso thinks no team on the grid has as much “ambition” as Aston Martin, amid speculation that its owner Lawrence Stroll is trying to lure Adrian Newey. Over the past five years, the team has been transformed since Stroll brought the Silverstone team in 2018 which became Aston Martin in 2021

Huge investment has started to come through with the team setting its sights on fighting for titles. Its recently been reported that Stroll is trying to take advantage of the infighting at Red Bull to temp Newey to head up the technical department.

Alonso, who joined the team last year, was not referencing the Newey rumours specifically, he has made it clear that Aston Martin is a team that is going places with a desire that no rivals can match.

he said, “There is no other team in the paddock with the ambition and the plans for the future that Aston has. But at the same time, you need to achieve those goals and you need to deliver those results. This team was very new two years ago.”

“It doubled more or less the amount of people that worked in the factory. They were in an old Jordan building, now they are in a super modern factory. Last year we had a very fast car, and we had to learn a lot of lessons off track of how to develop the car to match the top teams. This year, we are matching that kind of development. So, I think they’re all very good signs.”

Alonso, I think is happy at Aston and still has that hunger to win titles again, that would be a story if in 2026 he fights for a championship. He is the driver Aston needs to build a team, you could also wonder if the team can do that and as an older driver he still has the same reactions and edge as he ages. But he doesn’t appear to be losing his speed and reaction times, I think he will go on for as long as he feels he can fight at the front still.

Alpine

Following sprint qualifying, Esteban Ocon said the team would take advantage of the new parc ferme regulations to change set up between the sprint and GP qualifying because the “performance left on the side” on Friday.

The Frenchman was granted Alpine’s new floor upgrade initially pencilled in for Miami, as one undertray construction was fast-tracked in time for Shanghai. This new floor features changes to the diffuser, heavily revised front fences, and a new floor edge wing that features a slot towards the rear.

Although these changes should yield an uptick in performance, Ocon stated that the overall set-up of his car missed the mark to get into SQ2. He suggested that a plethora of changes needed to be made once parc ferme opens again ahead of qualifying proper.

He said on Friday evening “I feel like we didn’t maximise the potential of the car today, unfortunately, that’s probably the first time this year that this is the case. I think there was probably more in it today. And, with only one [practice] session, unfortunately we didn’t put everything together.”

“Some performance left on the side, so it’s a good thing that parc ferme opens again so we can change for next qualifying. We’ll try and race tomorrow like this early in the morning, and then after that, try with a different set-up in the car and see what we get.”

I think Alpine had to bring these upgrades now as Miami is also a sprint weekend and then at Imola, everyone will bring upgrades, its not ideal as they couldn’t optimise them overnight for Saturday. They need to try something different.

His teammate Pierre Gasly will have to wait until Miami before he gets his hands on the new floor, but he was much more sanguine about his chances without the upgrades.

Gasly’s practice was derailed by an ERS issue that forced a change to his power unit components but was nonetheless happy with the balance he had and felt he had made the most of it during his run to sixteenth on the sprint grid.

He said, “We had a problem with the ERS this morning, so basically only managed to get only like three laps out of the session. And on a sprint weekend, we know how important it was to get it right from the start. But then the guys managed to solve the issue for this afternoon, change the engine and managed to get the car out for qualifying.”

Alpine have been fined €10,000 for an unsafe release after Gasly was release from his pit stop with the rear-right wheel not being properly attached. The wheel dislodged as the Alpine hit the ground, knocking over a mechanic, though Gasly did not leave his pitbox before the wheel was appropriately secured.

RB

Daniel Ricciardo says Lance Stroll’s refusal to take blame for their collision at the restart was “making my blood boil”. The two collided during the concertina effect caused by Stroll’s teammate Fernando Alonso at the restart on lap twenty-seven after the Spaniard locked up, that lifting the Australian’s car up and causing damage that would end up terminal for both cars.

Stroll initially blamed the driver who caused the concertina for jumping on the brakes, which unbeknownst to him turned out to be Alonso. The FIA race stewards had a different opinion and handed the Canadian a 10-second time penalty. He also received two penalty points, bringing his total up to seven for the past 12 months.

Ricciardo was furious by Stroll’s lack of responsibility for the incident after watching the replays, which he said showed Stroll not paying attention to him. He said “Maybe in an hour, when he sees it, he might take some accountability. But if he doesn’t, I can’t help him, nor can anyone here.”

“It’s so frustrating. Obviously, racing incidents happen, but behind a safety car, that should never happen. What made my blood boil is I watched his onboard, to just see it from his perspective. And as soon as we start braking, you can see his helmet turn right and he’s looking at the apex of Turn 14, he’s not even watching me.”

“And then when he looks back, he’s in the back of me. I don’t know what he’s doing, where his head is, but all he has to do is worry about me in that situation, and he clearly wasn’t.”

But Stroll clarified afterwards that his “idiot” comments were not aimed at Ricciardo specifically. Stroll said, “I don’t think it was him. Everyone just slammed on the brakes and he was the guy in front of me. So I don’t think he slammed on the brakes, It was a concertina effect.”

Ricciardo was given a three-place grid penalty for Miami for a separate safety car infringement for overtaking Nico Hulkenberg under the second safety car.

Hulkenberg had made his way past Ricciardo under safety car conditions at the restart because the Australian had been shunted wide by Aston Martin driver Stroll, allowing the German to continue unpenalised.

Believing he was allowed to retake the position he had lost under neutralised positions, Ricciardo retook his position under the subsequent safety car – deployed to clear up the resultant debris – but a stewards report into the incident revealed he was not permitted to do so.

The report read: “The driver of Car 3 (Ricciardo) admitted that he overtook Car 27 (Hulkenberg) deliberately but he explained that he felt that he could do so because Car 27 (Hulkenberg) had overtaken him under safety car on Lap 28. We note that Car 27 (Hulkenberg) was permitted to overtake Car 3 (Ricciardo) on Lap 28 because of Article 55.8.

Sauber

Guanyu Zhou finished his first home Grand Prix in fourteenth, but throughout the weekend you could hear the chants of “Guanyu, Guanyu, Guanyu”. But he has failed to score a point in the season’s first four races but that did not dent the enthusiasm of the estimated 60,000 fans who turned out each day.

Reflecting on the weekend he said “It’s really difficult. You try to focus on your job, on what’s going on with your driving, but then having them all screaming and shouting and cheering for you; I’m just so grateful.”

“I have no words honestly, the crowd and how the fans reacted all weekend, they’ve just been so emotional. I’m honoured to be here and I’m happy to complete the grand prix, I drove my heart out today but unfortunately not enough for the points so we go again next time.”

I think that was the best result possible for Sauber this weekend they are in that third group with RB, Haas and Williams. We know Valtteri Bottas crashed out early on so they didn’t have any opportunity to do anything clever with strategy.

Facts and stats (F1.com)

• Verstappen took Red Bull’s 100th pole, at the same circuit where they scored their first pole. The Dutchman is the first driver in the 21st century to take the first five poles in a season, Mika Hakkinen the last to do so in 1999.
• Charles Leclerc grabbed P6 in qualifying, having only started on the even side of the track this year as he out-qualified his teammate by just 0.008s.
• Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 for the first time since Jeddah 2022, having qualified on the front row for the Sprint this weekend.
• Verstappen’s victory today was his 21st win in the last 23 Grands Prix (Carlos Sainz has won the other two). He has now won on 26 different circuits, only five behind Lewis Hamilton’s all-time record.
• Lando Norris taking P2 for McLaren, today was the first time this season that one constructor has not finished one-two in a Grand Prix. P2 was McLaren’s highest finish in Shanghai since Jenson Button finished second in 2012.
• George Russell their lead finisher in P6, Mercedes do not have a top-four finish in the opening five races for the first time since 2011. Mercedes had never finished outside of the top five in Shanghai before.

Race review

Max Verstappen, I think has firmly put the gault down to take a fourth title and Red Bull firmly on course even though we are only a quarter of the way through the season. This weekend was a tricky one for all the teams given the sprint format but I think it did work, but Verstappen had the edge all weekend with two wins, you need to ask what can be done to stop a white wash by Red Bull.

Behind the battle I think is going to be between Ferrari and McLaren, I think they have started to edge away from Mercedes and Lando Norris podium showed that. The fight for second with Perez was incredible and showed that they could fight, but the challenge I think for them its going to be a fight which will be going on all season, when we get upgrades at Imola how that plays out over the coming races.

Mercedes had a tough weekend I feel, bit up with Lewis Hamilton second in the sprint but then out in Q1 before only managing ninth. George Russell continues to outperform him as he was sixth in the race.

Results Summary

Championship Standings