[Other Sport] F1 2025

[Flounce]

OK, it's been long enough now. Not gonna bother with spoilers or hiding it.

McLaren shot themselves in the foot and *should* have locked out the front row:

Mark Hughes: Overconfident McLaren handed Hamilton pole

Lewis Hamilton's sensational China sprint pole was only possible because McLaren shot itself in the foot...

www.the-race.com

Hamilton joining Verstappen in getting in their heads already? Great as the car is, their in race tactics and strategy have been less than ideal since they burst back on the scene quite often.

 

[Audax]

Hamilton joining Verstappen in getting in their heads already? Great as the car is, their in race tactics and strategy have been less than ideal since they burst back on the scene quite often.

I'm expecting both McLaren's will be very strong in the Sprint race over a longer run. Watch for them in the second half of the race - I suspect the others will fade as the tyres wear, while the McLaren's will stay stronger longer. That nature of the China circuit will mean that cars that start to struggle with tyres earlier will be sitting ducks down the back straight as they begin to struggle to keep high speeds through the turns 11 / 12 / 13 complex.

 

[Flounce]

I'm expecting both McLaren's will be very strong in the Sprint race over a longer run. Watch for them in the second half of the race - I suspect the others will fade as the tyres wear, while the McLaren's will stay stronger longer. That nature of the China circuit will mean that cars that start to struggle with tyres earlier will be sitting ducks down the back straight as they begin to struggle to keep high speeds through the turns 11 / 12 / 13 complex.

In theory yes but having Max and Lewis in front of them it could be box office…I hope

 

[A1X]

Probably not a bad thing for McLaren to make mistakes to learn from in an early season Sprint Quali, probably the least penalising time to do so

Shame if Williams are punished as Albon in particular was outstanding at times

 

[Pavilionaire]

This season is really shaping up nicely, and with a sizeable number of rookie drivers there are going to be crashes and safety cars too. I've not felt this enthusiastic at the start of an F1 season for years.

 

[Flounce]

Spoiler

What a result for Lewis. Interesting to hear Le Clerc saying he probably needs to move to Lewis’ set up for the GP. I am convinced Russell benefited from the same last season.

This is shaping up to be a mega season, maybe the best for decades?

 

[Hugo Rune]

This is shaping up to be a mega season, maybe the best for decades?

I was massive F1 fan for many years. My first love was Mansell followed by Damon Hill and then Hamilton. But I stopped watching F1 after the race where Hamilton was cheated out of his 8th title; for me, it had turned into WWE.

I’ve been avoiding coverage ever since (also driven by the fact that I was consuming way too much sport in my life).

However, I could not avoid dipping into the Hamilton Ferrari story. But for the justifications to your statement that you have hidden under a spoiler, I think I’m going to have to get back into the action!

 

[Flounce]

I was massive F1 fan for many years. My first love was Mansell followed by Damon Hill and then Hamilton. But I stopped watching F1 after the race where Hamilton was cheated out of his 8th title; for me, it had turned into WWE.

I’ve been avoiding coverage ever since (also driven by the fact that I was consuming way too much sport in my life).

However, I could not avoid dipping into the Hamilton Ferrari story. But for the justifications to your statement that you have hidden under a spoiler, I think I’m going to have to get back into the action!

More good news, Max seems to be “playing nice” these days

 

[Hugo Rune]

More good news, Max seems to be “playing nice” these days

I hated him as much as I hate Palace! His winning ways put me off too!

 

[zefarelly]

More good news, Max seems to be “playing nice” these days

That won't last . . . . Having taken little notice in the last few years, I may watch again soon. .

 

[Flounce]

I am hoping that the Ferraris have set up for the race and tyre saving given that they seem to have lost pace since the Sprint qualifying. (Well Hamilton has). Le Clerc seems to be struggling a bit this weekend so far.

Anyway, looking forward to it.

 

[Flounce]

I hated him as much as I hate Palace! His winning ways put me off too!

Oh me too, but he does seem to have mellowed recently and dickhead driving SEEMS to have been reined in. We will see when it boils down to wheel to wheel racing, which it will this year.

 

[A1X]

For those who are watching later, some news after the race today

Spoiler: Post-race news spoiler

Chinese Grand Prix: Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, plus Alpine's Pierre Gasly, disqualified

Lewis Hamilton is disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix for a technical infringement on his Ferrari.

www.bbc.co.uk

Hamilton, Leclerc and Gasly all disqualified for underfloor blocks wearing thin, this means both Williams now in the points together with both Haas cars (Ocon now FIFTH) and Verstappen 4th after all

 

[Flounce]

Chinese GP weekend (including sprint race) gets underway tonight, with FP1 and sprint qually. Brutal turn around for the rookies who failed to finish in Melbourne.

Interesting bit of talk floating around about Ferrari and why their pace from Friday appeared to disappear on the Saturday and Sunday at Melbourne. Talk is that they've designed a car that's optimised to work best with a low ride height, but for Melbourne the optimum set up was too low and they ran the risk of having too much wear on the plank. As a result, the ride height was increased for Saturday onwards and they lost performance as a result.

The China circuit has been resurfaced. Ferrari's competitiveness may well depend on whether or not that resurfacing allows them to run the car low enough without worrying about plank wear.

Good info @Audax, seems Ferrari have f***ed up with the ride height on Hamilton’s car and possibly Le Clerc’s too!

 

[Flounce]

For those who are watching later, some news after the race today

Spoiler: Post-race news spoiler

Chinese Grand Prix: Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, plus Alpine's Pierre Gasly, disqualified

Lewis Hamilton is disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix for a technical infringement on his Ferrari.

www.bbc.co.uk

Hamilton, Leclerc and Gasly all disqualified for underfloor blocks wearing thin, this means both Williams now in the points together with both Haas cars (Ocon now FIFTH) and Verstappen 4th after all

Spoiler

The race was a dull procession after the first lap unless you were following the teams at the bottom of the grid, very disappointing watch for me !

 

[JJ McClure]

Spoiler

The race was a dull procession after the first lap unless you were following the teams at the bottom of the grid, very disappointing watch for me !

Yeah more about managing tyres than actually racing...other than Bearman

 

[Iggle Piggle]

My wife has just aaked if Oscar Piastri "is the guy who shot his girlfriend in South Africa"

 

[Triggaaar]

My wife has just aaked if Oscar Piastri "is the guy who shot his girlfriend in South Africa"

I hope you said yes

 

[Audax]

Chinese Grand Prix: Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, plus Alpine's Pierre Gasly, disqualified

Lewis Hamilton is disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix for a technical infringement on his Ferrari.

www.bbc.co.uk

Think we're far enough on now to drop the spoilers. I'm guessing the BBC article has either been updated, or misread slightly because it's a little ambiguous up-front.

Hamilton: DSQ for excessive wear on the plank.
Leclerc: DSQ for the car being underweight. Ferrari have blamed tyre wear, but The Race think that's bogus.
Gasly: DSQ for the car being underweight.

For both Leclerc and Gasly, their cars were 799kg once fuel removed. The minimum is 800kg.

China IMO confirms what we expected:

1) McLaren have the best car. But it will be vulnerable at some circuits, in particular those where the emphasis is on keeping the front tyres happy. McLaren's main advantage is at the rear of the car.

2) Red Bull are in trouble. Max has the talent to feel his way to competitive times around the problems, but the performance the car can deliver is in such a narrow window, and so peaky, that Lawson is completely no where in it as his confidence to trust the car just isn't there.

There's a lot of talk floating around that Lawson could be replaced at Red Bull ahead of the Japanese GP, with Tsunoda slotting in and Lawson going back to Racing Bulls to regain confidence (... and be measured against Hadjar).

Red Bull could now drop Lawson before next F1 race

Red Bull is weighing up whether to immediately drop Liam Lawson after a disastrous pair of weekends

www.the-race.com

But there's also a wild rumour appeared that Lawson could be out completely - once again Colapinto's name has come up, with a low-quality rumour (the source isn't great) suggesting Colapinto could be drafted in for the Racing Bulls seat that Tsunoda (or Hadjar) would vacate if Lawson is dropped from Red Bull. For me ... I think that's unlikely, and that this particular rumour is seeded from Colapinto's camp going on a fishing expedition.

Few other bits that are now emerging for me in terms of the short-so-far season:

• When Ferrari "get it right" they'll be able to win races. However I think they're still going to drop the ball often enough (ala China main race) that they won't be able to win either championship.
• Norris is still error-prone. This year's WDC could be a fight between an ever-so-slightly-faster Norris and an ever-so-slightly-more-precise Piastri. Giving me Senna-vs-Prost vibes (but without, so far, the Senna-vs-Prost personalities).
• Max is a sublime talent. He's thoroughly unlikeable IMO, but his talent cannot be denied. Having said that, I think he's going to be blunted this season by a car that's on a knife-edge and without Newey I believe this will be the end of their reign at the top.
  • If Red Bull don't solve the car issues, the likelihood of Max going shopping for a new team for as early as 2026 begins to increase sharply. Keep an eye out for any loss of performance where he starts to look like he's driving within himself instead of working to get on top of the car problems.
• The midfield battle is going to be all over the place. Especially as some cars appear to struggle in qually and be better race cars, while others are fast over a single lap and slower in the race.

 

[Audax]

More on the Red Bull driver change rumours which mentions Colapinto and is a better source than the one I previously mentioned:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lawson-tsunoda-colapinto-red-bull-tough-decisions/10706695/

Re: Colapinto, two things stood out from the article:

1) They appear to agree with me that this particular rumour may be driven by Colapinto's management team. The interesting nugget here (for me) is that they may be worried that Doohan is (so far) doing well enough (matching Gasly in qually, and being very close on race pace too) to prevent Colapinto getting access to his Alpine seat.

2) Marko was seen in the Alpine hospitality over the China weekend... That might be nothing, or it might be something. Either way, it fuels rumours.