🏁 Off to a Sliding Start

🥇 Lando Norris [25]: Expects “more competition” from rivals this weekend. "“I think when things are perfect, like they were in Qualifying, we have an advantage, but they’re certainly not far behind.”

🥈 Max Verstappen [18]: “A lot of unknowns” heading into Chinese GP. “It’s a Sprint weekend, so not a lot of time to adapt, so we will have to see how the car is going to respond to that.”

🥉 George Russell [15]: Thinks the team took “a step ahead” of rival Ferrari. It’s a long season George! But he’s certainly right at the moment.

4️⃣ Kimi Antonelli [12]: Turned around a tough P16 Quali with a tremendous drive up to P4, patiently navigating the conditions and attacking when necessary. Toto Wolff: “we saw that he was able to reel in everybody slowly but surely without making any mistakes. He had a little spin, but otherwise P4 is the result that he merits.”

5️⃣ Alex Albon [10]: While still clearly thrilled with a P5 finish, in the post race interview he said “it feels weird because P4 [P5 following Antonelli's penalty reversal] is very special but for it to happen in the first race… you almost lose the appreciation for what it is!”

6️⃣ Lance Stroll [8]: Boss Andy Cowell said he “did not put a wheel out of place all race.” I quiet but solid drive for P6 that saw no mistakes.

7️⃣ Nico Hulkenberg [6]: On a solid debut: “We made some good calls, I think other people were struggling and we picked up the pieces but yeah, we were there when it mattered so very happy to have scored those points today.”

8️⃣ Charles Leclerc [4]: Said the season opener was a “tricky day” where P5 slipped away due to a spin and a strategy call that saw too long of a stint on slicks when heavier rain came toward the end of the race. ““If you look at the pace of the McLaren it was unbelievable, even more strong than yesterday for example. So, we have to look into it, but we are on the back foot.”

9️⃣ Oscar Piastri [2]: Analyst Jolyon Palmer think the Aussie was too hard on himself after his race fell apart, with Oscar saying he had “only himself to blame.” He was pressuring Lando early, they both went off track at the same time (though Lando was able to recover), and he didn’t give up to fight back to P9 after an impressively bold pass of Hamilton at the end of the last lap.

🔟 Lewis Hamilton [1]: It was a tough debut in red after a quali that “didn’t feel natural”, adding “I’m still learning this car.” Lewis could be heard on the radio basically telling his engineer that less was more, and to “leave him to it” at times. Better days ahead, I’d think.

11. Pierre Gasly [0]: Another victim of a strategy call that saw dry tires being used too long in the wet, he’s thinks they’ll be able to fight the likes of Albon and Yuki in the midfield going forward. “I’m confident we’ll be in the mix.”

12. Yuki Tsunoda [0]: Thinks the team “deserved points” after a brilliant P5 in Quali, but lost out on points during a late race strategy error. TP Mekies: “For this we apologize to Yuki; the gamble to keep him out didn’t pay off but it’s part of the harshness of motorsport.”

13. Esteban Ocon [0]: Disappointed with how the weekend went for the team, but thinks they’ll be back in the mix. “We need to give it a good look as it is not what we’ve seen, so it is quite unexpected to be where we are in this weekend. I’m sure we will figure out things to turn it around in the next round.”

14. Ollie Bearman [0]: Lack of pace was an “unwelcome surprise” after a brutal opening weekend that bear-ly (🐻) saw the rookie get any practice in after crashes, spins, and car issues. At least he took the checkered flag though. Only him and Antonelli made it out of the rookies.

15. Liam Lawson [0]: TP Horner doesn’t blame him for his lap 47 DNF where the team rolled the dice with him on slick tires as the rain picked up. The Red Bull boss thinks better days are ahead: “His pace on the dry was not too bad…he actually posted the second fastest lap time of the Grand Prix.”

16. Gabriel Bortoleto [0]: Alonso calls him the “best of the new generation”. Had a decent weekend until his DNF - which appeared to be influenced by a car issue.

17. Fernando Alonso [0]: Looking forward to on track battles with his protege (Bortoleto): “In Australia, we didn’t really get to fight each other properly, but hopefully, in China, we can have some side-by-side battles. That would be nice for me.”

18. Carlos Sainz [0]: After his early DNF (that appeared to be a car malfunction rather than strict driver error), he helped the team make strategy calls for Albon’s brilliant P5 result.

19. Jack Doohan [0]: Vowed to bounce back in Shanghai after “lessons learned” from home race spin. “I don’t seem to have really been affected by this whole home race stuff. In the end, I’ve been very tunnel-visioned and focused.”

20. Isaac Hadjar [0]: Felt “embarrassed and sorry for the team” by his formation lap spin. Was super wholesome to see Anthony Hamilton (Lewis’ dad) go right up to him and support what was a very distraught rookie driver. In a typical tone deaf comment, Helmut Marko called the rookie’s tears over his DNF “quite embarrassing”.

🥇 McLaren [27]: Credits “unbelievable” Norris drive and “perfect” McLaren strategy down under. “The team did a great job. Everyone back at McLaren, all the men and women, they’ve built a proper race car.” I knew they were sandbagging! Team to beat at the moment.

🥈 Mercedes [27]: Toto Wolff on McLaren’s pace: “It’s something we need to understand, the way they are able to manage the tires and to extract the performance.. if we want to fight on merit for race victories and a championship, there is definitely something we need to find.”

🥉 Red Bull [18]: Max says the RB21 is “where I expected it to be.” As he said to his race engineer GP, he scored 18 more points in that race than he did last year - so he’ll take it.

4️⃣ Williams [10]: New part time team strategist Carlos Sainz said he felt “more nervous than when I’m in the car” as he helped call Albon’s pit timing. Love the idea of DNF drivers helping out on the pit wall. Yay teamwork!

5️⃣ Aston Martin [8]: Adrian Newey is full steam ahead - on the 2026 car. Makes total sense - try to nail the new regs. It usually takes 2-3 years for the grid to condense after these types of changes, so if you start out ahead you’ll be sitting pretty.

6️⃣ Kick Sauber [6]: New TP Wheatley will make debut at the Japanese GP.

7️⃣ Ferrari [5]: TP Vasseur says “In Australia we didn’t see the real Ferrari, in China we start from scratch.” I do think some set up issues set the team back a bit and they should fare better, but boy I sure hope he’s right.

8️⃣ Alpine [0]: They showed that they can contend for points in Quali, so leaving empty handed in Australia was a blow when other midfielders also looked strong.

9️⃣ Racing Bulls [0]: Were primed for a great debut when a poor strategy call in the rain saw them leave Yuki out too long.

🔟 Haas [0]: A weekend to forget with Bearman’s errors, a poor quali and 0 points. They were having some issues with the car they believe to have identified.. I’d give them some time to see if they can rekindle some of the performance from last year.

• FIA Says No More Wingin’ It: The rule enforcers are not happy with the abuse of the “mini DRS” flexi wings by multiple teams last weekend, and have implemented a new technical directive for Shanghai designed to shrink this advantage.

• The Secret Sauce: Well, one of the ingredients at least is this intricate airflow design around the brakes that is able to cool them down - thus improving tire temp management and contributing to the current insane level of tire preservation exhibited by the MCL39 🔽 

• RIP Eddie: Iconic F1 team owner Eddie Jordan passed away at 76.

• F1 Movie: Behind the Scenes For the upcoming Brad Pitt flick, the actors were actually driving old F2 cars modified with smaller versions of the type of cameras used for the new Top Gun movie.

• Vegas Now… Affordable? GA for a single day for 2025’s race is now start at $50 for a single day pass, down from $99 last year and a whopping $500 in 2023. Three day GA passes now start at $400 vs $1500 in it’s inaugural season. Might have to make a trip. And don’t worry, if you still wanna ball then the top VIP package can be yours for $25K.

• F1 Arcade, Cheesesteak Edition: The newest installation of everyone’s favorite arcade will open May 29th in the city of brotherly love. They really need to rethink that nickname. I’ve been to the one in Boston - highly recommend checking it out.

• Caddy Cash: The grid’s 11th team will pay each current team a dilution fee of $45M to enter next year

Quick Question (My answer)

Solid 4 at least. Thankfully the rain prevented McLaren running away, but the intra-team battle this year will be fun to watch.