Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Chinese Grand Prix

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For the first time since 2019, Formula 1 went racing in China, and despite the races not being the most exciting ones in the world, it did remind me how much I enjoy the track itself.

So let’s go over who the winners were, and who the losers were, from Shanghai.

Losers

5. Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo really, really needed a good weekend.

And he was having one.

Not so much in terms of points, but in terms of being faster than his teammate.

Hey, it’s something!

And it was ruined by absolutely no fault of his own (we’ll get to that in a second).

Sometimes, luck just goes against you.

4. Yuki Tsunoda

It’s been a great season for Yuki, but that doesn’t change that the weekend was bad.

He was pretty handily beaten by Ricciardo in terms of pace, and his race itself was also ruined through no fault of his own.

Yuki’s issues have been his maturity, which seems to have gotten a lot better this year.

Let’s hope he can just shake this one off.

3. Valtteri Bottas

His car stopped working and he had to retire from the race, but at least this time it wasn’t ruined by atrocious pit stops.

Baby steps?

2. Kevin Magnussen

There’s the one problem of him crashing his car into Tsunoda and causing a collision.

There’s another problem of him being beaten by his teammate Nico Hulkenberg again.

At this point, Haas have to be weighing their options on keeping Magnussen or not.

1. Lance Stroll

Remember Ricciardo’s race that got ruined?

Well, it was ruined because Lance Stroll ran into him under safety car conditions, because he wasn’t looking where he was going.

And then, he blamed it on the cars in front of him braking.

There is zero excuse for ever, ever running into a car during a safety car, but to then blame the person you ran into?

It was completely unacceptable, and incredibly unsafe.

Winners

5. Max Verstappen

It looked like maybe Max wouldn’t win both races, but then he did, so congratulations to Max.

4. Lewis Hamilton

Was his qualifying and race good? Eh. Not really.

However, his sprint qualifying in the rain, and sprint race itself, were excellent.

It showed that Lewis still has it, he just isn’t in sync with the car at all.

At least he isn’t past it.

3. Charles Leclerc

Leclerc was unhappy that teammate Carlos Sainz was racing him so hard, and I don’t blame him, but Leclerc still came out of the fight on top.

And considering Sainz has been the better of the two Ferrari drivers this year, yet the one who is losing his seat for Lewis Hamilton, it was important that Leclerc got one over on him.

2. Lando Norris

Another excellent weekend for Lando Norris, who is driver of the season not named Max Verstappen.

Getting 2nd in the race, and at a track where McLaren wasn’t expecting much success, is an awesome result.

He really is special.

1. Zhou Guanyu

Zhou Guanyu had a completely forgettable race and finished 14th, out of the points.

But at the end of the race, the first ever Chinese driver in Formula 1 was given a spot on the front straight in front of the grandstands, so he could get out and be acknowledged by the Chinese crowd.

And he was, unsurprisingly, overcome with emotion.

It’s just one more reminder that sports can be so much more than who wins or loses.

Years from now, the one thing I’ll remember from this race is that moment (and maybe the Stroll thing because it was so mind numbingly stupid), and that’s really what it’s all about.