Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Chinese Grand Prix

Photo from The Race

A fun weekend in China, even if not the best racing, finishes the first double header of the season.

And if we thought we’d have more answers on the season layout, it turns out we don’t know a damn thing.

So let’s dive into the winners and losers.

Losers

5. Charles Leclerc

Damage to his front wing had the potential to completely ruin his race, and despite that, Charles had an excellent race and was somehow even faster without his end plate.

All of it ended up being for naught, however, because his car was too light and therefore disqualified.

4. Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton got sprint pole and then won the sprint! His first win for Ferrari!

But then a tougher qualifying and difficult race meant he was beat by his teammate. It’s crazy how much different the car was.

Oh, and then he also got disqualified for his car being too wide.

That does make him the first ever driver to get a confirmed win and a disqualification in the same race weekend.

3. Lando Norris

This is a weird one, because Lando was genuinely very quick this weekend, and brought home 2nd place with a car who had failing brakes. It was an excellent drive.

But it was also a completely wasted opportunity.

He had more pure pace than his teammate Oscar Piastri, but mistakes in both sprint and grand prix qualifying meant he got beat by Piastri both times, and put himself on the back foot.

He still leads the championship, and as I mentioned, it was a good race overall.

But these are the mistakes Lando can’t make if the championship battle is close.

2. Liam Lawson

I’m going to cut him some slack, because I genuinely think this is the worst Red Bull car in the time that Max Verstappen has been with the team.

And I don’t expect him to keep up with one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen.

But Lawson has to do better than 0 points through three races, never once getting out of Q1, and actually qualifying dead last in both qualifying sessions this weekend.

There’s no excuse for it, and Red Bull knows it, as there are already reports that Lawson may be out of that seat.

It’d be a short leash, but he may not have given Red Bull any other options.

1. Racing Bulls

It’s only been two weekends, but Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar are 100% on the shortlist for drivers of the season.

Both Racing Bull drivers have been genuinely phenomenal.

Their team, however, have been an absolute disaster.

The strategy was horrendous and put both cars out of the points because of a two stop strategy, when they were easily in the points, and they somehow left with nothing at all.

In a tight midfield, those wasted opportunities are unacceptable.

Winners

5. George Russell

Back to back races, back to back podiums for the Mercedes driver.

No issues. No drama. Just great, consistent races.

Nothing else to be said.

4. Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen hates this car.

He said it himself during an interview that it says more about the team that Racing Bulls are close to Red Bull than it does about Liam Lawson.

Despite his absolute hatred for the car, he’s still second in the standings and putting in excellent results.

It’s what he does.

3. Alex Albon

Back to back quality points finishes for Alex Albon means he already has more points after two weekends than he had all of last year, and has banked away solid points for Williams in the midfield fight.

2. Oscar Piastri

How do you get over a disastrous home race that threw away a huge chunk of points?

A super consistent weekend leading to a 2nd place sprint race finish, a pole position, and a comfortable race win.

Piastri was cool as a cucumber, and brought his side of the McLaren garage right back into the title fight.

1. Haas

Last week, Haas was disastrously bad.

They were nowhere close to the points, and with Sauber getting big points, I feared their fate in dead last may already be set.

Boy, I was dead wrong.

I’m not sure what happened in a weeks time, but Haas was genuinely quick this weekend.

Oliver Bearman looked like the promising rookie he was advertised to be, and Esteban Ocon had remarkable race pace, leading to a double points finish across the line as is, which then got even better when both Ferrari drivers were disqualified.

The result moved Haas from dead last to 6th.

Like I said earlier, nothing about this season is clear so far.