As the great American actor, Denzel Washington once said, “I’m from ‘round the way, I’m leaving with something.”
The Chinese Grand Prix held from March 21 to the 23 was a race weekend full of ups and downs. As a whole, I enjoyed myself. Oscar Piastri won, Lewis Hamilton won, Isack Hadjar didn’t crash… all good things. Let’s start with the sprint race.
Hamilton’s first pole position at Ferrari equals Hamilton’s first sprint win equals Ferrari’s first sprint win.
The old dragon is breathing fire. What a sprint performance, pulling out a five second gap over two laps, keeping Max Verstappen close enough to damage his tires but not compromise the race win — the GOAT doing GOAT things. (I will not argue with you, he is the GOAT). For the first time in a long time Hamilton comfortably led a race, dictating the pace like the maestro he is. No matter what happened after the sprint race, he proved he very much still has it. Not that he has to prove anything to anyone, but I love a dig at the haters.
But that Grand Prix. Goodness me. He started well off the line. Hamilton 1 – Toto Wolff 0. How’s that for shelf life? But that was just about the end of the hot streak; the rest of the Grand Prix was spent playing the team game and fighting for his life. Hamilton started calling strategy from inside the car. This is what almost drove Sebastian Vettel to lunacy during his time at Ferrari.
If I hear him say “Let’s keep pushing” one more time, I fear I will push the car myself.
Charles Leclerc — what really could have been. This seems to be the tale of his career: the world championship in 2022, the Monaco Grand Prix in the same year, when he lost the race to a Ferrari strategy error and then we get to this year’s Chinese Grand Prix. He believes he could have fought the McLaren cars for the win if not for his broken front wing. He broke his front wing endplate after it made contact with Hamilton at turn one on lap one. Coming in fifth, Leclerc became Ferrari’s all-time top scorer, overtaking four-time world champion Vettel.
The horse has yet to prance, but it’s trotting, unlike Australia’s labored trek.
I wrote all that right after the race and went to bed.
Imagine my surprise when I woke up to see that both Ferrari drivers, along with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, had been disqualified for two separate technical infringements. Someone, quick! Check the horse’s pulse! It’s the first double disqualification for Ferrari in its history. That’s my team! Breaking records! Oh, and Leclerc is now one point behind Vettel — so there’s that. With his disqualification, Hamilton became the first driver to win and be disqualified in the same Grand Prix weekend. Doing GOAT things once again.
It was quite weird that the media tried to create friction between Hamilton and Leclerc. I was listening to Hamilton’s onboard radio, so I heard when he asked to swap positions so Leclerc could chase down the cars in front. But all of a sudden, the commentators believe Hamilton is reluctant to switch and is unhappy with the strategy call. This is why context is so important: They worked with only a portion of the information readily available to them and then created a narrative. Kudos to Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, for shutting that down quickly.
Piastri’s Oscar’s Oscar winning tears — or lack thereof. Perfection, lights to flag, cool, calm and collected. He didn’t win at his home race in Australia, so he grasped at his one-sixteenth Chinese heritage and said, “I am the captain now.” I know Lando Norris is the more experienced driver, but there’s something about keeping your head down and getting on with it that makes me think Piastri might have what it takes to edge him for a title. This was the 50th McLaren 1-2 finish in F1 history.
George Russell is having a quietly fantastic start for Mercedes, two podiums on the trot and third in the driver’s championship. Not bad for a kid with a PowerPoint and a dream. I’m not a fan, but he seems to be enjoying his new “team leader” role. For his sake, I hope that means Wolff will cool it in his pursuit of Verstappen.
This race had a few good battles. Oliver Bearman and his “ciao” with each overtake sounded like a less threatening version of Kiros’ “Bye Bye” from Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King.” I fail to see how he was not the Driver of the Day, but alas, I didn’t vote, so I’ll keep that to myself. Hadjar and Jack Doohan had a right old scrap, pushing each other to the limit. It was great — even after Doohan picked up a penalty, neither driver yielded.
The Stake Kick Sauber F1 team and its neon green car continue to be unremarkable. Maybe Nico Hülkenberg might not get that podium. I hope he does, it’ll be great viewing, but if they continue like this, then it’s not looking good.
Both Williams’ cars in the points! Great! How fun would it be to see them competing for podiums and wins? (I have a soft spot for Williams because I love Nigel Mansell, one of their most iconic champions).
Liam Lawson. You again. Ted Kravitz grilled Christian Horner about Lawson’s underwhelming performances: “You didn’t pay off Checo for this did you? The point was to replace Checo with a quicker driver, is [Lawson] just not a quicker driver?” Horner, of course, didn’t provide a straightforward answer.
But in all seriousness, is it the car? It must be. Right? But why are people ready to accept that now?
Red Bull was able to trace its development problems to the period Checo Pérez started complaining about the car. But the consensus was that Pérez just wasn’t as good a driver as Verstappen. Why was it a skill issue then but a car issue now? Wolff with this again; Checo had been saying the car is f******.
Again, not a bad race. Was it worth staying up till 5 a.m. for? No. I still feel as though something is missing. I need more of a fight for the lead of a race. I need a through the field, hand-of-God type drive. I want a Verstappen 17th to first Brazil 2024 drive; I need a Leclerc Monza 2024 win. I need a fairytale. The racing is good — that’s why I’m watching — but I need more of the spectacle, I want a driver to wow me.
Thankfully, there’s a little break before the Japanese Grand Prix, so I can build my Ferrari double world champion delusion back up.
