Welcome back to another edition of Dre’s Race Review and it’s time for F1 to head to China for Round 2 and the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. And with it, we got honse-related violence (complimentary), Max Verstappen’s weekend from hell, Mercedes dominance of a different kind and for the first time in 20 years, F1 has an Italian winner again. Let’s talk about it.
Cancelled
Okay, let’s get the brutal talk out of the way. Due to the US/Israel war against Iran across the Middle East, the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GP’s will not be taking place in April as originally planned. F1 wrote a very carefully worded statement on the matter across their social media, but I wouldn’t read too deeply into that, it’s likely more for litigation and legal protection purposes, as I imagine cancelling a race outright yourself properly voids a lot of your insurance.
Especially with the sport already alleged to be coughing up around £100m worth of hosting fees by missing out. Especially when you look at the calendar and realise that your best shot of a replacement is probably… the month of May, and that’s probably going to be unavailable too given the United States’ utter incompetence and delusion think they could wrap up an Iranian revolt within a weekend. Don’t forget, there’s six races in seven weeks to close out October to December.
The cancellations for April also include the junior series (F3, F2 and the F1 Academy), but there are still rumblings they may move those races to a European track like Imola during the downtime given both series have their cars at base after Australia anyway. So stay tuned on that one.
As for two wheels, MotoGP race in Qatar the same day F1 was originally planning to race in Bahrain, so that will also be postponed officially in the coming days, MGSE CEO Carmelo Ezepelta has already said it’s “extremely unlikely” to go ahead, and will also not be replaced. I wouldn’t completely rule out a return in the flyaway period in October or November, but the way the war is going, Iran’s here for the long haul, so Dre’s 8-ball says: “Don’t count on it”.
I don’t think you need me to tell you that I’m all for these rounds not happening, staging a global Motorsport event in any of those countries is wildly irresponsible and dangerous and its the right thing to do. I pray for the safety of as many innocent lives as possible, because it’s easy to forget that in times like these, motorsport doesn’t really matter. But I will at least try to provide some temporary relief via these blogs.
PS: Credit to “PutDorianeDown” on Bluesky for the factoid, but this is the sixth time F1 has planned for a 24-race calendar, and the fourth time it likely won’t get there.
“The Show” Must Go On
Friday in China was more of the same given the state of the field. George Russell led the way on the timing sheets ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli in practice. Russell kept up his 100% record on the season with Sprint Pole Position, three tenths quicker than teammate Antonelli and six tenths on everyone else. But the Sprint once again, was a huge vocal flashpoint.
Okay, I admit off the back of Australia, I made a mistake. I underestimated just how heated the F1 online audience was about the new regulations. As I said, I enjoyed the race. I scored 6.5, that’s a decent score. I mentioned that while there’s potential pitfalls with the new rules (Mostly the distribution of downforce and the potential for big dirty air follow-fests, and the active aero taking away a lot of the slipstream effect), I also saw potential for good, like the back and forth fighting and tactical battery deployment that was also on display. And nope, a lot of you weren’t here for that and let me have it on social media when I said I really enjoyed Saturday’s sprint.
We had an exceptional battle at the front between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton for the lead of the race. We had back and forth passing attempts into the Turns 1 and 2 complex, the hairpin at the end of the straight was used as a counter-attack, as was Turn 4 to start sector two and even the final corner was used by Kimi Antonelli frequently. I thought it was genuinely great racing, tactical with when to drop your battery, and seeing the back and forth action. For me, that was way more interesting than hanging around in DRS trains lap after lap and hoping the tailing car was with 0.4 seconds to pass, but couldn’t because following was nigh-on-impossible.
Now, I’ve had many, MANY people come after me on social media for thinking it’s a battery dominant sport now. I can’t get there. Qualifying is seemingly the big sticking point, because we got cars derating two-thirds of the way down the back straight… but they’re actually taking it faster than last year because they’re hitting their top speed quicker because of the acceleration (They’re actually losing time in the corners because of the lack of ground effect aero), but it’s the V I B E S of seeing cars skim off speed that’s going to upset people because Qualifying in the eyes of many is flatout, balls to the wall speed.
I openly admit, Senna’s 89’ Monaco hot lap isn’t on my YouTube watch later list, it doesn’t bother me so much, and I’ll take the trade off if it means better racing – But I need to stress, that this will only get better as teams and the FIA get more data and information, and this is a regulation set that can be tweaked… even if I admit it’s a little embarrassing that F1 teams and in of their resources can’t regen at a 350kW rate, when Formula E, the series many drivers love to use as a stick to beat them with, have been doing so since 2022 and only going up when Gen4 debuts next year. Personally, I’ll take a trade off of an occasional cut-off onboard on a hot lap if we get the racing we have, which I think is a genuine improvement. Let’s talk about it.
The Italian Job
The Sprint was a great spectacle, with George Russell fighting with Hamilton and Leclerc before starting to breakaway in the back half. The action was great, until a pause for a Safety Car after Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi ground to a halt. It left the race down to a 3-lap mini-sprint, which after Leclerc spun his wheels during the restart, gave Russell the one second headstart he needed to hold on for the win, with Antonelli serving a 10-second penalty for rightly taking Isack Hadjar out, but being able to serve it in the pits during the Safety Car, but still finishing fourth.
In Grand Prix qualifying, Russell had a series of misfortune events, with a front wing breaking at the end of Q2, leading into the car failing at the start of Q3 and needing to be power cycled three times before finally being released with just two minutes to go. Kimi Antonelli took advantage to take pole on his second run ahead of Russell and the Ferrari’s, with Lewis in front of Charles by just a hundredth of a second.
Now, tell me readers – Is it good we had four cars fail to START the race? Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both had different electrical faults in their power units, Gabriel Bortoleto for Audi had a hydraulics issue, and Alex Albon was in pitlane originally for suspension changes, but didn’t actually take to the grid. Not ideal, but the teething problems of new regulations and running these cars at their true performance.
Antonelli lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap, but once he got back in front on Lap 2, he never lost it again, a controlled, calm, mostly measured drive, with just a harmless lockup with four laps to go, when he already had a nine-second lead. How did he get there? George Russell being in a punchup with the Ferrari’s yet again.
And it was excellent. So much of China’s track got used as a battleground. At one point, Leclerc and Hamilton was side-by-side all the way through Sector 2, without making contact. Even Charles had to admit it was a fun battle, and Lewis has openly admitted that he loves this car, and he drove like a LH back to his very best to eventually win that war. Huge props to everyone for driving cleanly, and for Ferrari for letting them fight. Was the best combat of the season so far and as said before, a brilliant example of what these rules can provide. Cars can genuinely follow for longer periods of time.
Unfortunately, all that fighting, and an early Safety Car for Lance Stroll’s battery failing, led to Russell being the victim of a double stack and Antonelli having all the free air in the world to pull away in the back half. But we also had some real carnage in the midfield as Max Verstappen had bogged down off the start line again, and fell into the midfield, fighting with the Alpine’s, the Haas cars, and the Racing Bulls, with Lindblad having his real “welcome to F1 race” with lockup spins and chaos, and Esteban Ocon losing control and spinning into Franco Colapinto on his outlap in a fight for what would have been the final point. Again, if you didn’t enjoy that action, I can’t help you.
In the end, Verstappen had to park his car due to a cooling issue, Bearman took home an outstanding fifth place, Pierre Gasly matched his sixth form Silverstone last year with another there, Liam Lawson finished seventh to double up on points across the weekend, Carlos Sainz very quietly getting Williams off the board in 9th, and Franco Colapinto’s first F1 point in 10th.
Hell, even Cadillac got both cars over the line for their first time in P13 and 15. A fun day for all… unless you’re Max. Or McLaren. Or Aston Martin. Let’s get into…
The Lightning Round
A thought – If Lewis Hamilton took the one-year deal to stay at Mercedes back in 2024, would he have stuck it out to this regulation set with a prime chance to take #8?
Max Verstappen’s doubling down on his hatred of the regulations seemed to go to another extreme when he said that if you enjoyed the racing product, you don’t understand racing. Now in his slim defence, he’s not been the only complainer, Ollie Bearman, and Lando Norris1 to name a pair, but not to this extreme. It’s nasty work, and exactly why so many fans have been so aggressive towards me and others for… daring to enjoy what they’re watching. Which is horrible, because to me it takes a special kind of dick to see someone enjoying themselves on the beach and kicking over their sandcastle. But as we know, misery loves company.
It begs a speculative question – If Max had a Mercedes right now, would he be bashing these rules so frequently? He claims he would because he cares about the product, but this is the same man who suddenly loved Las Vegas when he won there. And who had a former boss who reveled in Mercedes struggling during the Ground Effect era via Christian “change your fucking car” Horner. How much of Verstappen’s frustrations seeped out because Red Bull were over a second a lap off the pace across the weekend and the car drove like a pig?
There was a lowkey startling article from Autosport that talked about Flavio Briatore and it is infuriating to know that ol’ Flavs demanded Renault shut down Viry and switch to Mercedes power or he would walk away from the table. And then CEO Luca De Meo took the deal, stringing the public along before finally pulling the plug for the end of 2025. Grim, with 400+ employees in Viry whose jobs are now at risk. All that for an Alpine that looks like it’s back to what it was before their horrendous 2025. It all just infuriates me, from Renault not giving a shit about Motorsport anymore, to Flavio being welcomed back, to the higher ups in the company being incompetent. *sigh*
Fernando Alonso had to park his Aston Martin because the vibrations of the car were so numbing, he had to take his hands off the steering wheel on the straights because he lost the feelings in his limbs. Adrian Newey’s Aston Martin right now is too dangerous to drive a full race distance. Embarrassing.
Oscar Piastri made some history this weekend – The first F1 driver ever to score points without completing a Grand Prix lap. Ha.
Sprint Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Excellent) – Ta-da! A new rating for the Sprint races in MotoGP and F1, they deserve their own section. Quite possibly the best dry Sprint we’ve ever had, and maybe the best Sprint of them all so far. Tons of action and back and forth across the field early on, settling down before peaking again at the end after the Safety Car. Seriously good fun.
Grand Prix Rating: 7/10 (Good) – And a similar feel for the race, that while we lost some of the thrill of a fight for the win, it was exchanged for a tremendous scrap between Russell, Hamilton and Leclerc that was worth the price of admission alone. Yes, Mercedes might be dominant, but do you care as much when the product is better? For me, F1 is two for two in 2026. See you in Japan.