Formula 1 Team McLaren maxed out their points today in China. However, they failed to max out points for the weekend. Lewis Hamilton led team Ferrari to victory for Ferrari’s first ever Sprint win Saturday. Fortunately for McLaren, that is where Ferrari’s success ended for the weekend.
During Friday’s sprint qualification, Hamilton managed to earn pole. He never relinquished his position during the 19-lap sprint race on Friday. In fact, he finished 6.8 seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri and fifteen seconds ahead of Max Verstappen. Still, Ferrari failed to capitalize on their Sprint victory on Sunday. In fact, it turned out to be an abysmal failure as both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified after the race for failing post-race technical inspections.
Ferrari’s disqualifications raise questions about the engineering of their car. Hamilton’s skid blocks showed excessive wear. A skid block, fitted under the car, is designed to force a minimum ground clearance. This is a safety feature designed to slow the cars from an unsafe speed. The thickness starts at 10mm. FIA rules state that the thickness cannot wear more than 1mm during the race. Hamilton’s was measured at 8.5 to 8.6 mm at the end of the race.
Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly’s disqualifications occurred because both of their cars were found to weigh 799kg after the fuel was removed. The minimum weight a Formula 1 car must weigh is 800kg on an empty fuel tank. It is unknown why each car weight 1kg under the minimum weight, and both Ferrari and Alpine engineers have 11 days to figure their issues out.
Ferrari and Alpine’s disqualifications allowed for Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz to finish the race in the points.
The Racing Bulls could have finished in the points today. Both drivers qualified in the top ten and Yuki Tsunoda finished sixth in the sprint race. Unfortunately for them, they decided to execute a two stop strategy. As the temperature dropped during the race, the track cooled, and tear wear slowed. Most of the grid switched the hard tire and executed a one stop strategy leaving Isak Hadjar and Tsunoda in the dust.
Max Verstappen’s weekend was a roller coaster. He qualified second for the sprint but was overtaken by Oscar Piastri on lap 15. Verstappen then qualified fourth for the grand prix. He was only two tenths of a second off the leader. In fact, the top five qualifiers for the race were separated by five tenths of a second.
At the race start, Verstappen was overtaken by both Ferraris dropping him to sixth. However, as the race unfolded Verstappen stayed in the fight. By lap 52 of 56, he was riding Leclerc’s rear wing. On lap 53 he overtook Leclerc rather easily at turn two going into turn three. Turns one, two, three and four are part of a tight tricky S turn, and Verstappen masterfully negotiated the turn around an irritated, dismayed Leclerc. Verstappen finished fourth on the grid and maintained his second-place position overall, only eight points behind Lando Norris.
Notably, Verstappen’s race pace was equal to or greater than the race leader the last 20 laps of the race. Verstappen’s late race pace gives Red Bull hope on areas to improve the car heading into Japan.
Oscar Piastri finished a dominate nine seconds ahead of teammate Lando Norris. The gap is deceptive though. Lando Norris started to experience a long pedal in his braking around lap 46. Though Norris’s brakes were fading, he attempted to catch Piastri against team orders. Finally, he gave it up and opted to nurse his McLaren’ home for the team’s first one, two finish of the season.
Piastri is a cool customer. He is never too high or too low. His calm, cool, collected demeanor is indicative of his focus on the moment. Piastri is the king of consistency. Today’s win marks his 28th victory in the points in a row. So long as McLaren’s car remains ahead of the grid, Piastri will be Norris’s number one challenger for the championship.
