2026 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, March 13-15

[CHT]

It’s good to watch the initial stints between Fer/Merc, but the inevitability that Merc coming out on top will quickly tire. Can basically copy and paste this yo-yoing for the next 20 weekends. Will only be the street tracks, whereby you give Ferrari a chance of holding out.

As for Lewis, he looks transformed. Many expected him to be destroyed by Charles. It isn’t happening.

LH is always strong in China..just like last year where he won the sprint before being DQ

[vanburin]

to whoever said lewis was washed... im not a huge fan of his but you couldn't be more wrong.

He is not at the level of the elite prime age drivers in Verstappen, Russell and Leclerc. The new group of rookies who have spent hours on high quality simulators as kids, are on another level too.

Actual results so far this year don't support this hypothesis.

Excellent qualifying all around. It does appear Ferrari closed the gap slightly over the week. That or possibly more likely the Shanghai circuit favours their car more than Aus did. Either way, Mercedes has an advantage but it's not 2014 levels. Ferrari is right there if either Merc has a slip-up.

On the other end of the spectrum, what a post-qualy interview from Max.

[LeQuick]

It’s good to watch the initial stints between Fer/Merc, but the inevitability that Merc coming out on top will quickly tire. Can basically copy and paste this yo-yoing for the next 20 weekends. Will only be the street tracks, whereby you give Ferrari a chance of holding out.

As for Lewis, he looks transformed. Many expected him to be destroyed by Charles. It isn’t happening.

LH is always strong in China..just like last year where he won the sprint before being DQ

Don't know if it means much, but relatively speaking, Lewis was actually stronger in the sprint compared to today.

[search]

here's also the official tire list now, and some strategy ideas from Pirelli. It didn't really look like a one-stopper to me today, but they made it work last year as well, so who knows.




(I missed one of Lawsons runs and Red Bull, Stroll and Bottas returned a used medium instead of the used soft. Otherwise it's the same as above)

[PlatinumZealot]

I'm just watching qualifying now on F1 TV. Up to q2 and I must that as a 41 year old LH is pretty close to the fastest man in qualifying, Leclerc, in his prime. Nothing to be ashamed of if he loses to Charles this year.

The killer for LH last year was Q and being stuck in the pack in the first stint. That won’t happen this year, and he can challenge CL from the get go. Can see already that CL does not like that the landscape has changed, by that ridiculous radio message during the sprint.

Their inter team battle will likely be the highlight of the year.

I'm not sure if you refering to the Ferrari landscape or the sport landscape but for the former, I wouldn't say Charles doesn't like it. I think he is just frustrated that Ferrari is not dominant after another year of loyalty. I get a lot of flack for saying that he will soon benefit from Lewis' input on how a championship car is supposed to feel. Perhaps some slight driving style changes there for Charles. But with that said, for me it still looks like Charles is wrangling the car better than Lewis and I'm getting the sense that Lewis cannot get on top of Charles yet.

[Alexf1]

I'm just watching qualifying now on F1 TV. Up to q2 and I must that as a 41 year old LH is pretty close to the fastest man in qualifying, Leclerc, in his prime. Nothing to be ashamed of if he loses to Charles this year.

The killer for LH last year was Q and being stuck in the pack in the first stint. That won’t happen this year, and he can challenge CL from the get go. Can see already that CL does not like that the landscape has changed, by that ridiculous radio message during the sprint.

Their inter team battle will likely be the highlight of the year.

I'm not sure if you refering to the Ferrari landscape or the sport landscape but for the former, I wouldn't say Charles doesn't like it. I think he is just frustrated that Ferrari is not dominant after another year of loyalty. I get a lot of flack for saying that he will soon benefit from Lewis' input on how a championship car is supposed to feel. Perhaps some slight driving style changes there for Charles. But with that said, for me it still looks like Charles is wrangling the car better than Lewis and I'm getting the sense that Lewis cannot get on top of Charles yet.

If this is the difference between Lewis and Charles on a track the Lewis is good at and Charles bad than Lewis will see the disappearing back of Charles' car a lot again this year.

[PlatinumZealot]

here's also the official tire list now, and some strategy ideas from Pirelli. It didn't really look like a one-stopper to me today, but they made it work last year as well, so who knows.

https://i.ibb.co/PvKXT9JX/1920-02-cn26-strategies.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/q3r0GBQf/1920-02-cn26-racesets.jpg

(I missed one of Lawsons runs and Red Bull, Stroll and Bottas returned a used medium instead of the used soft. Otherwise it's the same as above)

Starting on soft is a tempting startegy here. It's not out of the question that there will be breakdowns in the first ten laps.

[woocasz]

I'm just watching qualifying now on F1 TV. Up to q2 and I must that as a 41 year old LH is pretty close to the fastest man in qualifying, Leclerc, in his prime. Nothing to be ashamed of if he loses to Charles this year.

Charles: “The important thing in qualifying isn’t perfection. It’s better to stay within the limit by doing the same thing every time, rather than getting into Q3 and trying something more. It’s a bit disappointing, as it was clearly one of my strengths in the past, but I’ll adapt. It’s not a disaster, but I have to say I’m not really enjoying qualifying at the moment.”

besides this is Charles worst track on the calendar, so being in par with Hamilton in quali and beat him in the sprint is not bad at all for Charles.
imagine what will happen in street circuit

[upsidedowntoast]

So much dooming and glooming about Mercedes dominance and "stolen election!"-style complaints about the engine (which has already passed hot tests) when it's not even the second race.

We haven't even seen the in-season development race. We have no idea what is going on. Maybe have a little more faith in the teams you support.

Personally I don't think the race pace gaps are that big. It just so happens that thus far all the other teams have underperformed in qualifying relative to Mercedes. Once setup and deployment issues are sorted out by everyone the spread should be closer.

[IntrinsicVoid]

Mercedes obviously wont want to have ADUO and will sandbag as much as possible so this talk of field getting closer is futile and doesn’t really matter as Mercedes will release more power when feeling pressured. Personally I have government leaders lying to us with straight face for many years and Toto is nothing different really.

[Artur Craft]

The whole idea that F1 is "hiding" clipping by showing onboards with the data frozen is so ridiculous.

Yeah, it was almost unanimous on the comments but I´m sure thousands of people are wrong. The "glitch" on Russell´s onboard started right when clipping kicking in and finished right on the braking point (jumping from 325 to 250km/h from one frame to another). I´m sure it was just a huge coincidence.

[Sbrillo88]

Mercedes obviously wont want to have ADUO and will sandbag as much as possible so this talk of field getting closer is futile and doesn’t really matter as Mercedes will release more power when feeling pressured. Personally I have government leaders lying to us with straight face for many years and Toto is nothing different really.

But engine maps are known by fia. If Mercedes hide performance, they will see it and apply aduo anyway, even if other teams will not on 3%.
I guess…

[Jambier]

Mercedes obviously wont want to have ADUO and will sandbag as much as possible so this talk of field getting closer is futile and doesn’t really matter as Mercedes will release more power when feeling pressured. Personally I have government leaders lying to us with straight face for many years and Toto is nothing different really.

But engine maps are known by fia. If Mercedes hide performance, they will see it and apply aduo anyway, even if other teams will not on 3%.
I guess…

Are you sure they know map?
They are measuring torque on three different point of every engine (customers including) and then they are calculating the average.

So that’s 8 engines for Mercedes on 5 races.

Actually to cheat that it is easier with only one team so Audi, but there is no point to be slow on purpose, and of course Honda

[MB_Racer]

The killer for LH last year was Q and being stuck in the pack in the first stint. That won’t happen this year, and he can challenge CL from the get go. Can see already that CL does not like that the landscape has changed, by that ridiculous radio message during the sprint.

Facts only

[Sbrillo88]

Mercedes obviously wont want to have ADUO and will sandbag as much as possible so this talk of field getting closer is futile and doesn’t really matter as Mercedes will release more power when feeling pressured. Personally I have government leaders lying to us with straight face for many years and Toto is nothing different really.

But engine maps are known by fia. If Mercedes hide performance, they will see it and apply aduo anyway, even if other teams will not on 3%.
I guess…

Are you sure they know map?
They are measuring torque on three different point of every engine (customers including) and then they are calculating the average.

So that’s 8 engines for Mercedes on 5 races.

Actually to cheat that it is easier with only one team so Audi, but there is no point to be slow on purpose, and of course Honda

I really don’t think it would be very easy to fool the FIA. I think that when a constructor submits the homologation of the engine, they also have to declare all the maps they will use during the season. Or at least, that’s what I believe they are required to do.

If they have some margin, they might want to hide their full performance to deny aduo to their closest rivals. From Mercedes’ standpoint, it makes perfect sense.