George Russell claimed his first Formula One sprint race win at the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix, maintaining his perfect start to the season after a closely fought contest that highlighted both Mercedes’ strengths and the evolving competitive order under the 2026 regulations.
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Your deluded. Hamilton was like 2 seconds a lap faster.
Other than when Lewis had that tyre offset, they were close but Charles was a faster than him all race. Charles also managed to get a few overtakes done. (Lewis' pass on an energy depleted Oscar was a bit of a gift, though he did well to get it done before the McLaren had a chance to recharge.)
Its clear that today Ferrari costed Hamilton that 2nd place. Keeping him behind Leclerc for 4 laps was crucial. Not only that but Leclerc almost crashed into Hamilton in the last lap. Finally I totally agree with edu2723. Apart from the first stint Lewis was the better driver all race.
Ferrari needs to have a serious talk with Leclerc: Make it clear that his role until the end of the season is to help Hamilton as much as possible in the championship and GET OUT OF HIS WAY when Hamilton is clearly faster.
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So the driver who only finished ahead thanks to a lucky VSC is clearly faster
Ferrari is in a bit of a pickle this year because Hamilton has found his form and Leclerc, except those weird races where he was lost, hasn't lost it either. And I also think they're not super similar as drivers so you get this weird situation where their drivers are faster than each other on different phases of the race/track so you're damned if you do and damned if you don't in terms of favoring one or the other for the sake of strategy.
Let’s ignore the my favourite driver favouritism comments - both cars had similar pace with similar aged tyres (whenever one had the offset, that one went faster). Charles was held up behind Piastri for a long time and that impacted his tyre life, the same thing in reverse happened with Lewis at the end (and the real killer blow was that VSC just as Lewis was about to get past).
But the real problem was Ferrari strategy. We were clearly much faster than Russell in clear air and they repeatedly missed opportunities to undercut - if they’d got Charles past Russell at the first pit stop (or even the second) we would have had track position and Lewis could have gone long without Charles there. That was what messed this whole thing up and then there was further mismanagement from there (why they pitted Charles at the VSC is beyond me - seemed like it was to satisfy Lewis or something).
Not good weekend all over because the race pace was much better than the result…again!
Ferrari needs to have a serious talk with Leclerc: Make it clear that his role until the end of the season is to help Hamilton as much as possible in the championship and GET OUT OF HIS WAY when Hamilton is clearly faster.
It's incredible how ridiculous Leclerc is, focusing so much on finishing ahead of his teammate at all costs, even giving up on battling with other drivers, just to have fresher tires at the end so he can attack his teammate, as I've seen him do many times in other races.
If he didn't want to go through this humiliation of becoming a wingman, he shouldn't have had 5 bad races in a row at the beginning of the season, throwing away points while Hamilton was consistently scoring points.
Mercedes has already turned Russell into Antonelli's wingman with McLaren's improvement. That's what differentiates a serious team from a joke of a team like ours.
Where were you yesterday when Charles finished second and Lewis seventh in the sprint?
yet another lucky vsc for hamilton, the only reason Hamilton finished ahead of Charles
Stupid strategy + 2 bad bad pitstops cost Charles podium, where Charles was clearly fastest driver this weekend.
Last edited by woocasz on 23 Aug 2026, 17:30, edited 1 time in total.
That’s why teams don’t hire two top a list drivers. You will always run into problems. McLaren figured it out and they are clearly putting all their development effort behind Lando. I like both Charles and Lewis but it’s just not a cohesive lineup because they are both very fast and very ambitious. It will never work unless Ferrari has an utterly dominant car.
So the driver who only finished ahead thanks to a lucky VSC is clearly faster
Are you really going to casually ignore Leclerc holding up Hamilton for two whole laps for no reason other than being selfish?
I don't want to discuss who was faster overall in the race. I'm discussing this specific moment in the race, which easily cost Hamilton 2-3 seconds that could have put him on the podium.
horrendous execution, proper clown type stratagies. on a track which is hard to overtake they let charles get undercut like twice, and then later at the very least they should have told charles to swap with lewis if he din't want to box.. car had the pace.. if team has nothing to loose then ok let the driver fight but we lost podium coz of this equal treatment BS.. if there something to lose they need to get on radio and be very strict.. really really poor showing no other words.
It’s frustrating that it seems like the car has the inherent race pace required to win, but not the qualifying performance to start in front or the straight-line speed to get overtakes finished. It feels a bit like the late season SF24 that was really good, but held back by poor quali performance.
Hopefully ADUO 2 brings that tiny bit of additional performance to push the Ferrari over the edge. ADUO is ”cheap” performance that none of the other top teams get, since Mercedes won’t bring an ADUO upgrade and Red Bull can’t bring one. If the rumoured 10 horsepower is true, they should gain 2-3 tenths. That should hopefully be enough to push Ferrari over the edge.
Last edited by bananapeel23 on 23 Aug 2026, 17:33, edited 1 time in total.
It was quite obvious that Charles was faster the whole weekend. A bit unfortunate that he couldnt grab a podium. The slow pit stops and the race restart cost him.
Lando was clearly faster but P2 was possible with proper strategy from the team.
Ferrari is in a bit of a pickle this year because Hamilton has found his form and Leclerc, except those weird races where he was lost, hasn't lost it either. And I also think they're not super similar as drivers so you get this weird situation where their drivers are faster than each other on different phases of the race/track so you're damned if you do and damned if you don't in terms of favoring one or the other for the sake of strategy.
Bingo, Leclerc is more often faster on heavier fuel, Hamilton, gets better deeper into the race.
But still, they could've swapped them under the condition that there will be another one if Hamilton couldn't pull away.
It was quite obvious that Charles was faster the whole weekend. A bit unfortunate that he couldnt grab a podium. The slow pit stops and the race restart cost him.
Lando was clearly faster but P2 was possible with proper strategy from the team.