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.
Baku is just a Hamilton bogey track. Always has been. On the flip side, it's one of Leclerc's top 2 tracks.Hammerfist wrote: ↑26 Sep 2026, 15:12
Hamilton was just so slow today and this weekend in general. You can’t hope to be a team leader and a championship contender when you put up weekends like this.
Ham also had understeer issues almost the entire race, reporting massive understeer at one point during the second stint with Santi trying different modes to help but never did. Apparently Ham and Charles also had different setups, Lewis, high downforce, Charles with the Monza setupAR3-GP wrote: ↑26 Sep 2026, 15:12Baku is just a Hamilton bogey track. Always has been. On the flip side, it's one of Leclerc's top 2 tracks.Hammerfist wrote: ↑26 Sep 2026, 15:12
Hamilton was just so slow today and this weekend in general. You can’t hope to be a team leader and a championship contender when you put up weekends like this.
I remember that now. I think it came up on the broadcast that he told the team that he "had no front" in one of the stints.Luscion wrote: ↑26 Sep 2026, 15:50Ham also had understeer issues almost the entire race, reporting massive understeer at one point during the second stint with Santi trying different modes to help but never did. Apparently Ham and Charles also had different setups, Lewis, high downforce, Charles with the Monza setupAR3-GP wrote: ↑26 Sep 2026, 15:12Baku is just a Hamilton bogey track. Always has been. On the flip side, it's one of Leclerc's top 2 tracks.Hammerfist wrote: ↑26 Sep 2026, 15:12
Hamilton was just so slow today and this weekend in general. You can’t hope to be a team leader and a championship contender when you put up weekends like this.
All the technical development of Red Bull was lead by Newey, but he sure was instrumental in hiring him.gearboxtrouble wrote: ↑26 Sep 2026, 15:10The way Hadjar just cruised past Charles down the straight is embarrassing after 2 ADUO upgrades. The strategy of deliberately sabotaging engine performance for questionably useful aero gains has been thoroughly discredited. Horner has his detractors, some of which is because he stood up to Toto and fought him politically to a level nobody else was able to do. Looking at his track record he's the greatest TP in modern F1 since Ross Brawn and it's not close. He took Red Bull from the disaster that was Jaguar to 2 separate eras of dominance and left them with an engine operation that's pulled off the best new manufacturer debut in F1 history. Ferrari would be insane to not hand him the keys if he was genuinely available.
Yea i think that was evident around Monaco i'd say, where a track that everyone expected them to be the leading at Merc was still better
I also agree about the drag issue.
- On a circuit like Baku's, this compromise came at a significant cost. Hamilton's SF-26 generated too much drag, which was especially noticeable on the very long straight. The additional downforce gained from the floor didn't provide enough advantage in the corners to offset the loss in efficiency. Lewis thus ended up with a car that was too draggy for the specific demands of the circuit.
- The comparison with Leclerc was all the more interesting because Charles, by using the floor in its lightest configuration, had an SF-26 better suited to Baku's characteristics. But even this strategy wasn't enough to bring Ferrari up to the level of the leaders.
Ferrari: Hamilton had too much downforce for Baku, and Leclerc had a difficult race, but McLaren didn't capitalize on it
For Ferrari it was an overall much more difficult weekend. Leclerc and Hamilton raced with two different floor configurations, and the one chosen by Lewis turned out to carry too much downforce for Baku's characteristics. Leclerc kept the lighter specification already used between Spa and Monza, looking above all for greater efficiency. Hamilton, on the other hand, had gone back to the standard floor configuration by the end of FP3 — one capable of generating more downforce, but also paired with higher drag. On a track like Baku, the compromise came at a significant cost. Hamilton's SF-26 was generating too much drag, paying the price especially on the very long flat-out section. The extra downforce gained through the floor didn't produce enough of an advantage in the corners to make up for what was being lost in efficiency. Lewis thus found himself with a car that carried too much downforce for the circuit's specific demands. The comparison with Leclerc was interesting precisely for this reason. Charles, running the floor in its lighter configuration, had an SF-26 more suited to Baku's characteristics. But even this approach wasn't enough to bring Ferrari back close to the front-runners.
The problem, in fact, went beyond the aerodynamic configuration.
The SF-26's pace was about six tenths slower than Verstappen's and seven to eight tenths slower than Russell's on the race's most significant reference laps. A gap too large to be put down solely to the different compromise chosen by the two drivers. In terms of performance, then, at Baku Ferrari looked closer to the "poor" Alpines than to the front- running cars.Baku thus exposed two separate problems.
With Hamilton, Ferrari also paid for a floor configuration that was too high-downforce and not efficient enough for this circuit; with Leclerc, on the other hand, a solution better suited to Baku's demands still wasn't enough to hide the SF-26's main limitation: the overall amount of performance available compared with the best cars.The next Grand Prix, coming up soon with the return to Malaysia on the magnificent Sepang circuit, should suit the SF-26 much better, ahead of the fourth and final aerodynamic package arriving in America.
