The raceweek in China is Finally over and we can talk about what has happened throught the sessions this weekend. Through Kimi Antonelli's maiden win, to the McLaren double DNS, to Max Verstappen's fall from grace, to the extremely quick Alpines and the Amazing fighting we saw from the midfield and the 2 Ferrari's. This leaves you to wonder are these new regulations better suited to certain track layouts?

Kimi Antonelli's Maiden win

The young italian lifted up the 1st place trophy in China. This ended a 20 year drought of no italian race winners since Giancarlo Fisichella at the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2006. This was done with a brilliant drive where he so nearly got a Grand Slam but Lewis Hamiliton spoiled it by leading the first few laps of the race. He got very lucky that the 2 Ferrari's were continuously battling each other for the majority of the race giving Kimi a chance to pull away and take a near 10 second gap. This well put together race led to him being Driver of the Day.

After the race, You could tell how much it meant to him when he broke down in tears at the podium. This win was a clear indication that Russell will not dominate this championship and Kimi will not back down without a fight. This also a clear indication that Mercedes will dominate this constructors championship.

Papaya Title Hopes Turn Sour

If it couldn't be any worse for McLaren After Piastri Failed to start the race in Australia, both drivers were unable to start today. McLaren haven't had a double DNS since Indy 2005, The infamous race when all teams using Michellin tyres refused to race due to safety concerns.

Lando had a great race last week where he was able to step up for the team and get an important 10 points with a brilliant defense of Max and his Red Bull. He also had a very qualifing for the Sprint where he beat out both Ferrari's in qualifing to come P3 and finish P4 but was overtaken by the Ferrari's. Going into qualifing it seemed as though he could challenge but just couldn't get beat both Mercedes, Both Ferrari's and his teammate. It was his chance today to prove why he can continue his title fight but an unknown issue in the electrics led to him not start (I will discuss what hapeened later in the week)

Oscar has had trouble starting all season. He had a crash at home and had to retire for a compeletly different issue to Lando. This has led fans to wonder will Oscar start a race in 2026?

Overall the McLarens need to find a way to fix this issue and Piastri needs a chance to start a race which he hasn't done all season. This is a sad start to a massive season for Lando and Oscar. It is a also a massive season for Mclaren as well.

Verstappen's Free Fall

Max Verstappen has struggled the first 2 races of the season. In qualifying for Australia he had a spin which cause him to qualify 20th. While this wasn't his fault, a bad look for the 4 time World Champion. He was able to recover to 6th but that is still not Verstappen standard.

He was going into China hoping to get back on track but he had an extremely bad weekend. In Sprint Qualifying, he finished P8 not bad but not good. He then struggled to get off the line and fell down to 12th. while he was able to recover to P9 he finished outside of the points.

After a poor start to the Saturday he had a chance to try and fix his misfortunes. He was so nearly knocked out in Q2 but was just able to sneak into Q3. George Russell then had a car issue and good chance for Max to sneak his way into the top 5 but only came through in 8th which is a massive dissapointment for the World Champion.

On Sunday, Max had the chance to try and capitalize of the McLaren double DNS but bottled his race start. If that wasn't bad enough he was forced to retire from GP due to the ERS cooing system failing.

Fans are now stuck wondering is this the end of Max Verstappen?

Flying Frenchman

In 2025, Alpine where last in the Constructors, had 11 points and Pierre Gasly was the only one scoring points. The team were a complete mess and there was no way they could turn it around in one winter. Guess what, they did. 10th in Australia for Gasly. Nothing massive but a big step from last year. This weekend in China, 6th for Gasly and 10th for Colapinto.

People are wondering how they were able to turn it around this quick. Have they fixed any car troubles? have Mercedes and their engines helped them? well this is still unclear people believe it is all down to the power unit.

Franco Colapinto looks like a much more confident driver and being able to get his first points since Baku 2024. He could've got a lot higher if he didn't take the gamble on the hards and the incident with Ocon. It seems like their has been an entire culture shift at Alpine and we are all loving it.

Pack it up in the midfield

This weekend really showed what these new regulations are made of. Last weekend and I'm quoting Aarava who is a F1 youtuber said "It feels like were not watching Formula 1" or from Matt and Tommy at the P1 podcast which is an amazing podcast to listen to said "It feels almost artifical" It seemed like we were going to be in for a long season. Today proved everyone wrong.

The race start was chaos as usual as Lewis took the lead and led for a few laps. Then Russell and Leclerc started battling for 3rd and Leclerc came out on top. Then Hadjar Started battling with Bearman and spun it which shows that these cars can have errors. Then Antonelli overtook Lewis again.

10 laps later after the Safety Car came in Verstappen, Bearman, Gasly, Linblad, Colapinto and Ocon were all locked in on an extremely intense battle with eachother for around 10-15 laps. This showed everyone that this has the potential to be an exciting season for F1.

Then, admist all of this midfield battling, we had a tense and strategic battle between the 2 Ferraris and Russell for 2nd and 3rd. While Russell pulled away from them this did not stop the the 2 Ferrari's from battling. Having a Nail Biting and Fear inducing fight with each other.

These new regs will take a lot of learning and getting use to but you can so clearly see the potential in them. They are perfect for stragetic racing and exciting overtakes and racing.

But it also begs the question; do they rely on certain tracks to perform?

This will put a end to this roundup! see you in Japan!

Kimi ends the Italian drought

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