FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2026

Well, the first race weekend of the season has come and gone. Ferrari is faster than we thought, McLaren is slower than we thought and Mercedes is right about where everyone predicted they'd be.

The good news is that passing seems to be easier than ever. The bad news is that passing seems to be easier than ever. The start and the first third of the race were very interesting in terms of strategy, performance and on-track action. Fortunately, before we had to go and have a quick lie-down from the excitement, the Ferrari pit wall chose to relive the tension with an historically consistent (i.e. bad) strategy decision.

After the first VSC, the outcome was never in doubt. (It wasn't in much doubt before that, but at least it looked like it could be.) Hamilton whined about it but didn't try to force anything. He seemed to have the measure of Leclerc for most of the weekend, only coming up short when it really mattered on Saturday.

Notable milestones-
-George started off this season's whinging on lap 7.
-Hamilton said... (I had to go back and recheck my notes on this because I don't think I've ever heard him say it before...) "My tires are good."
-Lindblad points on debut!

Notable highs-
-Hadjar qualified third. The last time Max's teammate looked this comfortable in the second seat was at least 4 years and four teammates ago.
-Oliver Bearman put in a solid performance to start the season off strong.
-Verstappen put his head down and made his way through the field methodically and quietly. He finished a respectable 6th, aided by Piastri dumping his McLaren into the wall on the way to the grid and Hadjar's Ford expiring on lap 11.
-Honorable mention to Colapinto for his epic avoidance of Lawson at the start.

Max's drive puts the relative performance of the teams into stark terms. The top four teams finished at the top of the grid. Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull. That's it. That's the order, that's the performance as it stands right now. And, with the new rules, that's where we're going to be for a while. Red Bull probably have better one-lap pace than Ferrari and McLaren, but Ferrari has better race pace and Max really didn't challenge Norris at all in the closing stages. The Ferraris were 15 seconds behind the Mercs and then it was another 40 seconds to McLaren and Red Bull. Nobody else was on the lead lap.

Notable lows-
-Aston Martin are in trouble. They're blaming it on Honda and Honda is pointing towards design change requests from AM. (Shades of 2015) Despite the trouble they're in, no one at the team seems to be breaking rank and drowning in despair. Even the outspoken Alonso is shrugging and talking about progress. Both Honda and Lawrence Stroll have a lot of money, I'm curious to see if they can dig themselves out of this hole. I'm also curious to see how long the hopeful front lasts.
-Lawson. Other than one lap on Saturday, the Kiwi was dominated by his rookie teammate. This marks the fourth teammate in formula 1 who has been quicker than him. And a quick count shows that's all the teammates he's had. I think it's time for him to move on or get his daddy to buy a team.
-Williams. What the hell happened to Williams? Really, I'm asking for real. I have no idea what happened to them. Does anyone?
-Driver of the day voting did not include Piastri, Lindblam or Colapinto.

This week is another middle of the night race. We're going to meet at 9 am to watch it on delay.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to watch a delayed broadcast at The Goat. So the venue is moving to the clubhouse at my apartment complex in Pittsboro.