Christian Horner: "It was a phenomenal weekend for the Team, 117 wins and 15 years since our first victory here marks a very big moment for us and one I am very proud of on a personal level. We are very happy with the progress. Max has just been fantastic, all season long and again with Checo on the podium sums up a great all round performance. We were on an aggressive two stop and we were a little unlucky with the safety car which played into Lando and Charles favour, but that's the way it goes sometimes. So they got a free stop and were able to jump Checo on track. He managed to pass Charles but unfortunately, he didn't have enough to catch Lando. Maybe we took a bit too much out tyres early on, but it was a great drive by both drivers and a great race by the whole Team. The pit crew were on their game today with the double stack and that is a measure of the tone set by the Team in general, everyone continues to fire on all cylinders both here and back at home in Milton Keynes. I would also like to thank Exxon Mobil for their continued support and congratulate them on 50 years of Mobil 1. We literally would not be able to get out of the gate without them!"
George Russell finished P6 and Lewis Hamilton P9 in Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix. After a difficult Qualifying session, George lined up P8 on the Medium tyre with Lewis on the Soft compound in P18.
George passed both Ferraris on the opening lap to run P6 in the early stages, whilst Lewis battled gamely to make up positions. An early stop onto the Medium tyre put both cars on a two-stop strategy. A Safety Car intervention enabled those second stops to take place with the Hard tyre taken.
A messy restart and second Safety Car handed Lewis several more positions and he then fought into the points with overtakes on Ricciardo and Hulkenberg.
George meanwhile drove a solid race to make up places on Piastri and Alonso, whilst the pace of the Ferraris was too strong to mitigate against.
In the closing stages, both tried to pressure the car ahead but had to settle for P6 and P9 at the flag.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: Considering where we started today and more importantly, where we had put the cars in terms of their set-up after the Sprint, P6 and P9 was the best prediction from our pre-race simulations. The car that we have under us is not currently fast enough. However, we must make sure that we are not trying to find a silver bullet each weekend when it comes to how we run the car; we need to focus on getting the basics right, and maximising the package we have. Today, we didn't have the car in the right window: we made too many extreme changes after the Sprint and that made the most important part of the weekend much more challenging. We know that today's result is not strong enough overall, so we must dig deep to make improvements. The pack behind Red Bull is close, and small details can make a big difference in terms of finishing position. We have developments to bring in the coming races which we hope are a step forward and will improve the car.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: It was always going to be a tough race for us. We're not quick enough currently and we didn't qualify well. Our finishing positions were exactly where we'd forecast them to be this morning. George couldn't really have got more out of it; he got a good start which put him ahead of the Ferraris, but we'd taken a bit too much out of the rear tyres in that first stint and had to box earlier than planned. That early stop would have been more painful to deal with, but the two Safety Car periods were helpful for us and neutralised the tyre age offset. The race from there in was straightforward. We were not quick enough to attack Sainz but had the pace to stay ahead of Fernando.
Lewis's race wasn't easy as he didn't gain much off the line on the Soft tyre. He then got stuck in a traffic jam on the inside line around Turn 2 and lost to cars on the wide line. We had made some changes to his car after the Sprint and clearly, they weren't didn't improve the car. It made Qualifying and the race difficult. He was struggling to turn the car and having to use the power to do so, which was hurting the rear tyres. We decided to pit him under the Virtual Safety Car to offset to other cars, but most of our competitors did the same once the Safety Car was deployed. We benefitted from a couple of cars dropping out ahead but, considering the early part of the race, it was a relief to get some points. We will work hard to ensure we do a better job at the next race in Miami.
Scuderia Ferrari marked the return of the Chinese Grand Prix to the calendar with a fourth and a fifth place courtesy of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. On the plus side, a total of 31 points in the bag, including those from the Sprint Race, the second highest total behind Red Bull. It was always going to be about trying to make up places after a difficult qualifying, but for the first time this season, neither driver made it to the podium.
Strategy and management. From sixth and seventh on the grid, the strategy was aimed at moving Charles and Carlos up the order without getting stuck in a DRS train. But neither of them got a good start, both of them overtaken by George Russell and that further complicated matters. Leclerc managed to get ahead of the Mercedes after nine laps and then ran at a strong pace on the Medium tyres, running a longer stint than those around him. Carlos had a harder first stint and came in on lap 17 to switch to Hards, rejoining tenth. One of the key moments was the arrival of the Virtual Safety Car on lap 22, when Valtteri Bottas stopped out on track, followed by a real Safety Car period. Charles then made his only planned stop to fit Hard tyres, taking half the time compared to usual, which thus promoted him to third behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris and ahead of Sergio Perez. Carlos also benefited from the pit stops, moving up to fifth. At the restart, neither Ferrari driver was able to match the pace of the quickest cars on Hard tyres and so the Monegasque had to give best to Perez. Sainz had to lengthen his stint on the Hards, dropping down one place to sixth as Alonso passed him. However, Fernando was on Soft tyres and so Carlos retook the place when the Aston Martin had to make a further stop, thus finishing fifth, behind his team-mate.
Next stop Florida. The world championship resumes in a fortnight's time with the sixth round in Miami, the last race before the start of the European leg of the season.
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: I'm not sure if we could have expected more in terms of finishing higher up the order today given our grid positions. However, I was expecting more in terms of pace than we demonstrated in the race. We now need to understand why that was, especially on the Hards and improve in time for Miami both in qualifying and the race because it's all very close currently with hundredths of a second making a big difference.
We had put both drivers on a two-stop strategy and Charles did a good job of lengthening his stint on the Mediums, but when the Virtual Safety Car was called, we went for a one stop, with the hope of being able to fight for a podium finish.
Unfortunately, Carlos had stopped just before the Safety Car and so he too had to switch to a single stop. This naturally meant he had to be a bit conservative in the final part of the race, but he still brought home the best result that was possible today.
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "We expected this weekend in China to be a case of damage limitation but, in reality, it proved to be our strongest weekend of the season so far. Pole Position in the Sprint, a strong qualifying performance ahead of the grand prix and then, today, a podium for Lando - and a podium on merit. It's a great credit to the hard work put in by the drivers, the team trackside, at the factory and everyone at HPP, and a nice reward for us, our partners and our fans. I'm very happy for everyone involved.
"On Oscar's side, the damage he received during the race robbed him of downforce and meant it was impossible to fight for higher positions - but he drove really well, adapting to the changed balance of the car, and did a good job to add points to our tally.
"It feels good to have a result like this. A big thank you to everyone involved - now we need to keep improving and working hard to have more days like this. The only way to do that is to improve the car. Bring on Miami."
Mike Krack: "Seven hard-earned points today after an eventful Chinese Grand Prix weekend. Fernando's three-stop race was compromised to some extent by the extended Safety Car periods, which negated the full benefit of the Soft tyres. Fernando's recovery in the final laps, making use of new Medium tyres, provided plenty of entertainment and brought him back to P7. We also picked up a point for the fastest lap. It was good damage limitation. Lance's strong race was undone by the incident under the Safety Car: we need to fully analyse what happened but it was a chain reaction caused by cars ahead. He was running well in the points, was on the best tyre strategy, and was set to score good points. We will regroup ahead of another Sprint weekend in Miami."
Bruno Famin, Team Principal: "It was an incident-packed race with multiple Safety Car periods, meaning we needed to stay alert and be ready to react, which we did with a well-executed double stacked pit-stop. Esteban drove a great race to be within striking distance of scoring points, but just missed out in the end. Pierre also did well to recover and make up places after the delay in his first stop. Thankfully nobody was hurt, and we will investigate the reasons to avoid such incidents in future. What today shows is that we still have work to do, and as a team, we need to keep pushing for more performance, as we did not quite have enough today. Special thanks to the team at the factory, who put in a big effort to bring new parts to Shanghai, which performed as expected."
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: We were more competitive today and having taken the opportunity to make some setup changes on Logan's car, we were able to do some useful testing in good conditions. The experience gained yesterday in the Sprint race helped Alex and Logan to manage their stints today. Whilst we didn't quite have the pace to fight for the final points positions, we were close on pace with the teams around us.
It was good to come back to the Shanghai circuit and complete the first Sprint event of the year. It was a tricky weekend, but the team worked very hard throughout, and we made good progress as the event progressed.
Claudio Balestri (Chief Engineer - Vehicle Performance): "For the race, we decided to split the two cars on a different strategy, starting Daniel on the medium compound and Yuki on the soft compound. For Daniel, he lost some positions at the start while Yuki was able to gain some. At the end of Lap 1, Daniel was P15 and Yuki P16, and considering we were far from the points we decided to pit Yuki for an early pitstop, with the target being to undercut the others and fitting a set of new medium tyres. Instead with Daniel, we decided to stay out and go for a longer first stint, pitting him on Lap 14. The degradation was a bit higher than expected on all the compounds and when Bottas stopped his car on track, it created a Virtual Safety Car, followed by a full Safety Car. Almost all the cars pitted for the hard compound to try and go to the end, including Yuki. Unfortunately, just before the restart, Stroll ran into the back of Daniel and heavily damaged his car, and immediately after the restart, Magnussen hit Yuki, damaging his rear right tyre. In summary, both cars were out of the race. Today was not our day but we'll switch our focus to the next race in Miami, where we want to fight for the points."
Laurent Mekies (Team Principal): "It is a disappointing Sunday for us with both cars taken out of the race in separate incidents which our drivers could do nothing about. It's painful but we have no other choice than to accept it and move on. On a positive note, and even if the weekend had started on the slow side, everyone has been working very hard to recover enough pace to be in the fight for P10 again. Daniel produced a very strong drive all weekend, especially today, battling with Lewis just before the Safety Car came out. It was a trickier weekend for Yuki. It is always going to be difficult to drive for the first time here during a sprint weekend, but he kept fighting hard and drove a good race today where he made up a lot of positions. We will be regrouping with Daniel, Yuki, and the whole team in Faenza and in Bicester to analyse the weekend together and come back stronger in Miami for another ultra-tight battle, and hopefully a less frustrating Sunday!"
Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber completed a thrilling and emotional Chinese Grand Prix weekend, as Zhou Guanyu and the team wrote a page of motorsport history in Shanghai. Zhou fought through the field to record 14th position, pushed along by the incredible support of the home crowd; Valtteri Bottas raced hard to finish in the top ten, but his quest for a point ended with a technical issue when in contention for a strong result.
With improving pace and consistency on and off the track, the team will keep working ahead of the next race - in Miami in two weeks.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "This hasn't been the race we expected, it hasn't been the race we wanted. Before going into the analysis of the race, it's worth acknowledging the important page that Zhou, together with the team, has written for the history of motorsport and Formula One in China. Testament to this is the support of all the spectators throughout the whole weekend, from Thursday onwards: it was something impressive, that went beyond our expectations. We saw how much the popularity of Formula One is increasing in China thanks to Zhou, and we're proud that our team could be part of this with him. We expected a tough race for him, starting 16th, but he had good pace and fought well in the many battles he had. We adopted an aggressive strategy in the closing stages, switching to soft tyres to give him more performance: unfortunately, there were no points for him today, but it was important to show he could fight and be competitive against the cars around him. It was a disappointing end of the race for Valtteri, who was fighting with Nico [Hülkenberg] for a place in the top ten. He had a solid opening stint on medium tyres, and the choice to move to hards was the right one: unfortunately, his race was cut short by a drivetrain issue, something we will investigate. It was a big disappointment as he had the pace to finish in the points, which would have been a deserved result for him and the team. Finally, a positive side to today's race was the consistency in our pit stops, in which we were able to achieve the target we had set for ourselves for this weekend. It's an improvement that will give confidence to our pit crew too. Now, we set our sights to Miami with the awareness we can go there for a strong weekend."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team finished with Nico Hulkenberg 10th and Kevin Magnussen 16th at the Chinese Grand Prix, Round 5 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held Sunday at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Hulkenberg took the start on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires from ninth position and carved his way through to seventh place on the opening lap, before relinquishing those spots to both Scuderia Ferrari drivers. Hulkenberg came in on lap eight for White hard tires and cycled through back into the top 10. The Virtual Safety Car - and then full Safety Car - was deployed when Valtteri Bottas' car stopped on track, bunching the pack together.
Hulkenberg came into the pits on lap 24 for another set of hard tires, and held 10th position, before gaining a spot at the second restart after passing Daniel Ricciardo. The German battled with the recovering Lewis Hamilton and while the Mercedes driver moved ahead, Hulkenberg was able to maintain 10th thereafter - registering a third points result of the season for the team.
Magnussen started from 17th on the grid on hard tires and ran a lengthy first stint before pitting on lap 18 for another set of the hard rubber. Magnussen moved forwards towards the cusp of the top 10 but was involved in an incident in the post-Safety Car restart with Yuki Tsunoda. The Dane sustained damage to the front-left of the car, necessitating a pit stop on lap 28, at which he took on medium tires. Magnussen was issued a 10-second time penalty for the collision and classified in 16th place at the checkered.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was amazing to get a point again today with Nico. In terms of Nico's race, from everyone - driving, operations, pit-stop, it was perfection. We knew exactly what we had to do in terms of getting ourselves into a good position to get that point - initially against Bottas. Both communication and execution were good. Honestly, I think we managed to execute a perfect race with Nico - it was brilliant. With Kevin, unfortunately we didn't have luck from qualifying, so we started from the back and couldn't really do the race we wanted to do. Now we look forward to Miami. I think we can take a lot of confidence from this race."
Max Verstappen's dominance was again the story in Shanghai. After winning yesterday morning's Sprint, the three time world champion added this afternoon's race win to his tally. It is his fourth victory from five races so far this season, plus the Sprint here in China. It takes his total to 58 Grands Prix victories from 190 starts, while for Red Bull it is win number 117.
Also on the podium, second placed Lando Norris for McLaren and Sergio Perez, third in the other Red Bull. This was the Englishman's 15th podium and the Mexican's 39th. Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag in seventh place and set the race fastest lap for the 25th time in his career, his second with Aston Martin after the one in Zandvoort last year.
Predictably, the vast majority of drivers opted to start on the Medium, with four - Hamilton, Stroll, Sargeant and Tsunoda - going for the Soft and Magnussen choosing the Hard.
The way the race panned out and the various strategy choices were influenced by three Safety Car periods, one virtual and two real, for a total of around 17 minutes, just before half-distance. This bunched up the pack and mixed things up in terms of pit stops and tyre usage to the extent that six drivers - Hamilton, Stroll, Alonso, Sargeant, Tsunoda and Zhou - ended up using all three compounds. Further confirmation of this was the fact that the strategies of the drivers who made up the top ten were very different to one another in terms of the order in which the compounds were used, as well as in the number of pit stops: Norris, Sainz and Leclerc stopped only once, while Verstappen, Perez, Russell, Hamilton, Piastri and Hulkenberg stopped twice and Alonso three times.
The longest stint of all was driven by Sainz (39 laps on the Hard) with Magnussen going furthest (29 laps) on the Medium and Alonso doing 20 on the Soft.
Next up, it's Formula 1's first visit to North America this season, with a race on a track around Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, from 3 to 5 May. For the second consecutive round, the Sprint format will be in operation, meaning just one free practice session and Sprint Qualifying on Friday, with the Sprint Race and Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday, followed by the usual race on Sunday. The compounds chosen for the sixth round of the season are the C2, C3 and C4, the same as here in Shanghai.
Mario Isola: "I take my hat off to yet another show of strength from Max Verstappen, who won twice on this first Sprint weekend of the season. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting race because behind the three time world champion, there was a very close race with surprises, overtaking and excitement. In fact, there was also great excitement among the Chinese fans who had their eyes glued on local hero Guanyu Zhou all weekend long, and he showed his emotion acknowledging their support after the race.
"From a purely technical point of view, today's race confirmed that all three compounds were suitable for use. Obviously, the long Safety Car periods affected the way the race played out, allowing those considering a one-stop to make it work. However, given the level of degradation evident, it would have really been borderline to make the one stop work without the Safety Car, as there would have been too high a price to pay in terms of performance compared to those who would have been on quicker, and possibly newer, tyres in the final part of the race. In fact, this was demonstrated by Alonso, who came in for new Mediums on lap 43 when in seventh place, and was then able to make up all five places lost at the pit stop over the course of his final stint. Finally, it's worth noting that none of the three compounds suffered from graining, further proof that they worked well on this unusual track in very particular conditions."
