Team Quotes - Saturday 22 March

Andrea Stella: "A strong effort by the team and both drivers in Qualifying to deliver the pace we knew we had in the car, but first of all I want to congratulate Oscar on his first Grand Prix Pole. He put together a beautiful lap in Q3 after two strong sessions in Q1 and Q2, and delivered his best when it mattered most.

"As we expected, we have seen a very high level of competition from other teams once again. After a strong result by Ferrari this morning, Mercedes were extremely close this afternoon. Oscar and Lando have put us in a great position for the race tomorrow, which will no doubt be close and we're focused now on extracting the maximum from the car when it counts."

Christian Horner: "Today was quick for the pack, Ferrari took the win in the Sprint and McLaren grabbing pole in Qualifying. Max was right up there also, he did a great job and there were parts of his run that looked like he could stick it on pole but it was not to be. It was a tough day at the office for Liam today. We will take a good look at it and come back tomorrow. The problem is the tyres are so sensitive here, we saw it in the Sprint earlier, different graining and different cars working in different ways. I don't think pole position is essential for this race; it's all going to be about strategy and that front left tyre. Also, importantly today, a big congratulations and well done to our F1 Academy drivers, Alisha and Chloe, on an outstanding first race weekend and a one-two podium finish. It is a proud moment for the Red Bull Academy Programme, achieving our first win in F1 Academy, and hopefully there are many more to come this season."

Saturday in China saw Scuderia Ferrari HP clinch its first ever Sprint race win courtesy of Lewis Hamilton, while together with Leclerc it has both cars on the third row for the Grand Prix, run over a distance of 305.066 kilometres, starting at 3pm local time (08.00 CET).

In the morning, or in the middle of the night for those watching in Europe, Lewis added another small note to the history books for himself and for the team. For both parties it was a maiden Sprint race win. The gap in the statistics was filled thanks to a perfectly executed race from Hamilton who led the field from lights out to chequered flag. The Englishman made the most of running in clean air which allowed him to do a good job of managing his used Medium tyres. Charles finished fifth in the morning race which means the team has picked up 12 points today.

In the afternoon, everyone was back on track for qualifying for the Grand Prix, with hotter temperatures, the track up from 34 in the morning to 40, while the wind was also changing. The session was very closely contested with highs and lows for several drivers. Lewis and Charles got through Q1 without any difficulty, but from then on, they struggled quite a lot to put together a good lap. They each had two sets of new Softs for Q3 and their lap times were very similar: Lewis' best was a 1'30"927 and Charles posted a 1'31"021, which secured them fifth and sixth places respectively to share the third row of the grid.

The starting positions of the two SF-25s is clearly not ideal, but tomorrow's race could be extremely tactical. While in the past, a two-stop was comfortably possible, the new track surface which is offering much more grip, puts far more stress on the tyres and they will require very careful management, to avoid a sudden drop in performance. The engineers and drivers will now analyse all of today's data in depth, preparing for every possible scenario for a race that might still present some good opportunities.

Fred Vasseur: This morning's 19 laps demonstrated that tyre management will be absolutely crucial tomorrow, given the characteristics of the new track surface in Shanghai. Today's qualifying was really difficult to read and several teams, including ourselves, experienced a swing in performance. We were strong in Q1 before struggling in Q2 and in Q3 we came within three tenths of pole, most of the time lost in the final sector. Of course, we would have preferred to have qualified better, because even if you have good pace, we saw in the Sprint that running in dirty air, your tyres suffer a lot more. The race will be all about strategy and we must be ready to take advantage of any situations that arise. The field looks very close and overnight, we will work on ensuring we are in the best possible shape to bring home another good points haul to add to the twelve from today.

George Russell qualified second, and on the front-row, for tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix, with Kimi Antonelli P8. Saturday's F1 Sprint proved uneventful for our duo. Having started fifth and seventh respectively, George made up one place to finish ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc whilst Kimi held onto his position.

With a tightly packed and competitive field, each segment of Qualifying proved a tense affair. The team continued to monitor and evaluate various different out lap and preparation lap strategies in order to get the most out of the Soft compound tyre. Both cars made it through to Q3, with Kimi unfortunate to drop a couple of tenths in the final sector to leave him P8.

George meanwhile saved his best lap for last. A strong effort putting him P2 on the grid behind the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, with a deficit of just 0.082s to the Australian. That is George's fourth front-row start in six races (São Paulo, Las Vegas, Qatar, China) and the 15th in his F1 career so far.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: We were struggling to get the tyres in the right window throughout Qualifying. We kept at it though, worked as a team, and got it right at the end of the session. George was able to put the whole lap together and P2 was the result. It was a great effort and another calm and composed performance from him. For Kimi, he had good speed in Q3 but was unfortunate to lose time on his final lap in the last sector. Without that, he would have been challenging for the top six. Nevertheless, it is more valuable experience for him in what was his first Q3 appearance of his career.

Tomorrow's race is set up to be very interesting. We expect the McLarens to be strong whilst the Ferraris were the stand-out in this morning's Sprint. Starting from P2, we will be looking to hold our own in the early stages and see where we net out. Nobody has run the Hard compound tyre yet so that is an unknown going into Sunday. Let's see what we can do.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: Qualifying was a difficult session to manage. It was challenging to know exactly what the tyres needed to extract the maximum performance. We tried various out lap profiles but didn't manage to nail it in the first two segments of the session. We made a good step for Q3 though and George's final lap was very strong. That gave him P2 on tomorrow's grid. For Kimi, his first Q3 lap was deleted due to track limits. On his second and final effort, he lost a little bit of time in the final sector, but it was still a respectable effort, particularly given it was his first Q3 session of his F1 career. He will naturally be disappointed he's not starting a couple of positions further up, but he can look forward to an attacking race tomorrow.

We saw in this morning's Sprint that graining was perhaps even worse than most expected. Cars were having to manage heavily, and as soon as you pushed the tyre, it began to suffer. That is useful learning for tomorrow's Grand Prix where the finishing result is likely to be dictated by how well you are able to manage the tyres, particularly the front-left. Nobody has had any experience on the Hard compound so that is another unknown to throw into the mix. We will be looking to execute well and bring home another solid points haul, as we were able to do in the Sprint.

Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer: "A strong Sprint this morning for both drivers - with Lance just missing out on a point after a great battle with Lando [Norris]. I think our qualification result this afternoon is just a reflection of our car pace right now. We made some set-up changes to both cars after the Sprint and both Lance and Fernando had pretty clean sessions. We saw in the Sprint this morning just how tough this track is on tyres so managing tyre degradation will be a major challenge tomorrow too. We will continue doing our homework tonight to see where we can improve for the race with the aim of progressing into the points."

oday in numbers:

Sprint Race: Pierre started from P17 on Used Mediums, finished P12. Fastest Lap: (1min 37.481secs) Jack started from P16 on Used Mediums, finished P20. Fastest Lap: (1min 37.686secs)

Qualifying: Pierre P16 (1min 31.992secs); Jack P18 (1min 32.092secs)

Oliver Oakes, Team Principal: "The field is so competitive and condensed, which showed in both the Sprint and in Qualifying, with 15 cars separately by less than one second this afternoon. We fell the wrong side of it in Qualifying today and ultimately are missing a little at this track, particularly over a single lap. With how tight the field spread is, it really exacerbates the result in either direction, if you hook a lap up or are a little bit off it. From looking at the Sprint, I think we have a better car in race trim and with high degradation expected tomorrow, we hope we can capitalise on that in the Grand Prix tomorrow and make some progress."

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban kicked off Saturday morning in Shanghai with the 19-lap Sprint race - the first of six planned Sprint weekends on the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship schedule. Bearman finished 15th with Ocon 16th - the shortened race format only rewarding the top eight finishers with points.

In a largely processional Sprint - with overtakes few and far between, Bearman successfully held station from his P12 starting spot. Spending the majority of the race sandwiched between the two Williams entries of Albon and Sainz, Bearman only dropped down the mid-field pack in the dying laps with a drop off on his Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires - the Brit taking the checkered flag in P15. Ocon started from P18, quickly passing the Alpine of Doohan to gain a position. The Frenchman was later passed by Lawson in the Red Bull but a penultimate lap move on the Sauber of Bortolleto promoted Ocon back to P16 at the end.

Saturday afternoon then saw Ocon and Bearman back in action to qualify for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix - with Ocon securing 11th and Bearman 17th respectively.

Ocon just missed out on landing his VF-25 in Q3, delivering a solid performance in Q2 on new softs (1:31.625) to take P11 - only three hundredths of a second shy from making the top 10. The Frenchman had graduated into Q2 beating the traffic in the closing stages to clock a 1:31.876 for P13. Bearman wasn't quite so fortunate - unable to start a third planned run due to traffic on his out lap, he exited Q1 qualifying in P17 - his best lap a 1:32.018 on his second set of softs.

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "We struggled a bit in the Sprint with tire management and the car balance. So, based on what we learned in the Sprint, we changed the set-up on both cars ahead of qualifying. The positive there is it went in very much the right direction - both drivers were much happier with the car in qualifying. I know it was the right direction for tomorrow's race as well. Another positive was how close we got in terms of getting into Q3 - Esteban's final lap in Q2 was a good lap, it wasn't perfect, but if I remember correctly it was only something like a tenth off Hamilton in P8. That was a good effort. I'm sure Ollie would have had a similar chance as well, he just couldn't start his final timed lap in Q1 by the tiniest of margins. There are a couple of things operationally we can improve. It's all about tiny margins but the encouraging thing is we're understanding the car better. We managed to make a good change between the Sprint and qualifying. Let's see what we can do tomorrow."

James Vowles, Team Principal: Sprint weekends are always challenging and this one is no different. We didn't have the car in the right place this morning and in the Sprint Race, we suffered more graining than near enough all the cars around us and had to try our best to manage it. We made some quite significant set-up changes for both drivers for Qualifying and for the Grand Prix, which should put us in a better position. As we said before the season started, the field is so tight, and just milliseconds really makes a difference between making it to Q3 or being on the outside of it. With Carlos, we can absolutely see improvement; in reality it was just one corner that differentiated him from Alex, but it bodes well for the race tomorrow.

Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber tackled a packed Saturday at the Shanghai International Circuit with the Sprint and Qualifying compressed into a single day of action. The Sprint was shaped by a long DRS train and a late-race incident involving both team cars and Jack Doohan's Alpine - though both our drivers were found blameless. The team responded with a swift turnaround to prepare the cars for qualifying.

In the afternoon session, Gabriel exited in Q1 and will line up P19 for Sunday's race. Nico advanced to Q2 and recorded the 12th fastest time, narrowly missing out on a spot in Q3 in an exceptionally close field.

Beat Zehnder, Director Signature Programs & Operations: "It was a busy day today, as it always is on a Sprint Saturday, but the team as a whole did a good job to gain performance and give us an improved chance for tomorrow's race. The morning session was challenging, as we didn't have the pace we needed to make progress, but the data we collected, both yesterday and today, allowed us to prepare better for this afternoon's Qualifying. Gabriel missed the cut to make it to his third consecutive Q2 for two and a half tenths, mostly as his warm-up lap was compromised as he ended up too close to Lewis [Hamilton]. We know the key to performance on the single lap is tyre preparation, and these conditions were not ideal for him to extract the full potential of the car, especially in such a close field. Nico, on the other hand, was agonisingly close to a place in Q3, and missed out by just 0.04s. It's always frustrating to miss out by such a small margin, but it's promising to see the improvement we have made throughout the weekend. Now we have to keep pushing, find some more performance and get ready for what is going to be an interesting race tomorrow."

It was a Saturday of firsts today in Shanghai. This morning, at his 19th attempt, Lewis Hamilton took his first win in a Sprint race, as did his new team, Ferrari. In the afternoon, at his 48th attempt, Oscar Piastri tasted the delights of claiming his very first pole position.

This is McLaren's 166th pole, the third in row after those at the final race of 2024 in Abu Dhabi and in Melbourne last Saturday. The last time the English squad was on pole in Shanghai dates back to 2008, courtesy of Hamilton. Piastri is the fifth Australian to take an F1 pole, after Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo.

The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Piastri by Aarif Lee (Li Zhiting), a singer, songwriter and actor originally from Hong Kong. Li Zhiting made his film debut in "Echoes of the Rainbow," which earned him two best upcoming actor awards. He next played Bruce Lee in the biopic, "Bruce Lee, My Brother" and starred alongside Jackie Chan in the comedy, "Kung Fu Yoga" as well as appearing in several successful Chinese TV series.

All drivers started the Sprint race on used Mediums. Managing graining in the only real opportunity to evaluate the tyres over a long run was the dominant theme of the 19 laps, with quite noticeable differences, not just between teams but also between drivers in the same cars. There was slightly more graining today than yesterday, which accelerated wear, but in fact the data gathered from the Sprint meant all the teams were able to change their set-up. How that affects tyre behaviour will be seen tomorrow in the race. 15 of the 20 drivers did their first Q1 run on a set of used Softs. The track continued to evolve throughout the day but less rapidly than yesterday. However, it still delivered lap times a further three tenths quicker than anything ever seen at this track in Formula 1.

Mario Isola: "A day of records. In qualifying we saw yesterday's lap times beaten and in the Sprint, taking into account the stint from today's winner compared to the same event last year, we saw lap times over four seconds faster, even though temperatures were significantly higher. From one year to the next, we therefore see a huge increase in performance, much greater than that based on simulations going into this race, which it should be noted, are based on data received from all the teams. It was therefore absolutely logical to raise the minimum pressures for the start, by one psi on each axle.

"As for strategy, the level of degradation leads us to suggest that a two-stop is obligatory, featuring the Medium and the Hard. Although the new Soft is fairly close to the Medium in terms of performance, we don't think it's a valid choice, even if it could offer more grip off the start line. In fact, those starting near the back might go for the Hard to extend the first stint as long as possible, before making up places in the run of pit stops.

"What we can be sure of is that everything would seem to be in place to deliver an uncertain and exciting race. In yesterday's Sprint Qualifying, we saw the top three covered by just 80 thousandths, while today it was 82: a further indication of just how close it all is in Formula 1 in the early part of the 2025 season."