Oscar Piastri has queried the McLaren run plan that he suspects had a role in him missing out on pole position in Sprint Qualifying at Formula 1‘s Chinese Grand Prix.

Having won the opening race in Australia, McLaren’s status as the team to beat was consolidated as Lando Norris led Piastri in the sole practice session in Shanghai.

However, McLaren was beaten to pole position for tomorrow’s Sprint race as errors from Norris and Piastri enabled Lewis Hamilton to capitalise to put Ferrari on top.

READ MORE – Lewis Hamilton grabs Chinese GP Sprint Race pole

Norris committed mistakes on both of his attempts in SQ3 to be resigned to sixth, while Piastri, who had been on provisional pole, couldn’t improve on his second lap.

Piastri has claimed McLaren’s decision to send both drivers out for two timed runs rather than the singular-lap strategy its rivals employed proved counter-productive.

“I think probably quick at the wrong points of it, unfortunately,” the Australian, who got bumped down to third amid Max Verstappen’s last-gap run to second, reflected.

“Yeah, SQ1 and SQ2 felt good, then SQ3 we tried something a bit different and went out much earlier and tried two laps, which I’m not sure was the best thing in the end.

“But I think it’s something we need to have a look at.

“But the pace in the car is still very strong and I’m still confident to fight from third tomorrow.”

The ‘interesting challenge’ impacting teams in China

Piastri highlighted how the relaid asphalt at the Shanghai International Circuit has added to the complications the drivers have had to contend with upon F1’s return.

“It’s been difficult,” he conceded. “I think with the track surface, it’s got a lot of grip, but it’s peaky.

“I think it’s been pretty tough all day to keep on top of the car.

“Honestly, I think we did a good job of trying to tame it for Sprint Quali, just maybe got the run plan a bit wrong.

“It’s been an interesting challenge, the grip has been a lot better than last season which is nice. But some things we can do better tomorrow.”

READ MORE – Lando Norris laments ‘too difficult’ McLaren after China Sprint qualifying errors

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Lando Norris lamented a McLaren MCL39 that was “too difficult” to drive during Sprint Qualifying for the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.

Allcomers expected Norris to run to Sprint pole at the Shanghai International Circuit, despite the McLaren driver warning on Thursday that Ferrari could be resurgent.

Those comments came among a notion the MCL39 was a car that has ultimate potential but can bite and that’s exactly how Sprint Qualifying played out.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton romped away to Sprint Pole with a lap record while Norris slid to sixth thanks to two errors.

On his first SQ3 run, Norris had a moment coming onto the back straight, costing him vital speed and six-tenths in the final sector to team-mate Oscar Piastri.

In his final run, locking up into Turn 14 forced Norris to abort the lap and he was adamant once out of the car that an improvement is needed.

“We just struggled a bit more now, just not quick enough simply, I struggled a lot with the car,” Norris said.

“So, yeah, just our difficulties that we’ve been struggling with showed a lot more today.

“Nothing more than that, honestly, just too many mistakes, but it’s just too difficult of a car to drive.”

Wind exposed McLaren’s weaknesses

Norris added that windy conditions helped expose McLaren’s weaknesses, akin to the findings he discovered during pre-season testing in Bahrain.

“I think just throughout the day we’ve been struggling a bit with the front locking and struggling a lot in the last corner with all the tailwinds, he said. 

“Kind of a lot more in line with Bahrain, so just a lot windier when the wind’s blowing, then we struggle a lot more.

“Both myself and Oscar struggled more, clearly me more than him.

“Just pushing a bit hard to try and make up for not quite being quick enough.”

Asked whether McLaren can make improvements for the remainder of the weekend, Norris acknowledged that it’s up to him, rather than the team to turn his Chinese GP around.

“That’s more me rather than the car,” he said. 

“I can’t make the car perfect, but, this was me just trying to, again, like I said, just push a bit too much. 

“I think the car’s still good and in a good window, maybe not good enough for pole, but, yeah, we can definitely go forward.”

READ MORE – Lando Norris: McLaren MCL39 made it difficult to dominate F1 Australian GP qualifying

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McLaren‘s Lando Norris said Ferrari must have been “shocked” by its pace deficit in the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

Ferrari posed a genuine threat to McLaren throughout practice at the Albert Park Circuit with Charles Leclerc even topping FP2.

However, come the top-10 shootout in qualifying, any competitiveness Ferrari had towards McLaren evaporated as Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were resigned to the fourth row, seven-tenths adrift of the papaya front row lockout.

In the race, Ferrari’s fortunes didn’t improve and a lack of outright pace and strategy miscues saw the Scuderia duo finish eighth and 10th respectively.

Norris is adamant that McLaren won’t enjoy a similar advantage over Ferrari this weekend in China, expecting the Italian squad to have fared far better in Melbourne.

“The gap in qualifying surprised us a bit,” Norris said on Thursday.

“Our goal was to be on pole, and we expected to be quickest, but we also expected Ferrari to be a good chunk quicker than they were. 

“In the end, they were what—seven, eight tenths off? They’re not that far off by any means. 

“If you looked at FP1, FP2, FP3, their pace never looked that far behind. All of Ferrari’s race runs on Friday were a lot closer to us than anyone else. 

“In fact, I think Ferrari’s race pace on Friday was maybe even better than ours. So we were surprised. 

“I’m sure they seemed a bit shocked as well by why they were so far off in the race. 

“But it just shows how difficult it is to predict. One weekend, everything is going well, and the next, it can turn upside down.”

McLaren driver line-up an ‘advantage’ – Norris

Norris acknowledged that race by race and even stint by stint, things can change very quickly.

“You saw how quick Max was at the end of the race,” Norris exclaimed, citing the moment damp conditions played into the Red Bull driver’s hands.

“Even at the start, in the first five to seven laps, and then again in the last five to seven laps, Max was just as quick as us.”

However, when the conditions dried and managing tyre degradation became key, Norris highlighted that his and Oscar Piastri’s know-how proved to be a big advantage.

“But in that middle period of the race, when you have to understand the tyres and know how much to push, we seemed very strong,” he said. 

“That’s when you need a well-balanced car in drying conditions so the tyre degradation happens evenly, rather than the front wearing out more than the rear or vice versa. 

“Also, there’s a good amount that Oscar and I have learned from each other about how to drive the car efficiently. 

“That’s an advantage—not every team has two teammates who can really rely on each other and push each other forward. 

“It’s something we’ve worked on at McLaren, and I think it’s paying off.”

Ferrari meanwhile, although boasting a strong driver line-up, is working hard to bring Hamilton up to speed, as he seeks to tune his massive talent to his new surroundings.

After three seasons as team-mates, Norris and Piastri are singing from the same hymn sheet.

READ MORE – Lando Norris predicts slow start for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

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Lando Norris has claimed McLaren would have looked like “complete idiots” had it not used team orders to prevent an incident in the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

McLaren was dominating proceedings in a rain-hit season-opening race at the Albert Park Circuit when the team told Oscar Piastri to maintain position behind Norris.

The Woking-based squad’s intervention went against the stance that the two would be authorised to race one another amid the mutual desire to land the Drivers’ title.

However, McLaren boss Andrea Stella revealed post-race that concern over navigating lapped cars ahead with more rain on the horizon prompted the team to step in.

Norris, who went on to win the race as a spin consigned Piastri to ninth, disclosed that he was unaware that his team-mate had been instructed to remain behind him.

The Briton was adamant McLaren made the correct call, though, as he highlighted how it would have been embarrassing had an ensuing battle culminated in a crash.

“So I didn’t really know about it because they said it to Oscar, not to me,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week.

“And it was literally just for two or three laps as we went through the backmarkers.

“It was risky conditions, and we’d look like complete idiots if we attempted to race and both ended up off the track – or worse, out of the race – when we had a great result in hand.

“It was just for a couple of laps that they asked us to hold position, and then he was free to race again.

“We were free to race all the way up until that point, and then there was just a holding period for a few laps. After that, it was back to normal.

“I think that’s all I really knew about it. I’m sure we’ll talk about it more – we even had a little chat about it this morning.”

McLaren prioritised the team result

Norris dismissed suggestions that McLaren had sought to prioritise him, citing that Piastri was permitted to race him once the circumstances were more appropriate.

“From the team’s perspective, it wasn’t about me or Oscar, it was about McLaren – we’re first and second, let’s not do anything silly when we don’t need to,” he said.

“There’s still a lot of opportunity left for Oscar to race me, and it would have been stupid to try and force a situation when we’re behind backmarkers, blue flags.

“If you go offline at that part of the race, you’re in the wall. At that stage of the race, I was still trying to think I need get these tyres to last until Lap 54 or whatever.

“I think Oscar was just pushing a bit more and trying to get past me. But yeah, it was all comfortable from my side.”

READ MORE – Oscar Piastri casts ‘clear’ verdict on McLaren F1 team orders

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Max Verstappen claims it’s “impossible” to quantify whether McLaren’s 2025 advantage outweighs the one Red Bull had with its 2023 Formula 1 machine.

Mercedes’ George Russell has been repeatedly despondent about the field’s deficit to McLaren, despite the 2025 season being one race young.

In Melbourne, he argued that McLaren could already switch 100% development focus onto next year given the pace of the MCL39 and on Thursday in Shanghai, he made an even bolder claim.

“The gap they have this year on everybody is bigger than Red Bull has ever had,” he said (via The Race),” adding the MCL39’s advantage is “definitely bigger” than the RB19 that won all but one race in 2023.

Verstappen, meanwhile, said “it’s impossible” to say whether the MCL39 is stronger than the all-conquering Red Bull.

“Unless you have driven that car yourself,” he added.

“They’re super strong,” Verstappen said of McLaren. 

“I have a lot of respect for what they have done already last year and now they’re very fast. Very all-round, good everywhere.

“That is just a fact now, how big the gap is or whatever is difficult to say.”

Red Bull lacking all-around performance to McLaren – Verstappen

All-around performance is something that Verstappen believes Red Bull’s RB21 is lacking.

Speaking to F1 media the Dutchman said “I just want to focus on our own car. We just try to work from there, because that’s the only thing that we can control anyway. 

“That’s what I prefer to focus on and hopefully, step by step, we can find some more performance.

“I think in general, what we have seen so far, high-speed has not really been weak, so it is quite good.

“It is more the rest of it, where we are not all-round enough. 

“That is what we have to work on. Here, there are not that many high-speed corners, but there are a lot of unknowns with the tarmac – it’s new. So it’s very hard to say where we will be.”

His assessment of the weekend ahead was pragmatic, saying “I for sure know that we will not be the quickest because I think that is McLaren with how strong they are currently. 

“But that’s fine. We just have to focus on ourselves and try to do the best we can.”

When it comes to how the pecking order behind McLaren, Verstappen added “Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari were all quite close [in Australia]. 

“And [that] probably will differ a bit track to track.”

READ MORE – Max Verstappen makes admission on Red Bull win prospects in F1 2025

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George Russell has contended that McLaren’s current advantage has surpassed the one that Red Bull possessed at the height of the team’s dominance in Formula 1.

The widespread consensus that McLaren would be the side to beat was realised last weekend as Lando Norris prevailed in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

But while his winning margin over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull was less than a second, intermittent weather and Safety Car interventions shrouded McLaren’s true gap.

Indeed, having survived Verstappen’s initial charge in the opening stages, Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri created a 14-second lead over the Dutchman in 10 laps.

Even prior to the race, Russell had claimed that McLaren’s front-row lockout demonstrated it could switch attention to the new 2026 rules now and still win both titles.

The Briton has doubled down on that view amid McLaren’s victorious start, as he argued the team’s advantage has eclipsed what Red Bull boasted at its peak in 2023.

However, Russell has predicted that the McLaren drivers won’t capitalise on its supremacy as well as Verstappen did when he drove the RB19 to 19 wins in 22 rounds.

“I think their car is definitely capable of winning every race,” Russell said.

“Their car should win every race, but I don’t think they will win every race this year. Let’s see. 

“The gap they have this year on everybody is bigger than Red Bull has ever had.

“But when Max was in that [2023] car he was pretty reliable every single lap he did every single run in Q3, throughout qualifying, never really a question. 

“Hopefully we can be there to capitalise like we were at the [previous] weekend, as that should have been a 1-2 for those guys.”

FIA clampdown won’t hinder McLaren much

The discussion during the build-up to this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix has surrounded whether an FIA clampdown on flexible rear wings could destabilise McLaren.

But with Norris adamant the team hasn’t had to make changes to its car, Russell has conceded the ruling wouldn’t have altered the outcome at the Albert Park Circuit.

“If the TD (Technical Directive) was there in Melbourne they definitely would have won the race because they’re just so far ahead,” the Mercedes driver highlighted.

Where does McLaren’s advantage lie?

Instead, Russell has reiterated that McLaren’s cutting edge over the competition resides in how the team’s MCL39 car preserves the Pirelli tyre better over a race stint.

“If you’re talking about trying to find that amount of lap time in downforce that isn’t going to happen in a season and it’s never happened in a season,” he elaborated.

“They’re clearly doing something better than the rest, clearly substantially quicker than everybody when the tyres are getting hot.

“We saw that in the Bahrain test. We saw it in sector three in [Australia] qualifying, they were four-tenths faster than everyone else in sector three.

“Same car they had in sector one and two, only difference is tyre overheating.

“There’s room for us to improve but…and we know we have room to improve but we don’t feel like there are masses of opportunities to improve in that region, it’s quite tightly controlled.

“So they’re clearly doing something pretty trick and that gap is huge.”

READ MORE – McLaren ‘surprised’ by overall competitiveness of 2025 F1 car

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Lando Norris believes that McLaren hadn’t been “pushing the limits enough” on rear-wing flex amid a fresh clampdown for the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.

The FIA enforced a new limit on rear wing flex for the season-opening Australian GP, with stricter front wing limitations due for Round 9 in Spain.

However, after observations in Melbourne, the FIA has tightened rear-wing restrictions even further.

The new technical directive mandates that rear wings flex at a limit of 0.5mm under a vertical load-bearing test of 75kg on the mainplane, with a China-only tolerance of 0.25mm.

This is to combat the supposed ‘mini-DRS’ effect that McLaren courted controversy with in Baku last year which led to Norris being asked whether his team is under stress trying to adapt to the new technical directive in Shanghai.

“Nope,” was the McLaren driver’s response to the query on Thursday. 

“We don’t have to change anything. 

“Ours is fine. In fact, ours was probably too good. 

“We’re probably not pushing the limits enough, honestly. 

“If this technical directive was applied for last weekend, we’d also be fine. 

“So it’s not directed at us, it seems. It’s directed at other teams.

“Which probably means we need to push it a little bit more.”

Who will benefit from the technical directive?

The FIA monitored several teams during the Australian GP weekend for rear wing flex, including McLaren and made post-race checks on Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, George Russell’s Mercedes, Carlos Sainz’s Williams and Norris’ MCL39.

The governing body then elected to slash rear wing flex tolerances by 75% so clearly believes one or more teams were exploiting the regulations.

Voices within the Red Bull camp certainly feel as if McLaren or others were exploiting the regulations regarding wing flexibility.

Technical Director Pierre Wache was pointing fingers during pre-season testing 

“It is still going on,” he told The Race.

“I think Ferrari and McLaren are doing the mini-DRS stuff still.”

Red Bull also boasts that any tightening up on wing flexibility will benefit the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

Whether it can reel McLaren in this weekend looks to be uncertain, especially given Norris’ defiant claims his team is well within rear-wing flex limits.

The FIA noted that no team was in breach of the previous 2mm tolerance in Australia, which tallies with Andrea Stella’s comments to Sky Sports ahead of the new campaign.

“[It’s] no headache at all,” he said.

“We don’t have to make many adjustments at all for the start of the season.

“There will be a small adjustment required from race nine,” he added, highlighting front wing flexibility is an area McLaren continues to pursue.

Can Red Bull hold on until June before McLaren is pegged back?

READ MORE – Lando Norris makes ominous vow to F1 rivals over McLaren’s 2025 potential

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Lando Norris has bemoaned the Netflix fly-on-the-wall Formula 1 series, Drive to Survive, saying the show’s depiction of his rivalry with Max Verstappen as “fabricated nonsense.”

The World Championship leader has called into question the way the show has depicted his 2024 title battle with the Dutchman, who went on to clinch his fourth successive Drivers’ crown.

In the second episode, Verstappen is portrayed as being significantly unhappy with losing the Miami Grand Prix to Norris, the Brit’s first-ever F1 win.

However, some of the footage used is taken from a moment at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, when Verstappen lost out on a home win to the McLaren driver.

Speaking ahead of his successful Australian Grand Prix, Norris said the show should take a more truthful tact.

“They need to show the truth about people more,” he said.

“I’m not a fan of fake stuff. I want facts. I don’t want made-up scripts and fabricated nonsense, which there is.

“The portrayal of Max, and how we were against each other so much, they don’t need to create that drama, just show the facts.

“It is almost lying in some ways, and I just don’t think that’s correct. They just jumble up the whole thing and they don’t care when they put it in.

“Maybe it needs to be more of a documentary of the season, more than a show like they’re trying to do. It has drifted too far away.”

Verstappen ‘ignores’ and Russell says he ‘doesn’t care’ how he’s portrayed by Netflix

Verstappen, an outspoken critic of the show, had previously mocked this particular moment in the series, and speaking to media including Motorsport Week in Melbourne, he stated that he tries his best to give it any of his attention.

“I’m not surprised, so… I didn’t watch it,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate you see these things pop up on X, but you just need to quickly ignore it so it doesn’t come up again in your feed.

“No, not blocked [Netflix], because they see that. If you ignore it, then no one knows.”

Fellow Brit George Russell, who completed the podium with Norris and Verstappen at Albert Park, appeared to echo Verstappen’s chosen ignorance of the show.

“I’ve got to be honest, I’ve not seen the episode in full … and I was fed back it was two extremes from the first half to the last half,” he told media including Motorsport Week.

“But ultimately, I don’t really care how I’m portrayed there, I care about how I perform in the car and how I work with my team, to be honest.

“There’s always an agenda for the best storyline possible and that’s just the way of the world with these entertainment programmes, as I said I haven’t even seen it and it’s not something that concerns me.”

READ MORE: Lando Norris makes ominous vow to F1 rivals over McLaren’s 2025 potential

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McLaren chiefs Zak Brown and Andrea Stella dropped some subtle digs at Formula 1 rivals Red Bull over staff retention.

Brown has long been a thorn in Red Bull’s side. 

During the behind-the-scenes controversy surrounding Christian Horner last year, he was vocal in the media on several occasions.

When Adrian Newey announced his departure, Brown told media in Miami last May “The stuff going on there is pretty destabilising. I’m guessing it won’t be the last [departure] given the resumes that are flying around.”

2024 saw other key figures leave Red Bull, with long-serving Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley accepting a Team Principal role with Sauber/Audi and McLaren announcing in September it had poached its rival’s Head of Race Strategy Will Courtenay to serve as the Woking squad’s Sporting Director.

The release of Courtenay from his gardening leave has yet to occur, and it looks as if Red Bull will delay the arrival of its former strategist in Woking for as long as possible.

Stella was asked during the Australian Grand Prix weekend why this was being delayed and whether the rivalry brewing between McLaren and Red Bull was the cause.

“There are some contracts that need to be complied with and we respect the position of the other party at the moment,” he said.

That’s what they want to enforce, and we will be patient,” the diplomatic Italian added.

Still, Stella, much like his counterpart Brown, couldn’t resist highlighting that McLaren is becoming a better proposition than Red Bull.

“We are very interested in injecting expertise and understand even more about how other teams operate, and we are very focused on creating an environment where not only our people want to remain, but also that can be attractive for the other people to join. 

“And it looks like that’s been the case with some senior members that came from the same party.”

‘People don’t steal employees, you lose them’ – Brown

McLaren has worked over the winter to tie its leadership, technical and driving team down to long-term futures in Woking.

The latest signature was that of Oscar Piastri, who has penned a multi-year extension starting in 2026.

Brown argued that the importance of what McLaren is doing is creating an environment where staff want to remain, arguing that nobody steals your sponsors or colleagues, but they’re lost instead.

“I think what’s important, you know, you hear over the years, people steal your sponsors, people steal your drivers, people steal your employees. They don’t. You lose them. 

“If someone can get a logo off of our shirt, that’s on us, more power to them. 

“So I think putting aside the contractual element you want to create, which I think we’ve successfully done. We don’t have a single change on our pit wall this year. We don’t have a single change in our technical leadership. We don’t have, obviously, any changes in our driver roster. 

“And that’s because we’ve worked very hard to create an environment where people want to be at McLaren. Their families want to be at McLaren. And that’s something that I think Andrea and I, and the leadership, spend a lot of time on making it an environment that people want to be at, where we don’t have to rely on contracts to have people stay at McLaren.”

Given Brown’s track record, that may well just be another message for Red Bull, especially since he didn’t resist questioning the team’s driver selection.

Speaking to Sky Sports after Yuki Tsunoda qualified fifth at the Albert Park Circuit and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson suffered a Q1 exit, Brown said: “Yuki did a great job, probably the guy that should be in the Red Bull if you look at how he’s performed, but they seem to make some strange driver choices.”

READ MORE – McLaren poaches Red Bull’s long-time F1 Head of Race Strategy

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Oscar Piastri has insisted that McLaren’s stance on team orders remains “clear”, despite being told not to overtake Lando Norris in Formula 1‘s Australian Grand Prix.

Piastri experienced heartbreak on home soil last weekend as a probable podium slipped through his grasp when he span with 13 laps to go in changeable conditions.

The Australian, who recovered to ninth, had still been in contention to win the race prior to that moment as he was running behind team-mate Norris in a McLaren 1-2.

Piastri had spied his chance earlier in the race to pass Norris as he pumped in successive fastest laps as the track dried to cut the gap down to less than one second.

But while McLaren approached the campaign adamant that both drivers would be allowed to race, Piastri’s race engineer Tom Stallard instructed him to hold position.

Piastri obliged, with McLaren boss Andrea Stella explaining how concern over navigating lapped cars and an uncertain weather radar triggered the side’s intervention.

The home hero divulged that he intended to hold discussions with the team about the situation, but he denied suggestions that the call was made to prioritise Norris.

“I think today’s race and the circumstances were pretty extreme,” Piastri told media including Motorsport Week.

“We were approaching back markers, one dry line, not knowing if there was going to be rain to come.

“So I’ll speak to the team and try and understand better what the thinking was, but I think it’s always clear that those kind of calls can come in either direction.”

Piastri suggests Australia win was improbable

The decision would be rendered irrelevant to the eventual race outcome as Piastri becoming beached in the grass on Lap 44 resigned him to a damage limitation run.

Piastri has indicated that he would have struggled to overhaul Norris regardless, though, admitting that his mid-race charge had seen him use up the grip on his tyres.

“Yeah, we were holding position before that,” he added.

“I think by the time we were free to race I kind of killed my front left a little bit getting to the back of Lando, so by that point there wasn’t much I could do.

“So I think that was probably a pretty minor moment in today’s race.”

McLaren denies intervention impacted Piastri

As Piastri alluded to, McLaren had permitted him to race Norris, but a wide moment at Turn 6 handed the Briton, who would go on to secure the win, breathing room.

Asked whether the previous instruction had upset Piastri’s momentum, Brown told Sky Sports F1: “I don’t think that had anything to do with it.

“We- Andrea and I on the pit wall – actually just kind of released him to go racing, and we just wanted to make sure we cleared the traffic.

“So that was a hold for a moment, and then it looked like he dropped a wheel and then fell back a bit of a gap.

“But I just think they were pushing really hard in very tricky conditions.”

READ MORE – McLaren reveals Lando Norris won F1 Australian GP with ‘badly damaged’ floor

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