We were mistaken and we apologize. We were convinced we were looking at a podium-contending Ferrari in the Chinese Grand Prix, but instead we witnessed a Ferrari completely on the defensive, unable to attack, struggling tremendously with the hardest Pirelli tires. The final laps of Saturday’s Sprint race, with Charles Leclerc in a furious and controlled comeback, led us to think of a solid SF-24 car, not too far from the Red Bull single-seater of Max Verstappen or at least that of Sergio Perez. But no, it was a debacle, especially since the Maranello team was also outclassed by McLaren, the real surprise of this weekend with Lando Norris taking pole position in the Sprint event and then proving to be the only challenger to Red Bull, albeit at a respectful distance.
Starting in sixth and seventh place clearly didn’t help, but Ferrari definitely failed to interpret the race correctly, in the sense that McLaren learned from the previous day’s lessons and progressed in setting up their car, while the Italian side slipped backwards. The numbers say it all, with Lando Norris ending the 19 laps of the Sprint 22 seconds behind Max Verstappen, while in the race the gap over 56 laps was 13 seconds. In short, a struggling Ferrari, without a podium finish and without spirit, reduced to the usual, very sad refrain about updates that will come at the next race and that will supposedly make it go faster, something which has yet to be proven. Team principal Frederic Vasseur blames the debacle on less than thrilling performance in the qualifying session, but it doesn’t seem that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz held back; rather, it’s the car that didn’t allow them to obtain more this weekend, while at Red Bull, according to the script, all is well, even if with some blunders in the pit affecting Sergio Perez, who finished third but was still happy since it makes little difference to him.
The rest is tedium: a race without excitement, with many resigned drivers except for the high-wire act Fernando Alonso, some stadium-like cheering for the Chinese Zhou Guanyu, who was racing at home and experienced an emotional weekend, but a content did not transformed him into a phenomenon. And some FIA marshals asleep like the spectators when it came to recovering the stricken car of Valtteri Bottas. Yes, the Chinese Grand Prix did not do much for the image of Formula 1.
But most importantly, is Scuderia Ferrari back to “having to understand”? Echoing in the post-race statements of Frederic Vasseur and Charles Leclerc himself are those four words, which we have often heard in past Formula 1 seasons after many Grands Prix stated by the former team principal Mattia Binotto, that later became famous through many social media ironic posts and videos: “We need to understand.” Indeed, because no one expected that after a good stint with the medium tires in the first part of the Chinese Grand Prix, Scuderia Ferrari would significantly lack pace with the Pirelli hard tires at the 5.451-kilometre Shanghai International Circuit.
The Italian squad appeared on the podium at every round this year before the sport’s return to China, even scoring a 1-2 finish in Australia. The race in China got off to a lacklustre start as both Ferrari drivers were overtaken by George Russell through the first corners of the Shanghai International Circuit. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished fourth and fifth in Shanghai respectively, with McLaren’s Lando Norris joining the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez inside the top three. It was clearly a Grand Prix divided into two parts. The first, more straightforward, from the start to the safety car period. The second, a lot more surprising, from the two interventions of the safety car to the chequered flag. Until the power unit technical issues of Valtteri Bottas, who was forced to retire, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez led the race comfortably.
The Mexican was initially overtaken by Fernando Alonso at the start, but then quickly regained the position. Behind them, Ferrari started very cautiously, picking up pace only after about ten laps, especially with Charles Leclerc. With the two Red Bull cars clearly out of reach, the battle for the podium seemed to be a two-horse race between the Monegasque and Lando Norris. With the mediums, the pace of the Ferrari seemed slightly better, but McLaren still had an unexpected unexpectedly rhythm, especially after what was seen on Saturday in the Saturday morning in the Sprint race.
Following the double safety car period, however, everything changed. With the hard tires, Lando Norris started to fly and didn’t even suffer in terms of lap times against Sergio Perez’s, who ended up behind after the pit stop shuffle. Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, struggled and could only settle for fourth place. Lando Norris himself has revealed at the end of the race that he lost a bet with his McLaren team after he beat both Ferrari cars in the Chinese Grand Prix. The 24-year-old British driver drove a perfect race to finish second in Shanghai, finishing ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Going into Sunday’s grand prix, McLaren expected to drop behind the two Ferrari cars after the difference in pace in the sprint. Lando Norris himself thought McLaren would finish around 35 seconds behind Ferrari in the race. Instead, he came home just under 10 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc. This led to an amusing exchange with McLaren engineer William Joseph.
Lando Norris therefore secured his second podium finish of the year, at a track McLaren expected to struggle on as team boss Andrea Stella conceded he thought this weekend was going to be about damage limitation for his side. Regarding Red Bull, the world champion team completed its mission in China with another victory by Max Verstappen, who dominated the race, giving the impression of managing the potential of his RB20 car. The Dutch driver was therefore followed by Lando Norris, who delivered a splendid and surprising performance, and Sergio Perez, who completed the podium. The Mexican was penalized by the neutralization of the race due to the activation of the Virtual Safety Car and later the Safety Car because of a failure on Valtteri Bottas’s Stake F1 Kick Sauber at lap 22. If one were to find a flaw for Red Bull, it would be the missed opportunity for a one-two finish by the Milton Keynes-based cars, which was certainly within reach.
In fact, the fifth round is the first of the season that does not conclude with a 1-2 finish by a team. But the return of China to the Formula 1 calendar has reintroduced the enigmatic dominance of the Austrian car. “Enigmatic” because the double Safety Car moments of the race and the rightly calm “pace” of the world champion does not allow for measuring the competitive advantage of the Max Verstappen / Red Bull pairing. At no stage of the Chinese Grand Prix, except for the start and the restarts at the end of the Safety Car regime, was it necessary to extract the maximum potential from the car. To put it briefly, an embarrassing superiority, at least with car number 1. This scenario forces the competitors, Ferrari in particular, to deliberate as soon as possible on updates to their respective cars in order to close part of the performance gap relative to the world champions. It should be noted that Red Bull celebrated its 115th victory in 15 years, following the first win by Sebastian Vettel on the Shanghai track in a very wet Chinese Grand Prix back in 2009.
On that occasion, the triumph was completed by Mark Webber’s second place, which allowed the Milton Keynes team to celebrate the first one-two finish in the history of the Austrian team. One week ago, at the launch of his ice cream brand, we spoke of a very calm and confident driver, who talked about a very “crunchy” Ferrari. Today, at the Shanghai International Circuit, right after the race, we saw a Charles Leclerc negatively surprised by the performance and almost “begging” for the updates at Imola, an aerodynamic package that at this stage becomes even more important not only in the Maranello team’s attempt to reduce the gap against Red Bull but also to regain its status as the second force on track against McLaren.
Perhaps more worrying, however, are Frederic Vasseur’s statements that dusted off the infamous “we need to understand.” We don’t want to cause alarm, of course. After all, it’s the first real negative race of the 2024 Formula 1 season, but Shanghai must make the Ferrari technicians reflect a lot. In a process of improvement, it’s always normal to encounter setbacks at times. We have said several times how the Italian side has embarked on the right path. The management and understanding of defeats like today’s must absolutely be part of this journey. By everyone, including the fans.
— see video above —
