2025 Chinese Grand Prix - Practice, Sprint & Qualifying Thread

[Aziz]

Lewis has arrived at Ferrari in style. That’s good to see.

Leclerc always struggles in first part of the season to get hold of the car. Then he will have a strong 2nd half, that’s the trend I see from him. Hopefully he improves his quali performance asap.


McLaren with fastest car couldn’t make it count once again. These drivers are immature with fastest car.

One observation, McLaren are the only one’s who did 2nd run on Softs. Rest all of them did 1Lap on Softs in SQ3.

Did not watch FP1, is race pace any good?

[Kyss4k]

Freaking hell yeah! Get in there Lewis! Never thought I would say these words. Decent by Charles as well but this is Lewis's track, so I'm not that surprised he had the upper hand here. Now let's repeat this in sprint, quali and race and we are in the happy days. Insane what is happening in Red Bull though. 2nd and last without technical issues. Nasty. Wonder how Ricciardo would be doing.

[Greig]

Few members seem to have gone missing today.....

[Aviamata]

Did not watch FP1, is race pace any good?

McLaren long run pace is crazy , Fer , Merc and Verstappen pretty much equal .

[Aziz]

McLaren long run pace is crazy , Fer , Merc and Verstappen pretty much equal .

Really??? That much better, no tier degradation i presume?

[Red is Best]

Today's performance is really reassuring. Let's hope we can carry that momentum for the rest of the weekend.
Does anyone know if we did long runs during FP1?

[PURE PASSION]

Didn't managed to watch anything.
Glad and surprised to see HAM taking pole.
At least this is a decent result and for sure something to hold on for the future!!!!

[FerrariF60]

Lewis has done an amazing job on a day when both mclarens botched their laps up in a unquestionably MUCH faster car and here we are capitalizing on that.
lets hope we can keep up or be better then them in race pace and both our drivers bringing in GOOD points for the constructor championship

Forza Ferrari.

[aroutis]

Excellent result !
Lewis gets his first pole in red ( I bet that feels great for him )
Charles is in P4. Now this must be interesting considering what he has done in the past from P4 (Monza, Austin comes to mind).

Now let's see what they can do tomorrow !

[Cavallino]

Few members seem to have gone missing today.....

you notice that too? lol

[Cavallino]

Didn't managed to watch anything.
Glad and surprised to see HAM taking pole.
At least this is a decent result and for sure something to hold on for the future!!!!

nah, Melbourne wasn't a wet bump race, that was our pace.

[Aviamata]

Pirelli decided to decrease* 1 PSI for both front- and rear-tyre pressure

*Edit : increase

[Bruno]

Very happy with the pole but Max being there again really worries me for the rest of the season. I know he's talented but even he needs a capable car to be in the top 5 (see where he was the second half of 2024).

I don't get it. Why does Max having a capable car or not worry you?

[FerrariF60]

Pirelli decided to decrease 1 PSI for both front- and rear-tyre pressure

prolly to benefit Mcmoers even more

[FerrariF60]

I don't get it. Why does Max having a capable car or not worry you?

prolly cause DEEP down he's a Max fan?

[Bruno]

prolly cause DEEP down he's a Max fan?

maybe not that deep

[PURE PASSION]

nah, Melbourne wasn't a wet bump race, that was our pace.

I must be in your dreams too !!!

[FerrariF60]

I must be in your dreams too !!!

the WET ones....lol

[330 p4]

the WET ones....lol

Best put some intermediate rubber on.

[FerrariF60]

Best put some intermediate rubber on.

or full wet rubbers if too much slippery.......lmao

[PURE PASSION]

the WET ones....lol

Best put some intermediate rubber on.

or full wet rubbers if too much slippery.......lmao

[drax]

Saw the qually and went to work, coming back now … excellent result !!

[nani_s23]

Did not watch FP1, is race pace any good?

McLaren does have the edge.

[PURE PASSION]

McLaren does have the edge.

As I said , I didn't watch it bit I read thayvwe didn't do any race sim on FP1 and on a graph I saw that Merc had the best pace. McL where more consistent but their times where not spectacular??!!

[nani_s23]

As I said , I didn't watch it bit I read thayvwe didn't do any race sim on FP1 and on a graph I saw that Merc had the best pace. McL where more consistent but their times where not spectacular??!!

Mercs with more deg than others. McLaren lap times are consistent.

Ferrari didn’t do any meaningful run.

[Always44]

Max is going to get left in the dust, I look forward to seeing Lewis's first Ferrari win tomorrow. I won't be able to see it live unfortunately.

[nani_s23]

Looking at Lewis vs Max graphic, I believe Lewis had more lap time left. He’s very early into braking vs Max very late. If Lewis can find the confidence in late braking , there’s more to gain. I believe he will get comfortable with car as the season progresses.

On the other side, Leclerc struggles at tyre prep that’s causing him to overdrive the car sometimes when he isn’t confident.
Most of time he lost is in S1. Probably a more front end gives him the confidence. He too has more lap time to gain

[Cavallino]

Leclerc always struggles in first part of the season to get hold of the car. Then he will have a strong 2nd half, that’s the trend I see from him. Hopefully he improves his quali performance asap.

excellent analysis, 2022 never happened

[Cavallino]

i think we're going to be surprised by the long run pace of that Sauber driven by Nico Hulkenberg.

He destroyed Ferrari last race, and as the top brass of this forum have pointed out to me, that race was NOT a one off. Ferrari have let us down for another season.

[nani_s23]

excellent analysis, 2022 never happened

2022 car is of two different versions. One before TD & other after TD. I assume you know what happened & probably you are big fan of Binotto.