Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are pushing the F1 grid, and each other

For the better part of three years, Zak Brown has been telling anyone who would listen that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri comprise the best driver pairing on the Formula 1 grid.

The smile on the McLaren CEO’s face as he posed with the pair for photographs following the Chinese Grand Prix showed just how much Brown believes in the duo.

Piastri brought home his MCL39 to take victory in Shanghai, just a day after capturing his first Grand Prix pole position, and with Norris behind him McLaren locked out the front row for the first time this season, and the 50th time in the team’s illustrious F1 history. That gave McLaren two wins in two grands prix this season, keeping the defending Constructors’ Championship atop the table for at least one more race weekend.

But beyond the results, what might make Brown believe in his duo is the way they push not just the rest of the grid, but how they push each other. While much has been made about the McLaren pair, and how the team will balance the two as they both aim for a Drivers’ Championship this season, both Piastri and Norris outlined after the race how they help each other.

And what that might mean for McLaren’s title defense.

“I think we’ve got different strengths and weaknesses as drivers. And I think this weekend there were certain points where it just worked a bit to my favor, naturally,” said Piastri in the FIA Press Conference on Sunday. “And I think there’s been other weekends where it definitely hasn’t, and I’ve had to try and look at things from how Lando’s driven and apply them myself.

“I think that is definitely the advantage—or an advantage—we have. Having strong teammates, you always learn from each other. It’s impossible to measure how much lap time you gain from pushing one another, but you do gain something, that’s for sure,” added Piastri. “So I think we always push each other, always learn things. I’ve certainly learned a lot in the last couple of years. Maybe there were some things to learn the other way yesterday, but I think every single weekend we are learning one thing or another from each other.”

Norris shared his teammate’s view.

“Probably apart from Ferrari, I don’t think there’s another team that has two drivers that push each other anywhere near as much. And for us, that’s a huge advantage,” began Norris. “Even if you have the same car for everyone, if you have a team with two drivers who can push each other, they’re always going to beat everyone else that’s just on their own. So we have a great car, we have a great team, but we also have two drivers that are pushing each other more than any other team has. And that will always triumph—even [over] the best driver on the grid.

“That’s one of our biggest strengths at the minute—how we’re able to learn from each other,” continued Norris. “Because of what Oscar said: we have different ways we drive. He wants some things on the car, I want different things. But normally our ways align and we always want the same thing in the end. Oscar’s ability to adapt to a track like this was impressive, and something I clearly struggled a lot more to do.

“I hate understeer. The one thing I almost hate as much as brakes not working is probably understeer, and that’s what we had this weekend.

“As soon as we put the Hards on, for instance, my pace was a lot stronger because I had some front finally,” added Norris. “But yeah, I’ve learned a lot this weekend from Oscar and his ability to adapt to these different situations. It’s definitely something we’ll maximize because it’s helping us beat every other team at the minute. It’s a great car and two incredible drivers! And Zak.”

A great car, two incredible drivers, and strong leadership.

That is making for a very strong team right now, and one of the big winners coming out of the Chinese Grand Prix.

Here are some more winners, as well as some who have some work to do ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Winners: Haas

Photo by Bryn Lennon – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

What a difference a week makes for Haas.

The Australian Grand Prix was a near-disaster for the team. Oliver Bearman crashed in both FP1 and FP3, and a gearbox failure in Q1 eliminated him from qualifying before he could even set a time. While Esteban Ocon was at least able to set a time, it was only good enough for P19 on the grid, one spot ahead of the rookie.

When the checkered flag flew in Melbourne both drivers were out of the points with Ocon classified in P13 and Bearman in P14, the last two drivers on the track.

Fast-forward to Sunday.

Bearman was one of the three drivers to begin the race on the hard tire, along with Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson, and he lasted until Lap 26 when he came in for fresh tires as he was one of the drivers who made it work. While he came back onto the track outside of the points he stuck a few different overtakes, to ultimately cross the line in P10.

He was promoted to P8 with the disqualifications handed down to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

As for Ocon, he began the race on the medium compound and came in to pit on Lap 11. But he was able to last the rest of the way on a set of hard tires and came across the line in P7, which became P5 with the two disqualifications.

Two big drives and 14 critical points banked for the team as they rose to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship standings.

After the race Team Principal Ayao Komatsu praised his entire organization.

“It’s been an amazing day,” said the Haas boss. “We reacted to our change of circumstances very well. Like I said before, the reaction after the Sprint yesterday to change the car set-up, it really worked for qualifying and the race.

“Communication and execution in the race today was really good. I think it’s the best reaction I could have asked for, everyone has just gotten on with the work after Melbourne,” added Komatsu. “It’s an amazing result. I’m looking forward to working together as a team and improving this car.”

Every point in the midfield fight is critical, and right now Haas has a four-point advantage over Aston Martin in the fight for sixth.

But they are also just three points behind fifth-place Ferrari …

Workers: Alpine

Last season Alpine struggled out of the gate, as the A524 came in overweight and the duo of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon labored at the back of the grid in the early going.

But over the final third of the season Alpine rocketed around the track, and up the Constructors’ Championship standings. An upgrade package the team brought to the United States Grand Prix in October paid near-immediate dividends, and a stunning double-podium in São Paulo helped propel the team to a sixth-place finish.

While they were shut out of the points in Melbourne, Alpine had a chance to break through with their first points of the year when Gasly finished in P11, and the Ferrari duo was disqualified out of the top ten.

Only Gasly himself was disqualified as his A525 also failed to make weight.

While the team is ahead of where they were a year ago, and rookie Jack Doohan has held his own so far, they are the only team without a point right now.

Winners: Williams

On Lap 9 of the Chinese Grand Prix Williams warned Alex Albon about tire degradation.

The veteran driver sent a message that his team needed to “relax,” declaring “I am better than everyone” regarding the wear on the medium compound he was dealing with at the moment.

Albon backed that up with his performance, as he lasted 19 full laps on those medium tires before dipping down pit lane for the switch to hards. He made it the rest of the way to come across the line in P9, before the promotion to P7 with the disqualifications handed out to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Those disqualifications, plus the one handed out to Pierre Gasly, also saw Carlos Sainz Jr. promoted to P10 after crossing the line, giving the team’s newest F1 driver his first points in blue.

With Albon adding points in both the Australian Grand Prix and now the Chinese Grand Prix, and Sainz getting on the board as well, the team now sits level with Ferrari on points with 17, and one line atop them in the standings due to Albon’s P5 in Melbourne.

Team Principal James Vowles praised both drivers on social media after their respective promotions:

This has been a dream start for Williams, who head to Suzuka hoping to build on the beginning to the year.

Winners: Mercedes

Before the start of the Chinese Grand Prix, Toto Wolff stopped by the F1TV cameras on the grid and said that “a podium would be good” for the Silver Arrows.

A podium is exactly what they ended up with, as George Russell finished third behind the McLaren duo.

That marks a pair of P3 results in two Grands Prix for Russell, and with young phenom Kimi Antonelli finishing in the points in his first two F1 Grand Prix starts — as well as both finishing in the points in the F1 Sprint on Saturday — Mercedes leaves Shanghai sitting second in the Constructors’ Championship, 21 points behind McLaren but 19 ahead of Red Bull.

After the race, Wolff called it a “good start” to the team’s season.

“Overall, it’s been a good start to the new season. The ambition is to win but we don’t feel any entitlement that we should. The car is not quite as fast as the McLaren as the moment, but the team are working hard to close that gap,” said Wolff in the team’s post-race report. “For now, we are maximizing the performance we have and to leave China second in the Constructors’ Championship, having taken two podiums for the first two races, is satisfying.”

The last time Mercedes was second in the points? That came at the end of the 2023 campaign when they held off Ferrari over the closing laps of the season to finish the year in P2, a distant second behind Red Bull.

Not a bad start to the season, indeed.

Worker: Liam Lawson

Photo by QIan Jun/Paddocker/NurPhoto via Getty Images

At first blush, Liam Lawson’s result in the Chinese Grand Prix may not be cause for concern. He was classified in P12, just outside the points, in his second race weekend with Red Bull.

However, when you take a step back and soak in the related context, the worries mount.

Lawson’s struggles at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix continued in Shanghai. He qualified in P20 for both the F1 Sprint Race and the Grand Prix itself, and was only classified in P12 after finishing in 15th, and disqualifications were handed out to Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and Pierre Gasly.

Now, as is often the case at Red Bull, speculation is growing that Lawson might be on the hot seat.

According to multiple reports, the team is considering a switch ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, with Lawson trading places with Yuki Tsunoda. Speaking with the media following the Chinese Grand Prix Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner brushed that speculation aside.

“There’s always going to be speculation in the paddock. As I say, we’ve only just finished the race here, we’ll take away the info and have a good look at it,” said Horner.

When pressed on the matter, the Red Bull boss held firm.

“Look, I think everything is purely speculative at the moment. As I say, we’ve just finished this race, we’re going to take away the info and have a good look at it,” continued Horner.

“I think Liam still has got potential, we’re just not realizing that at the moment. I think the problem for him is he’s had a couple of really tough weekends and he’s got all the media on his back.

“The pressure just naturally grows in this business. I feel very sorry for him that he’s … you can see it’s very tough on him at the moment.”

As for Lawson himself, he is grateful that he is familiar with the upcoming circuit, the Suzuka International Racing Course. Lawson has raced there before, both in Super Formula and back in 2023, when he was filling in for an injured Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri.

“So fortunately we go to a track that I know, and it’s a track that I like,” said Lawson to the F1 channel after the Chinese Grand Prix. “But I’ll be spending this week very heavily going into absolutely everything to try and obviously do a better job.”

Whether he will be driving in that race for Red Bull, or VCARB, remains to be seen.

Winner: Lance Stroll

How about some love for Lance Stroll?

On the cusp of the Chinese Grand Prix, one of the major talking points was tire degradation. The resurfaced circuit in Shanghai offered increased levels of grip but also left drivers fighting tire degradation on longer runs. For example, in the F1 Sprint race on Saturday Max Verstappen reported that his mediums were “dead” by Lap 10.

Pirelli, the sport’s exclusive tire supplier, predicted that a two-stop strategy was going to be the path for teams, believing drivers would start on the mediums before finishing with a hard-hard combination.

But Pirelli also suggested that some drivers at the back of the field might opt for starting on the hards and run long, hoping for intervention via a safety car.

Stroll was one of those drivers, and he put in a massive stint on that set of hards, running 35 laps on a single set of hards before finally coming in on Lap 36 to make the switch to a set of mediums to finish the day.

However, his impressive performance on those hard tires almost cost him. As Stroll continued to bank lap after lap on those tires, teams began believing that a one-stop strategy was viable thanks to the data he provided. The end result was the bulk of the field opting for a one-stopper, and Stroll failing to capitalize on Aston Martin’s decision to start on the hards as he crossed the line in P12.

However, disqualifications for Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and Pierre Gasly saw him promoted to P9.

Not the way Stroll probably wanted to get there, but a worthy result — and pair of points — given that massive stint to start the race.

Workers: Ferrari

A double disqualification is never a good feeling for a team.

That is even more of a case when the weekend begins with so much promise. Lewis Hamilton enjoyed his first taste of victory in red when he captured the win in the F1 Sprint race, but from there things broke away from the Scuderia. Hamilton and Charles Leclerc locked out the third row in qualifying, and then incidental contact between the teammates on the opening lap caused damage to Leclerc’s front win.

While the two fought until the end and finished in the points, the post-race disqualifications left them with little to show for their efforts, and they now sit fifth in the Constructors’ Championship standings.

There is a long way to go this season, but these will be two long weeks at Maranello before the season resumes.