Source : ABC NEWS
Oscar Piastri’s wretched start to the 2026 Formula 1 season has continued in China, while McLaren did not complete one lap of the grand prix.
Lewis Hamilton finally broke his podium duck for Ferrari, while Kimi Antonelli put Italy on the top step again.
Meanwhile, newcomer Cadillac enjoyed its own little win by just finishing.
Here are the quick hits from the F1 Chinese Grand Prix.
1. Electrical faults lead to McLaren’s 21-year first
Oh, how McLaren must yearn for it to be 2025 again.
The papaya team is on the back foot in 2026, with its hopes of a constructors’ championship three-peat looking unlikely, and Lando Norris’s drivers’ championship honeymoon is well and truly over.
Oscar Piastri was wheeled off the grid before the Chinese Grand Prix. (Getty Images: LAT Images/James Sutton)
McLaren was unable to start either Norris, or Australian Oscar Piastri in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix. A double Did Not Start (DNS). A completely ruined afternoon.
The drama started with Norris, with the team noticing an electrical issue within the power unit with little more than one hour until the start of the grand prix.
Mechanics were working feverishly to get the problem resolved. There were hopes it could get fixed before Norris needed to head to the grid. Then they hoped Norris could start from the pit lane. In the end, they ran out of time.
Piastri did make it to the grid, something he failed to do one week earlier in Australia when he crashed 40 minutes before the start of the race.
All was looking well for Piastri, until it didn’t. With just minutes to go before the race start, the Australian’s car was wheeled off the grid and into the garage.
No racing. No papaya. No points.
“Nothing had changed between Saturday’s Qualifying and the fire-up in the garage pre-race, but as we prepared Lando’s car to leave the garage, an electrical problem was discovered on the power unit,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said.
“Then on the grid we found another electrical issue on Oscar’s power unit, which couldn’t be resolved, resulting in the car being required to return to the garage for further investigation.
“They look to be separate electrical faults on the power unit occurring at the same time, an extremely unfortunate coincidence which meant there was simply no way to start the race with either car.”
It was the first time since the United States Grand Prix in 2005 that McLaren did not start both cars in a grand prix.
Piastri has now copped a DNS in consecutive races. That has not happened to a McLaren driver since Bruce McLaren failed to start at the United States and Mexico races during the 1969 championship.
McLaren will be hoping these records are not re-written any time soon.
2. Hamilton sets a new Ferrari record
It took a while for Lewis Hamilton to achieve his maiden grand prix podium for Ferrari — 26 grands prix to be exact.
Loading Twitter content
But the seven-time world champion finally tasted champagne on the podium as a member of the famed Scuderia.
The Briton now holds the record for the most grands prix for Ferrari before achieving a podium finish. The record was held by Frenchman Didier Pironi, who needed 19 grands prix before his first podium as a Ferrari driver.
Hamilton’s third-place finish in China also ended the longest drought of his career without a podium finish. Prior to Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, Hamilton had not been on the podium since placing second at the Las Vegas Grand Prix in 2024.
That is 28 grands prix between podium finishes for, statistically, the best F1 driver ever. It’s hard to imagine Hamilton will not be on the podium several more times in 2026.
3. An Italian wins for the first time in two decades
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli celebrates after winning the Chinese Grand Prix. (Reuters: Maxim Shemetov)
Italy has a proud and rich history in Formula 1.
The very fabric of F1 has been built on some magnificent Italian drivers and teams.
Ferrari is F1’s most successful team. Giuseppe Farina and Alberto Ascari were the early legends of F1, in the 1950s.
But Italian successes have been few and far between in recent years.
Ferrari has not won a championship since 2008, and as for Italian drivers, they hadn’t won a race in even longer.
That is, until Kimi Antonelli took the top step in Shanghai.
After becoming the youngest ever pole sitter at just 19 years of age, Antonelli converted that into a race victory.
Before Antonelli’s breakout victory, the last Italian driver to win an F1 grand prix was Giancarlo Fisichella, who won in Malaysia in March 2006.
“I really wanted to bring Italy back to the top and we did today,” Antonelli said.
It is too early to start dreaming of Antonelli becoming the first Italian world champion since 1953. But he is a race winner, with a top team, and he is still a teenager. They are all positive signs moving forward.
4. Cadillac takes another baby step
When you are a new team in Formula 1, you must consider any improvement as a major win.
Brand new teams, starting from scratch, are not common in modern F1, so the inclusion of Cadillac this season is being closely watched.
Loading Twitter content
The US team is expected to struggle, and they have. New teams are supposed to struggle.
But every new achievement is worth celebrating and in China, Cadillac had both cars finish a grand prix for the first time.
Sergio Perez was able to complete the Australian Grand Prix, albeit three laps behind the leader, but Valtteri Bottas retired early.
One week later, both cars made it to the end, with Bottas 13th, and Perez 15th.
It is not an achievement for the record books. It is an achievement that gives confidence to every woman and man in the team who are embarking on this journey.
And hey, they achieved this before Haas, who were the most recent team to start from scratch in 2016.
It took Haas three grands prix to have both drivers finish. However, Romain Grosjean did stunningly place sixth and fifth in the opening two races, which was an immense feat.
5. New cars are producing close racing
There is a lot not to like about the 2026 F1 cars under the new regulations.
Several drivers are not fans because so much of their time is spent harvesting energy, rather than going flat out.
Reliability is currently an issue with several retirements across the opening two weekends, including four drivers who did not even start the Chinese Grand Prix.
But when it comes to on-track action, so far, it has been pretty good.
In Australia, George Russell and Charles Leclerc traded the race lead seven times in the opening nine laps. Meanwhile, the rest of the field also enjoyed some spirited battles.
That trend continued in China, and it was terrific to watch.
George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc produced a great contest for second place, which Russell ultimately won.
Once Russell was clear, Hamilton and Leclerc battled lap after lap for the final spot on the podium. Hamilton described it as one of the best of his illustrious career.
“It was one of the most enjoyable races I’ve had in a long, long time, if ever, the fact that the cars are the way they are this year,” Hamilton said.
“And that battle with Charles at the end was awesome – great wheel-to-wheel battle, very fair and just what we want.”
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc had a terrific battle for third in China. (Getty Images: LAT Images/Andy Hone)
This was not the only battle for positions that was great to watch.
At the bottom of the top 10, both Haas and Alpine drivers were engaged in a scrap that looked more like karting than it did F1.
Max Verstappen also sliced his way through the field, before needing to retire.
F1 bosses were hoping the new regulations would provide better racing than has been possible in recent years, and thus far they have worked.
