The second race of Formula 1’s 2026 era in Shanghai offered more clues, more entertainment and more heartbreak, featuring a first-time winner and a black eye for the reigning world champions.
1. Toto Wolff’s Antonelli bet pays off big – Filip Cleeren
Toto Wolff has not wasted an opportunity to hit back at early critics of his confident move to promote 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli to a race seat last season, one year ahead of schedule. And the Austrian has been totally vindicated. The young Italian learned a lot of lessons the hard way in 2025, but did so while Mercedes wasn’t fighting for championships and is cashing in that knowledge and experience when it is.
Things could have been different without Russell’s Q3 problem, but Antonelli didn’t put a wheel wrong to grab pole, reclaim the lead from the fast-starting Ferraris and then break clear into clean air when he could. A lock-up in the hairpin in the closing stages aside, one of the most mature teenage drives we have seen since Max Verstappen‘s early years has been rewarded with a maiden grand prix win.
Kimi Antonelli became F1’s youngest-ever polesitter on his way to a maiden grand prix win.
Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images
2. Disastrous Sunday for McLaren – Oleg Karpov
Fun fact: Oscar Piastri has completed zero racing laps in the two grands prix of the season so far. He did manage to successfully navigate his way to the grid this time, but then the team rolled his car back from it to the garage just minutes before the formation lap was due to start. His team-mate, Lando Norris, had already been stuck there for approximately an hour, after McLaren identified an electrical problem with his car.
Neither issue was resolved in time for the race start, so Norris and Piastri had to change into their team jackets and go speak to the media. “It’s been a long time since I watched two frands prix aces in a row on TV,” said the Australian.
It seems that not only does McLaren not yet fully understand how to exploit the Mercedes engine, but perhaps there is something else going on too. In any case, after two weekends of the season, it’s already looking like it’s going to be difficult for the Woking squad to defend their titles.
3. Alpine’s 2025 pain was worth it – Federico Faturos
Speaking of cashing in bets, Alpine began the season with considerable expectations after effectively devoting all of 2025 to its bid to capitalise on the major regulation changes. And after an off-the-pace start in Australia, this weekend confirmed that the team is moving in the right direction.
Pierre Gasly was on the pace from the outset and qualified seventh in both qualifying sessions in China. He was unable to hold onto a points position in Saturday’s race, but on Sunday he delivered a tidy drive to finish sixth and secure Alpine’s second points finish in the opening two grands prix of the season.
Franco Colapinto endured a difficult start to the weekend in Shanghai, but bounced back on Saturday with a solid qualifying performance that left him just five thousandths short of Q3, before emerging as one of the standout performers in Sunday’s race.
A combative Colapinto maintained a competitive pace despite running on older tyres than his direct rivals and held onto a place inside the top five for several laps, surviving a lunge from Esteban Ocon to finally grab his first point for Alpine, and his first points finish since Austin 2024.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Lintao Zhang / LAT Images via Getty Images
4. Red Bull hasn’t fixed it starts, but has even bigger issues
Max Verstappen’s worst fears came true when Red Bull wasn’t able to fix its start issues that dropped him like a brick in the sprint race. Sunday’s grand prix start was a carbon copy. As striking as that issue is, the bigger problem is Red Bull’s car is proving very hard to set-up correctly and therefore also tough to drive, with Verstappen lamenting a terrible car balance all weekend. Isack Hadjar‘s bizarre spin in the race was also revealing.
McLaren’s disastrous double DNS papered over the fact that Red Bull was emphatically F1’s fourth-fastest team in Shanghai and it is facing a steep development curve on all fronts to get on par with its front-running peers. China certainly won’t have helped Verstappen enjoy these F1 2026 regulations any more.
5. ‘No’ progress, ‘no’ pace – no hope for Aston Martin? – Oleg Karpov
Lance Stroll‘s post-qualifying interview was quite telling — even though he didn’t say much, the brevity of his responses to questions about Aston Martin’s progress since Melbourne’s opening round said more than a thousand words. The Canadian met three questions in a row with “no” and a sarcastic smile. One week is not enough time to resolve all the issues that his father’s team is facing this year, and it’s unclear whether a couple of months would be either. It’s probably best not to ask Lance again…
On a positive note, the team managed to complete the whole sprint race distance with both cars, but that’s about the only thing they can brag about. Honda’s power unit is still not good enough and, until the Japanese engineers fix it, we won’t know how good Adrian Newey’s chassis is. It’s been a tough start for Aston in 2026, and it’s not going to get any easier any time soon.
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