Kimi Antonelli won his maiden Formula One race at the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. Such was the pace advantage of Mercedes over the rest of the field, the young Italian driver finished more than 25 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton who finally broke his Ferrari podium duck.

Once again the wheel to wheel action at the start of the race was frenetic, with both Ferrari’s duelling for the lead as the Mercedes’ duo were again sluggish to get away when the lights went out.

A this phase of the race, the Ferrari’s looked equal to the Mercedes, but when a three way battle developed between Hamilton, Russell and Leclerc, it was the opportunity Kimi Antonelli needed to use his electric energy in an efficient manner taking a second a lap over the squabbling trio behind.

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FIA ‘engine catchup’ programme start point set to change

Once Russell had made his way past the Scuderia pair, he too disappeared off into the distance, and his pursuit of a second victory of the season demonstrated the true pace advantage the Mercedes cars have. Much has been written about the silver arrows sandbagging to ensure their rivals do not qualify for the FIA’s engine ‘catch up’ programme, but today the battle for the win meant this was not in question.

Honda are a dead cert to qualify for the “Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities” (ADUO) as on lap 9 Lance Stroll was forced to retire with a battery related issued and come lap 34 Fernando Alonso was forced to retire due to the vibrations, meaning he was losing feeling in his hands and feet.

This kind of Mercedes dominance is not what the FIA had hoped for and their plan to review the power output of the engines across the grid is only set to deliver ‘catch up’ opportunities after round 6, which was scheduled for Miami. The phrasing of the regulation means the FIA must recode the regulation, given round six after the cancelation of Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GP’s would fall after Monaco in the second week of June.

 

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Replacement GP for Bahrian & Saudi not financially viable

The war in the middle east may have engineers in Brackly and Brixworth secretly rubbing their hands, given their rivals are set to be denied some 11 hours of track time had the middle east rounds not been cancelled. Yet TJ13 has been informed that a number of senior team personnel have requested the FIA under the principle of ‘force majeure’ provide an alternative option for the teams to regain the lost time win track.

It had been mooted that F1 may replace the cancelled middle eastern rounds with alternative Grand Prix in Istanbul and Portimao. However, there is no agreement for promoters to pay a hosting fee in place and FOM claim the cost of all the team’s transit would see Liberty Media suffer significant loss.

The F1 team’s could be allowed to organise their own test day sessions, although this would be punitive on those whose budgets are less generous. A day of testing including full safety crews, a clerk of the course together with Marshalls could cost in the region of $500,000. Of course the regional base of most of the teams is in the UK and so it would make sense for the FIA to arrange a testing day for example at Silverstone.

 

 

UPDATED: “Bahrain won’t be hosting a Grand Prix”: Iran war impact on F1 as race calendar looks set to reduce to just 22 GP’s

 

 

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FIA to consider testing sessions to replace lost track time

Then again the spring weather in the UK can be cold and unrepresentative for the teams to test their tyre degradation profiles along with other aspects of racing a Formula One car. Barcelona would be a potential option as would one of the Ferrari owned tracks in Italy, but of course this requires the UK teams to load up a race weekend’s worth of kit and hike across Europe.

The race in China was meant to provide a better picture as to how the new regulations will shape the future of Formula One Racing – if it can be called that. The worrying aspect of all the new electrical gismo’s available to the drivers is that even the commentary teams are making Mario Kart references, such as which driver is using his “mushroom too soon.”

As the BBC’s Ben Anderson put it neatly, “to go slower, to go faster” is an anathema of what racing should be all about. Further, it was clear that drivers who engage in the much loved on track battles, are not deploying their energy efficiently as Kimi Antonelli demonstrated whilst the three cars behind him squabbled and were dropped at over a second a lap.

 

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Sugar rush racing will calm down

As was the case in the past when tyre degradation was intentionally introduced, the teams and drivers will eventually find an optimum way to run these new fangled powertrains and chassis. As they did previously, drivers will run to a delta to minimise their total race time, and the sugar rush battles will disappear.

All in all the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix was on the whole an entertaining affair, although rather shocking for McLaren. Andreas Stella was cross with Mercedes in Australia, but looked positive furious in China when he explained the power train failures which forced both his drivers out of the Grand Prix.

The last McLaren driver who failed to make two consecutive Grand Prix starts as has happened this season to Oscar Piastri, was Bruce McLaren himself back in 1969. He qualified for both the United States (Watkins Glen) and Mexican (Magdalena Mixhuca) Grand Prix but failed to start due to an engine failure during warm up and in Mexico his car suffered a terminal fuel issue on the grid.

Hopefully Oscar will not go on to exceed this record and be back racing on track at Suzuka in two weeks time.

 

 

 

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