At the Grand Prix of China 2025, Oscar Piatri drove from starting place 1 to his third Formula 1 victory in an impressive manner. But since teammate Lando Norris could no longer start an attack because of an intensifying brake problem, the analysis of the race is the question: Was Formula 1 being denied a gripping final in Shanghai?
The press conferences after McLaren -Wiegen in Formula 1 – since Lando Norris’ breakthrough in Miami 2024 – had tough. From the relief that spoke from Norris’ exuberant emotions in the catacombs of the hard rock stage, to the noticeable tension between the two drivers to Piatris Premiere victory in Hungary, to the exuberant celebrations in the winning and the opening victory in Abu Dhabi 2024 as well as in Australia at the beginning of this season.
On the second floor of the imposing main grandstand of Shanghai, daylight was already fade. What the first consistently sunny and smog-free China weekend had been in years ended under gray clouds and with a few raindrops in the paddock-shortly after Piatris third Grand Prix victory.
But Norris, who was sitting next to him, was satisfied with second place. This was mainly due to the huge turn in his weekend – favored, but also difficult by the sprint format. But would the driver, who complained at the beginning of the weekend, to have “no speed” – and who could win the sprint race with full throttle, but without progress – could win the main race on Sunday, the Piatri ultimately dominated?
How Piatri pulled his teachings from 2024
“When I say that I had a bit of problems last year, it is friendly,” says Piatri, confronted with statements by team boss Andrea Stella, who highlighted his progress from 2024 to 2025 in Shanghai.
In the previous year, the Australian fought in midfield, getting damage to the car. After the race – Norris was already in second and was even able to put Red Bull under pressure before McLaren brought big updates on the MCL38 – Stella and Piatri sat together and, according to the Italian, were “somewhat perplexed”. Together they analyzed how Piatri could improve in races with front -heavy stress – as in Shanghai.
That now paid off, 2025. Because although the long curves of the Norris route had hardly caused any problems in the previous year, everything was different this time: the newly prepared asphalt, edited with bitumen, initially defused the typical graining problems on the front axle. But at the same time this resulted in a new challenge: strong understeer, especially in the elongated curves.
Understeer: worse for Norris than for Piatri
And this is exactly where the preparation reached: Piatris work since the 2024 race and his natural driving style – calm, precise, balanced – made him measure in Shanghai in 2025. He was the stronger McLaren pilot right from the start, because his smooth style helped him manage undermining.
Something that Norris, according to his own statement, “hates almost as much as brake failure”. Overall, Norris’ driving style is energetic, it invites the front wheels to be much more. A disadvantage on a course like this.
This meant that Piatri took a lower risk of overwhelming the sensitive C4 soft tires in the Grand Prix Qualifying. An advantage that was reinforced by McLaren’s classic schedule with a warm -up round and subsequent quick experiment. This plan was one of the factors that the team briefly gone back to the top after the Sprint qualification, in which Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton were just ahead.
“It is very satisfactory for me that I had my most complete Formula 1 weekend on a route on which I had to fight the most last year,” says Piatri.
What the new asphalt has to do with it
The newly paved course ensured even higher curve speeds than usual, which particularly stressed the left front tire – especially in the shorter sprint that Hamilton dominated. The clean air at the top turned out to be decisive for the lifespan of the medium tires, since the usual abrasion in “Dirty Air” was missing. Even though Pirelli had raised the minimum pressure on the front tires before the sprint from 26.5 to 27.5 PSI.
Another aspect of the massive graining problem was to not use too much to claim the tires in the curve combinations 1-2-3-4 and 11-12-13-the so-called “snail curves”, as the organizer calls it.
After the end of the Parc ferm state through the sprint, the teams were allowed to adapt the mechanical set-up of the car, for example via stabilizers and fine-tunes, as well as the aerodynamic balance in favor of the rear axle. And then there was the hard tire – a new C2 with a revised construction for 2025 – that was used for the first time in the Grand Prix.
But above all, after the sprint, the drivers finally had the opportunity to work through a real Longrun data package with their engineers, which was hardly possible beforehand when the sprint format was compressed. “Oscar had less graining than Lando, so Lando had to learn something from Oscar,” explains team boss Stella with regard to Norris’ examination of the curve entrance and general tire management.
“And Oscar also copied a few things from Lando. But honestly, I already said that in Australia: The fact that we have two drivers at this extremely high level also means that the information that one takes away from the other are really valid.”
Norris: With a great start past Russell
Despite all the changes, the start was still a key moment for the course of the race. Mercedes driver George Russell had pushed himself between the two McLaren on the starting line-up. He caught the best start of the top 3 and appeared on the inside next to Piatri when the field stormed onto the first snail curve.
But that was exactly what he did in the first stint: Polesetter Piatri pulled over slightly and pushed the Mercedes onto the inner line, while Norris accelerated and secured second place. He then chased Piatri through the 14 -round first stint of the race – never more than 2.1 seconds, despite the loss of outdoor loss by the “Dirty Air” of the leading MCL39. Only shortly before the pit stops increased slightly to 2.5 seconds.
When Piatri came into the box to switch from medium to hard tires, Russell followed him, while Norris had to fight with his set-up-related undermining and the peculiarity of the new asphalt and therefore remained outside longer. When he returned back, he had to hold back in the first curves of the course – which meant that Russell was back in front of him when they met the not yet stopped Aston Martin von Lance Stroll.
However, Norris soon passed the Aston Martin and was immediately in the DRS window at Russell. In round 18 he overtook it with a strong maneuver in curve 1. At that time, Piatri was already 3.1 seconds ahead. The race seemed decided. But it should change later.
How suddenly one of two stops became one
First of all, it became clear that the hard tire “was much better than everyone expected,” said Piatri, and in combination with the increasing rubber abrasion on the route caused a significant change in the route evolution. The rubber no longer tore and grabbed as before, and so a single -pub strategy suddenly became possible.
“Because if you look at the temperature, it hasn’t actually changed,” explains Pirelli’s Motorsport boss Mario Isola with regard to the thick clouds that had built up over the route shortly after the start of the race. “Not much has changed even with the clouds.”
In the middle of this scenario, Norris began to catch up on Piatri, while McLaren expanded the second stint to over 30 laps. For comparison: According to Pirelli, the medium tires used in the 19-round sprint showed almost 100?
With a series of fastest rounds and personal best times in the middle section of the race, Norris finally got the upper hand in the second route sector. Piatri had previously dominated the whole weekend. A few tenths of a second suddenly fell on Norris’ side, which combined with its general strength in the first sector.
The gap, which was still 4.3 seconds in round 21, shrank to 2.4 seconds – but then grew slowly again because Piatri also increased the pace. McLaren had ordered his leading one to push too, because “as a team we had to enlarge the gap to Russell and the Ferraris,” explains Stella. “Because they were in the Undercut zone for a long time, and we saw today: As soon as you go to the box, you can drive two to three seconds faster.”
Round 48: Norris reports braking problems
When the distance between Norris and Russell was finally five seconds in round 36, both McLaren pilots were allowed to “determine the pace themselves” to make out the race. But in round 48, almost ten laps before the end, Norris first reported that his brake pedal “would be” long.
A problem that McLaren had seen in the data much earlier according to Norris and knew that it would be a problem. I think the team hid it from me, “he says. The problem was a leak in a component of the MCL39 – however, according to Stella, “not in the brake line”. He does not want to give any further details “for IP reasons”.
Norris then had to limit the maximum braking pressure, which he could hardly do, according to the more and more urgent radio sayings by racing engineer, wants to do Joseph. In fact, Piatris was shrinking of 4.1 seconds in round 46 to 3.0 seconds for three rounds to be moved.
But here Norris had to see that the problem had “become critical in the last five rounds”. He significantly extended his lift & coast phases in every large brake zone, which rose by three seconds until the finish line. Piatris ahead grew to 9.7 seconds, while Russell still grew to Norris for 1.3 seconds over the last meters.
Piatris lap times in the unexpectedly long second stint were constant in the range of 1:36 minutes, while Norris drove a series of times in a high 1: 35 area before his braking problem hit fully.
Conclusion: Could Norris Piatri attack?
Stella emphasizes that the later winner chose the same tire strategy as his teammate for the extended second stint on the hard tire: “Lando wanted to overturn a few tire reserves to see if he could attack Oscar in the last part of the race. I think it was pretty much like the motto: ‘If Lando attacks, I want a tire budget to counter.
But above all it was what Stella does not say when asked whether McLaren would have allowed a duel to the target flag. This gives the biggest indication of what could have happened, Norris’ brake problem would not have occurred. Instead of choosing the obvious option and simply choking the question, Stella only repeats his position: “We would have had a very interesting last racing section. We only saw it because of the brake pedal.”
Either way: Norris is clearly satisfied with the result. After he had driven far behind in the sprint and only jumped out a sobering eighth place, he now travels in the World Cup ranking with a lead (eight points) enlarged by one point. Bigger than after Melbourne.
“The race was much better than I thought,” he explains during the press conference after the race. “I was not confident at all. I was nervous that I would have to fight exactly as in the sprint, honestly. But I’m very satisfied to see how much I improved. Both as far as the car is concerned and my driving style.”
“Today was a much stronger day, so I’m glad I found answers to my difficulties. That makes me happy. But of course I’m happiest about the double victory for the team.”