F1 News: Biggest winners and losers from F1 2025 Chinese Grand Prix

With three disqualifications, strategy gambles, and rumours already starting to swirl in the driver market, it was another dramatic weekend of F1 as China hosted the first Sprint weekend of the season.

Following the slippery season-opener at a rainy Albert Park in Melbourne, all eyes were on how the likes of Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton, and Liam Lawson would bounce back from difficult starts to the 2025 campaign.

Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer Henry Eccles breaks down the biggest winners and losers to come out of the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, March 23.

Winner: Oscar Piastri

Last week in Australia, McLaren’s Lando Norris pulled off a stellar drive in the rain to take the win and make a statement to the rest of the grid about his championship intentions.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri closely followed for most of the race but spun out in the treacherous conditions at his home Grand Prix and only recovered to P9.

In China, however, Piastri was ahead of Norris every step of the way during what was a busy Sprint weekend.

A lock-up in Sprint qualifying saw Norris confined to P6, while the Aussie started the race just behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Stuck in Hamilton’s dirty air and with tyre degradation an issue throughout, Piastri and Verstappen battled it out for P2 in the Sprint race - and it was the McLaren driver that came out on top.

Norris, meanwhile, had a messy start and was behind Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin for most of the Sprint before taking a lone point in P8.

On Saturday afternoon at the Shanghai International Circuit, Piastri then pipped his team-mate in qualifying to snatch pole position, the first Grand Prix pole of his career.

What followed in Sunday’s race was Piastri’s usual form - fast, cool, calm and collected. The 23-year-old defended well from George Russell at the start and maintained a healthy gap with Norris for virtually the whole race.

It was a champion’s weekend for the young Aussie, and the perfect way to respond not only to his own poor result in Melbourne but to Norris’ dominance last weekend.

McLaren have a clear pace advantage to the rest of the grid, but Piastri very much threatens to keep this championship battle interesting - already showing exactly why Red Bull boss Christian Horner told Netflix he would prefer to have him over Norris in his team.

READ MORE: F1 news: McLaren star Oscar Piastri makes up for Melbourne misery, Haas impress and more

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

Following a tricky weekend at Melbourne, Hamilton and Ferrari looked like they had bounced back when the Briton converted his surprise Sprint pole into a victory on Saturday.

It was a vintage performance from the wily Hamilton, keeping Verstappen and Piastri at arm’s length and allowing them to wear out their tyres before driving off into the distance.

Unfortunately for the Scuderia, that was to be the highlight of the weekend.

Following changes to the car set-up, the best either Hamilton or Charles Leclerc could do in Grand Prix qualifying was P5 and P6, respectively.

In the race, Hamilton struggled to get to grips with the SF-25 and even elected to let his team-mate pass - Leclerc was showing tremendous pace in comparison, despite losing his front-wing endplate in the first lap.

A P5 and P6 finish was an improvement on Melbourne, but after Hamilton’s car was found to have excessive skid wear on its underside, and Leclerc’s failed to meet the minimum weight requirements, Ferrari suffered their first ever double disqualification in F1 history.

In explaining the decision, FIA stewards stated that there were ‘no mitigating circumstances,’ while Ferrari confirmed it was ‘a genuine error.’

While Hamilton’s Sprint victory can offer Ferrari some encouragement that he can compete, a combination of strategic and technical mistakes so early on in the season have hampered their campaign to win the Constructors’ title for the first time since 2008.

Winner: George Russell

Mercedes’ George Russell has started the 2025 season quietly yet very impressively.

In Shanghai, the Briton added to his podium in Australia with another P3 finish, marking his first back-to-back top-three finish since his debut season for Mercedes in 2022.

The result also scored the Silver Arrows their 300th podium finish as an F1 works team.

With the departure of seven-time world champion Hamilton and the introduction of young Andrea Kimi Antonelli as his replacement, Russell needs to step up to the plate this season - especially since his contract currently runs out at the end of the year.

The 27-year-old described his performance in China as one of his very best in F1, while team boss Toto Wolff gave Russell a ‘10 out of 10,’ stressing that he sees him as at least a top-three driver on the current F1 grid.

His team-mate Antonelli finished in P6 despite carrying floor damage, another helpful points haul for the 18-year-old in his bright start in F1 that earned him the Driver of the Day award, voted for by the fans.

The young Italian thought it was ‘weird’ he won the award, while Wolff jokingly suggested over the radio that he was given it for his good looks, a ‘real charmer’ as radio engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington said.

Regardless, Mercedes have made a solid start to the season, and while Antonelli continues to develop strongly, Russell’s two controlled drives thus far prove he can be Mercedes’ leading man.

Loser: Liam Lawson

It has been a torrid start to life as a senior Red Bull driver for Liam Lawson.

In Australia, the Kiwi qualified plum last and then failed to finish Sunday’s race after crashing out.

In Shanghai, that poor form only continued, as Lawson qualified slowest of all in both Sprint and Grand Prix qualifying.

His P12 in Sunday’s race was heavily aided by the disqualifications of the Ferrari drivers and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, leaving Lawson without a point to his name so far in 2025.

The disastrous start has even led to speculation that Red Bull might bite the bullet already and replace the 23-year-old for the next race weekend in Japan.

The obvious candidate to come in is Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda, who harshly missed out on the seat following Lawson’s F1 return last year.

Tsunoda has looked strong for a while now - in fact, since Lawson’s return, he has successfully out-qualified the Kiwi in eight consecutive races.

Even Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has started to take the Japanese driver more seriously, praising Tsunoda for being in ‘the form of his life.’

“Yuki is a different Yuki from the years before,’ he told Autosport. “He has a different approach. He’s more mature. It took a while, but now it looks like it’s working.”

Yet all of this driver talk is perhaps masking a larger issue at play: Red Bull’s car.

‘Knife-edge’ was the buzzword for both the McLaren and Ferrari cars in China, but has applied to the Red Bull since last season.

Red Bull’s continued drivability problems with a car so heavily engineered to suit Verstappen makes former driver Sergio Perez’s longtime concerns with the car - something which Red Bull have since admitted they were wrong to ignore - all the more validated.

Now, Verstappen himself is no longer comfortable in his cockpit and has even suggested team-mate Lawson would be faster driving in the sister Racing Bull car.

Well, with Lawson’s poor start to the season, and unless a rumoured shock move for Alpine’s Franco Colapinto actually materialises, that switch may be what is about to happen.

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Winner: Ollie Bearman

Fans had every right to be concerned for Haas after their dismal display in Australia, as Esteban Ocon and Oliver-Ollie-Bearman crossed the line at the very back of a 14-man grid.

Ollie Bearman, making his full season debut in F1, had the worst of it throughout the weekend, after crashing in FP1 and missing qualifying due to a gearbox issue.

In China, however, the 19-year-old bounced back with a P10 finish that got bumped up to P8 following the Ferrari disqualifications.

While Ocon did even better to end up in P5 and pulled off a sensational overtake on Antonelli with half of his car on the dry Shanghai grass, Bearman deserves praise for implementing a smart strategy call by his team.

As most opted to start on the Medium tyre and switch to the Hards, Bearman did the opposite, and impressively cut through the pack with fresher tyres to take his third points finish in F1.

The young Brit made almost identical switchback moves on Lawson and Alpine’s Jack Doohan at the Turn 14 hairpin, cheekily cheering ‘Ciao!’ on his team radio - something he later admitted to F1 TV that he regretted.

His overtake on Gasly on Lap 41 was a fine example of intelligent and patient racecraft from one so young, biding his time before using a better exit onto the main straight to get into the points at turn one.

While it is unlikely that Haas have fixed all of their problems in one week, their double-points score in Shanghai is nonetheless encouraging, and Bearman’s impressive turnaround proves that, on their day, Haas can battle the midfield on two fronts.

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