IT'S RACE WEEK: 5 storylines we're excited about ahead of the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix

After a thrilling and dramatic season-opener in Australia it’s a quick turnaround for the Formula 1 paddock as the teams head to China, with plenty to look forward to after Sunday’s first race. Here are a few of the talking points heading to Shanghai...

Can Piastri bounce back?

It was a tough end to an extremely promising weekend for Oscar Piastri in Melbourne, as the home hero saw his hopes of victory slide off the track behind team mate Lando Norris late in the race.

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Piastri had been putting pressure on Norris for the win but both went wide in the final sector, yet it was the Australian who ended up unable to regain control as he got stuck on the wet grass for an entire lap.

The incredible Albert Park crowd cheered him back into the race once he eventually managed to reverse his McLaren to safety, but ninth place was scant reward for a strong weekend that had looked set to end the drought of an Australian driver finishing on the podium at their home race.

What the Australian Grand Prix did display, was the pace McLaren have in both dry and wet conditions, with much of the race being a straight fight between the two team mates. Norris managing to hold off Max Verstappen for victory gives him an early advantage in the standings, and Piastri will want to bank some solid points of his own in China.

Ferrari trying to unlock more performance

McLaren’s pace in Australia was largely expected, but Ferrari were also predicted to be a podium contender from the start of this season based on what had been seen in testing.

Not only were McLaren talking up the Scuderia’s chances, but many other teams, and Ferrari themselves, were expecting more from the opening round.

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In the end, a lack of performance in Qualifying left the two Ferraris sharing the fourth row, and facing a tough afternoon on a track where overtaking can be difficult. Add in the mixed conditions and the ability for strategic calls to have a significant impact, and Ferrari ended up limited to eighth and tenth with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton respectively.

Both drivers suggested there was more to come from the car in Australia, while Hamilton is also learning about a new environment following his switch from Mercedes, and China provides the first opportunity to try and put the lessons learned over the opening race weekend into practice.

Rookies getting a quick second chance

Speaking of making use of the experience from the first race of the season, there are a number of rookies who will be looking forward to getting back behind the wheel and having the chance to put the memory of Melbourne behind them.

The conditions seen on Sunday were exactly the kind that are likely to catch out inexperienced drivers, and so it proved with Isack Hadjar crashing on the formation lap, and Jack Doohan just half a lap into his home race.

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Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson both also crashed out of the race on the same lap late on, and Ollie Bearman had endured a torrid time during practice and Qualifying as two off-track moments resulted in him getting very little running.

Even Kimi Antonelli – who delivered a brilliant recovery drive to finish fourth on debut for Mercedes – will be keen to try and have a smoother weekend after he picked up floor damage in Qualifying and was limited to 16th on the grid.

All of the rookies have shown their talents at different stages already, be that substitute appearances, strong qualifying laps or eye-catching pace in practice, and now they will look to put it together when it matters during what will be a fast-paced second race weekend of the new season.

The first Sprint of the season and F1 ACADEMY returns

The reason China will be fast-paced is because the grid will only get one practice session to try and get up to speed before they need to be pushing their cars to the limit.

That’s the beauty of the Sprint schedule, where FP1 leads straight into Sprint Qualifying on Friday, setting the grid for the shorter race earlier on Saturday. It is a format that has proven popular with fans, as it provides more competitive sessions compared to the usual race weekend, meaning there is something to fight for on all three days of the event.

READ MORE: 5 Winners and 5 Losers from Australia – Who started their season in style?

Just like in Melbourne, last year saw the weather have an impact across the race weekend and mix up the grid somewhat, but the Shanghai International Circuit has shown itself to be a really good venue for racing and overtaking on multiple occasions, and with what looks to be a really close field in 2025 we can expect this weekend to be no different.

It’s not just racing in F1 that fans can look forward to, either, as F1 ACADEMY’s third season will kick off in China.

There are returning title contenders such as Doriane Pin and Maya Weug, as well as the familiar names of Chloe Chambers, Lia Block, Aurelia Nobels and Tina Hausmann. But there’s also an influx of new and exciting drivers who will be on the grid full-time, in what will be F1 ACADEMY’s first race in Shanghai.

A clearer picture of dry-weather pace

The weather was certainly a talking point over the past few days in Melbourne, with high temperatures in Qualifying then giving way to such challenging conditions with wind and rain throughout race day.

While that gave us a dramatic race that went right down to the final lap, and featured plenty of incidents, it also meant there was little to be learned in terms of race pace in dry conditions. Long runs in practice are one thing, but when you are racing other cars and have the impact of clean air versus traffic, a race can provide even more insight.

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Even when there was running on the slick Pirelli tyre, teams opted for different compounds in damp conditions and another rain shower soon forced everyone back onto intermediates.

The forecast for this weekend in Shanghai, however, looks far more settled. A cold start to the week is set to give way to a warm and sunny race weekend, with little threat of rain on any of the three days of track running.

Given the Sprint schedule, teams will be relieved to have a settled forecast at the moment, and it could well provide more answers as to where they all stand compared to each other.

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