Today Shanghai was the venue for the 2nd race in the Formula One calendar year and like last week in Melbourne we had a McLaren car win the race. A one two McLaren finish bagging a maximum of 43 points, The constructors title is already looking ominous wit Red Bull out the picture as they only have one competitive car with Verstappen.
Before the season got under way Lando Norris was the firm favorite to win this years drivers championship ad I guess that was the British press pushing that story. I am tipping the other McLaren driver in the Aussie Oscar Piastri to run away with it. Piastri just has more of a fighting spirit that seems to be severely lacking in Norris and Norris just does not have the self confidence and belief in his own ability.
The big story of the day was the disqualification of both the Ferrari cars for different reasons. Both the Ferrari drivers finished in 5th and 6th before being disqualified. Hamilton pitted twice unlike everyone else and this gamble never paid off so they are still lacking a clear strategy which cost them in Australia.
Cars are all weighed at the end of the race with the weight requirement being 800kg's excluding fuel. LeClerc's car was 800kg's before the 1.1 liters of fuel was drained leaving the car at 799 Kg's and an instant dismissal from the race. Did the team not check the weight of the car before the race? For this they lose the 10 points earned which is $10 million tossed away. Pierre Gasly also had his car disqualified for being under the weight limit. This does not happen often and two cars under weight in the same race is extremely rare.
Hamilton had a different issue with his wooden plank under the car failing the wear test by mot meeting the minimum requirements of 9mm. His skid plank recorded 8.5mm and 8.6mm resulting in disqualification and another 8 points and $8 million binned. Two races and a total of 27 points or $27 million being discarded due to a team not paying attention to the final details.
The crazy part is the disqualifications today are of no fault of the drivers and are the fault of each drivers race engineer. LeClerc's car was not tested for the skid plank wear and guess his would have failed if checked. You have to wonder when the drivers will start to lose all confidence in the garage and support staff who are supposed to be helping and not hindering them.
The next race is in two weeks time with the Japanese Grand Prix and expect another dominant Piastri victory unless other teams can get their act together. Liam Lawson the new Red Bull driver could be running out of time and the team may have to be forced to make a big call and replace him after this race. Performances count and you either deliver or you are gone as other drivers are waiting for you to fail.