Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is rooting for his win in China after missing out in Bahrain. The 21-year-old Leclerc beat the five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain but ultimately limped home third when his Ferrari lost power with 10 laps left.
The focus in Shanghai will be on Leclerc, the Ferrari rookie from Monaco who fully deserved victory two weeks ago but had to settle for the first podium of his career.
Leclerc stated, “usually the Chinese race is good fun because the weather can be unpredictable and rain can arrive when you least expect it. It’s the 1,000th race in the history of Formula One and I hope the car will be as good as it was in Bahrain (until late on) so that I can continue to go for the results we deserve.”
While everyone has been praising Leclerc, his team-mate Vettel is facing criticism.
It seems absurd for a four-time world champion to have to defend his ability and temperament, but the German is having to do just that after a series of unforced errors stretching back to last season.
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer, who left Renault during the 2017 season, called Vettel’s spin in Bahrain “amateur”.
Vettel finished fifth and was comfortably eclipsed by Leclerc, who is a decade younger.
“If a backmarker rookie had spun in the manner Vettel did, they would have been a laughing stock after the race,” Palmer told the BBC.
“For a four-time world champion to do so should be unthinkable.”
Shanghai has one of the longest straights in the 21-race championship and should be perfect for Ferrari’s searing pace, with reliability the main concern for the Italian marque.
With all the talk about Ferrari, it is easy to forget that Mercedes won the opening two races.
Valtteri Bottas claimed a dominant victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with world champion Hamilton second.
It was the other way round in Bahrain, leaving the Finn a point ahead of the Briton in the early drivers’ standings after picking up the fastest-lap bonus point in Melbourne.
Toto Wolff the Mercedes team Principal claimed, “the truth is that we weren’t as quick as our direct competitors throughout qualifying and the race in Bahrain. The Ferrari was considerably faster on the straights and this added up to several tenths around one lap. Nevertheless, the saying goes that ‘in order to finish first, first you have to finish. The challenge we are facing doesn’t daunt us, it’s uplifting,” he concluded.
F1’s first championship race was at Silverstone, England, in 1950 and it says much about how the sport has grown that its milestone grand Prix is in China.
The country, which has a swelling number of motorsport enthusiasts, is a key market for F1’s US-based owners Liberty Media.
Liberty Media say they are interested in holding a second Grand Prix in the world’s most populous country.