F1 news: Five takeaways from Ferrari’s Chinese Grand Prix; Lewis Hamilton on podium
Scuderia Ferrari arrived at the Shanghai International Circuit and showcased vast improvement since last weekend in Melbourne.
Whilst Ferrari couldn’t quite take the top spots away from Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, the weekend gave a much better indication of how competitive Ferrari can be in the battle at the top against Mercedes.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer and Ferrari fan Luca Salmasi takes a look at five key talking points from Ferrari’s second race of the season.
Hamilton’s scarlett podium
Lewis Hamilton gave Ferrari a much‑needed boost by finishing P3 and securing his first Sunday podium with the team.
The seven-time world champion delivered a strong performance at the circuit where, in 2025, he made his only podium appearance of the season with victory in the sprint race.
After taking third in this year’s 19‑lap sprint, Hamilton surged into the lead of the Grand Prix, sweeping past polesitter Kimi Antonelli.
He surrendered the position a lap later, and from that point his focus shifted to team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Following a series of fierce but fair battles between the pair, Hamilton ultimately came out on top, ending the weekend with a result that gave Ferrari a much-needed confidence boost.
Race-pace problems
Similarly to the opening race of the season, Ferrari have shown that they could challenge the front runners Mercedes - and have genuine race pace to challenge the front runners.
However, Ferrari’s straight line speed simply doesn’t match Mercedes and when you are at a track like the Shanghai International Circuit that has two long straights, as both the sprint and main race went on that would be the key factor as to why they couldn’t keep up.
Whilst for now, Ferrari can match Mercedes in cornering speed, their struggle to match Mercedes’ top speeds led them to kill their tyres trying to play catch up and is part of the reason why they lost significant time in the straighter sections of the track.
Competitive intra-team battles
Many of the highlights of Ferrari's race were the frequent battles between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Whilst exciting for the viewers, it created nerves for the team as the pair came close to contact on several occasions.
Similarly to Saturday’s sprint race, Leclerc and Hamilton produced some brilliant racing as the two scarlet cars went wheel to wheel in hard but fair racing.
Ferrari allowed the experienced team-mates to race and they were ultimately rewarded for their risk as both finished without incident, as Hamilton would edge Leclerc to the final podium place.
After the race Hamilton did mention that the pair did touch during their fierce duel, but stated tough racing is simply part of the job.
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Mercedes is still the benchmark
Whilst the weekend’s results were a much-needed improvement for Ferrari’s standards, after a short burst of momentum at the start of the race they fizzed out and started trailing Mercedes almost immediately, with the gap between Hamiton finishing 25 seconds behind the race winner Antonelli despite the intervention of a safety car.
The gap of an average of 0.6 seconds per lap doesn’t tell the full story as the Ferrari duo posted several laps outside their typical pace, which occurred during their battle for the podium, affecting their average race pace.
The current gap to Mercedes, whilst seemingly small, remains significant; so far, Ferrari cannot realistically challenge for victory despite their excellent starts.
Improvements are needed on multiple fronts, with the most important being to monitor and develop the evolution of the engine’s power, which is the most notable difference in Ferrari’s poor straight line speed.
Optimism heading to Japan
Building on the positives from Shanghai, Ferrari head to Suzuka with renewed confidence.
After a strong showing in China with a double podium finish in the sprint race and a Lewis Hamilton podium in the Grand Prix, it was a true showcase of how close they are to the leading Mercedes and the competitive pace that Ferrari know is there.
Suzuka’s challenging layout and high-speed corners could be the edge Ferrari needs to finally gain momentum and secure their first win of the 2026 season.
