After a chaotic opening race in Australia, the 2025 Formula One season is officially underway.
And the action continues this weekend as the grid moves from Melbourne to Shanghai for the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix.
For this year’s Chinese GP, here are our race preview and predictions.
After years of struggling towards the bottom of the field, Williams finally seem to have taken the correct steps for the new season, with a fresh driver pairing and new staff kicking things off on a strong note.
Having had a strong pre-season testing, with Carlos Sainz holding the fastest time, Williams were one of the strongest performers last weekend in Australia, with Alex Albon also finishing a strong fifth to see the Grove-based team pick up some crucial points early on.
While Sainz had a crash that ended his race right at the start, Albon showcased strong race pace in a Williams car that looks like it might dominate the midfield this year.
Dark Horses: Williams Racing
Ferrari came into the new season as one of the title contenders, having brought on board seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton to improve their chances. However, they had an opening weekend to forget.
Although they walked away with five points, the Italian team know they have the resources to fight for the win. While they don’t seem to be on the same pace as McLaren right now, both Charles Leclerc and Hamilton have enough ability to bring more out of a car that isn’t the best on the grid, though it is certainly capable of fighting for podiums regularly.
Counting out the Scuderia from scoring a big haul of points in China would be unwise.
Pole prediction: Lando Norris / Lewis Hamilton
Race winners prediction: McLaren / Ferrari
Haas have had a rough start to the season. Rookie Ollie Bearman, who is part of Haas’ new lineup, had a tough start individually, suffering a couple of big crashes as well as an incident in pre-season. Haas had the second-slowest time in pre-season testing, with only Sauber behind them.
After a string of seasons at the bottom of the grid, the American team are looking to start afresh like many other lower-midfield teams with a new driver pairing. Worryingly, however, Qualifying saw Bearman unable to set a time because of his crash, while his teammate Esteban Ocon finished as the slowest driver. Among the 14 drivers who finished the race, the two Haas drivers were at the very end of the list, with Ocon and Bearman finishing P13 and P14, respectively.
Haas do not look like they have the race pace to compete with the likes of Sauber, VCARB, and Alpine, who should be their direct competitors this season. Expect another rough weekend for Haas in China.
Circuit: Shanghai International Circuit
Venue: Jiading, Shanghai, China
Practice Session 1 time: 09:00, March 21, 2025
Sprint Qualifying time: 13:00, March 21, 2025
Sprint Race time: 08:30, March 22, 2025
Qualifying time: 12:30, March 22, 2025
Main race time: 12:30, March 23, 2025
Where to watch: F1 TV Pro / FanCode
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