How Norris stunned Ferrari - and McLaren - in F1's Chinese GP

Edd Straw (in Shanghai) is joined by Mark Hughes and Scott Mitchell-Malm to dissect F1's 2024 Chinese Grand Prix, which produced some intriguing storylines behind another runaway victory for Max Verstappen.
The team discuss why Red Bull's advantage was so big, how McLaren's Lando Norris was able to emerge as best of the rest, where Ferrari's pace disappeared to, and why Lewis Hamilton's weekend was so up and down.
And as ever, they also answer a sackful of questions from listeners.
00.00 Intro
12.19 How Norris elevated McLaren
18.38 Hamilton’s weekend of two halves
23.40 Return of the sprint
25.75 Ricciardo vs Stroll
32.09 Alonso’s sprint race penalty
35.52 Ricciardo’s new chassis brings upturn in form?
38.19 Haas upgrades bring encouragement
39.52 Alpine’s upgrades bring improvements
41.36 Valtteri Bottas sympathy corner
44.16 Listener questions
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#f1 #formulaone #f12024 #therace #formula1 #grandprix #f1podcast #chinesegp #china #shanghai

[@klater5842]

Every year I feel like we hear the phrase “revamped sprint weekend”

[@joelbates8243]

because we do

[@DavidJohnson-dc8lu]

McLaren's car is an understeering car, it was never supposed to suit the short corners at Shanghai. I was expecting Perez, Leclerc and Sainz to sail pass him. We heard Norris also report his understeer issues with his car, and ignored the orders of how to drive around it, because he knew it would make his rear tyres go, and just drove with the understeer and kept the speed. It was a stunning drive knowing the cars problems. This means Norris car drive a difficult car competitively and work out what he should be doing to get the most out of in the car during the race... Alonso style. Let us not forget he had a bad sprint and bounced from that quickly, this is what champions do, have a bad race and come back stronger, not crack, something Hamilton is great at doing. He has a bit of Alonso's driving/calculation style in him, and Lewis's mentality, he is going to win championships when the car is there.

[@user-wy5xe6ht2m]

🥸

[@patrickdijkman8974]

Its a common pratice to paint grass and " nature" in China. They paint whole mountain sides to make them look lush and green from a distance, you can find video's here on youtube about it. If the grass on the circuit was painted aswell, its easy to catch fire with some sparks from the magnesium skidblocks.

[@WRXMAN-ms2mm]

Sport is supposed to bridge politics and ideology. So in the moments of the weekend and the bubble environment of the track venue it has the veneer of civility and has a great wow factor with the bulging stands. To get a race venue in your country is really a privilege. The government of China doesn’t deserve this privilege, the citizens do. But money rules all and always will. Other than that a decent race with a totally predictable outcome with respect to the winner. This race however confirms that Mercedes is a true midfield car.

[@redbullsauberpetronas]

​@@WRXMAN-ms2mmcry more China number one

[@Alex_Martin_]

Yeah, it's kinda funnier how much they dance around the obvious answer.

[@alectang1614]

Tell me you're brainwashed without telling me you're brainwashed. They do not paint mountainsides... Go to China yourself and see the truth yourself. I've been to China more than 20 times over the past 20 years and the rate of progress is staggering. You cannot separate the CPC with the regular Chinese people as people in China genuinely love their government as they focus on helping people rather than pandering to the rich like most governments do in the West. Be more open minded and accept that other forms of government can also work.

[@AKK5I]

​@@redbullsauberpetronas Taiwan #1. Ratio'd

[@fundude365]

I see Mark's point when he says he doesn't like penalties. Particularly given that once you draw a line, drivers will immediately see how close they can get to the line and get away with it. However, can you really rely on drivers to put their big-boy trousers on and work things out once the race is over? In a zero-sum game with no penalties for bad behaviour? We only need to look at Suzuka 1989+1990 to see how that would go.

[@c.l.8213]

I fully agree with the argument that at the moment we really don't see which of the bottom 5 teams is better through the points. It's more luck based. If points were given up to, say, P18, it would make the standings much clearer.

[@redbullsauberpetronas]

Just give people points for showing up now why don't we just make them feel less worth anything, enough with these silly ideas

[@catchnkill]

@@redbullsauberpetronas Not a silly idea. It is an excellent idea. If you ask me, I shall give point to all the cars finishing the race. Currently system only top ten cars have points. What is the different between 11 to 20? None. All have no point. What is the incentive to get a better position if the driver knows that he is not going to get within top ten in a race? Considering this. A team have their two cars finishing 19, 20 in every single race except in Monaco where they get a 9 and 10 due to a lot of car crashes of the race. Another team have their two cars finishing 11, 12 in every race except Baku where they have one car getting the tenth place. Which team is doing better? In the current system the first one. Is it?

[@jimw6659]

I don’t want to beat on Scott because he comes across as a nice guy, but a producer worth their salt would have him talking a lot less. He could make his points in one-third of the time. Were you to read a transcript of his speech, it would be packed with repetitions, “er”s and broken sentence structures. Verbal communication skills are sorely lacking - this is fairly important for a podcast! I would really like to hear a lot more from Mark Hughes - he has vastly more experience on the subject matter and is easy to listen to, yet he is sidelined to the point that, almost, he might as well not be there.

[@perpetual_bias]

it's almost as if these guys are just having an informal chat and not a full-fledged professional interview. who could've guessed

[@Atlas.Brooklyn]

There ALWAYS gotta be one of you guys in the comments, huh? ​It's almost like listener's still want easily understandable, nuanced content with halfway proper communication. Who could've guessed.

[@sh-spectrum409]

Norris's McLaren took full advantage of the colder temperatures whereas the Ferraris struggled to find the maximum grip. Who knows how long it'll take the Scuderia to iron that issue out but fortunately for them the next several races should be in much warmer climates.

[@brucemckay7828]

"We are checking ".

[@diesel-technology5507]

The McLaren has always performed very well where tyre warm up is most crucial (cold track temps for example) Unfortunately they end up with high deg on tracks where it's much easier to get tyre temp. If the Deg was identical to Ferrari on hot days then they would always be 2nd to red bull at the moment

[@sh-spectrum409]

@@diesel-technology5507 I’ve read also that the resurfacing of the track has seemed to favour McLaren more because of the lack of rubber previously laid down.

[@wrz4581]

I mean if stroll somehow is still on a team... Zhou might as well be able to stay

[@wizzyno1566]

Only if his dad buys a team.

[@epeedor4087]

52:27 I really disagree with this take. Saying that someone doesn't deserve the points that they get by capitalizing on the misfortune of others goes against the nature of the sport. Are we to also say that people like gasly and ocon don't deserve the podiums from last year due to Alpine not being a top 3 team each week?

[@AshTheMohican]

Braindead take. Without Stroll Haas wouldn't be scoring top 10 finishes. But other backmarker teams capitalizing would be unfair lmao.

[@JeffBeefjaw]

Alonso is very race craft. He's a master and should be on future boards of the FIA, if he'd like to. His knowledge could be incredibly worthwhile

[@Isanion]

Every time Mark speaks he says the words I'm thinking!

[@Kiura_]

Honestly what i don't understand is that Alonso gets more penalty points than Lance, so sending it in a race and having a wheel to wheel battle is worse than just driving someone in the back and ending his race makes no sense at all

[@nishyanthkumar]

"sending it" is a bit of an understatement, imo

[@Noriegha67]

Was the grass painted ala the beijing olympics?

[@SuprNintendoChalmers]

Bring back timestamps

[@ask.repeat]

F1 is more exciting around purpose built race tracks?!? No way

[@tylerp4130]

Scott’s social credit score must not be high enough to be allowed to use his phone in China.

[@jazz9469]

Stroll is special 😂

[@michaeldellorso889]

These guys are afraid of Lawrence Stroll. Talk about kid gloves for Lance.

[@urbanstrencan]

Was quite good race , and another great podcast 😊❤❤

[@wraitheful]

The sprint race was great but should be relegated to backup drivers in third cars. That would be far more interesting and less disruptive plus Max can’t win.

[@xsoxcalxparamourx]

Gas build up??? it was literally fry grass and not all grass types are the same. Come on now.

[@Fabiolino2b]

Dude Norris got lucky whit cold weather , and safety car …. Let’s see what happens in Miami with summer weather… where McLaren will be

[@2headedsnail]

China paints the grass green. Questions answered. Definitely not swamp gas

[@Milkywayboy]

Lewis spent the last 3 years saying he is a driver and he knows how to set up a car😂 And Mercedes is now letting him set it up the car and he is botching it 😂😂😂 Maybe Lewis doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does

[@its_clean]

I get that F1 has its own jargon and slang, but can we stop using "concertina" for this type of incident? It's a lot of syllables to incorrectly describe the effect: a concertina is a single piece of material that folds or wraps back on itself. This would more accurately be called a "domino" or "bowling pin" effect, both of which are more concise and give a more accurate depiction of the "one guy hit another guy hit another guy" type of incident.

[@brucemckay7828]

Zho, pandering ? Liberty looks at All those people, I think there was a billion at the track, and they salivate . Come on , it's not about the race anymore , for the owners, it's about sponsors

[@reesilva1]

please add video

[@wilfswanderings]

Laughing at the VB sympathy corner....41.37 it's genius...

[@AndrewDRSWilliamson]

☝️😂

[@AndrewDRSWilliamson]

Wow am first 😂

[@richardcook1987]

Great insight thanks

[@Finnjaymakes]

You’re not 😂

[@Atlas.Brooklyn]

Find something more important to care about. Go outside and do something more fulfilling than being first in a podcast comment section.

[@AndrewDRSWilliamson]

@@Atlas.Brooklyn 😭😭 sorry number 465

[@AndrewDRSWilliamson]

@@richardcook1987 ✌️

[@muziqfreek]

1 point for whoever finishes the race last, increasing by 1 for each position higher (to the max of 20 if everyone finishes, any "surplus" points if there's retirements etc go to the winner) 1 point for Pole, 1 Point for fastest lap

[@NandoFIT-df8ly]

Lando NoWINS. How many podiums without a win is it now?

[@SiegfriedDerDrachentoter]

Cringe - anyone objective would realise he is clearly maximising what he had had for a at almost every race for a season now

[@fundude365]

Can help you with this one: 15 He now holds both of the records for most points without a race win (670) and most podiums without a race win. Which throws Hulkenberg's record-equalling efforts into sharp relief 😵‍💫 (208 race starts without a win as of April 21 2024, equalling Andrea de Cesaris)

[@markli5284]

Who would you rather have in your team: Norris, Ocon or Pastor Maldonado?

[@NandoFIT-df8ly]

@@markli5284 Ocon is clearly the best driver out of the 3. He is a race winner and he beat Alonso.

[@SacredLime]

@@markli5284 Norris

[@stuartorr8192]

McLaren need an Alonso or Hulkenberg. Lando is not. A leader.