F1 Chinese GP | McLaren on the third row: Mercedes hard to catch, Ferrari better than the MCL40

The weekend of Chinese Grand Prix 2026 continues to outline precise hierarchies for this new era of Formula 1. On the track of Shanghai, la McLaren had a positive Saturday overall, confirming itself as the third force behind Mercedes Benz e Ferrari. Today's programme, split between the first Sprint race of the year and qualifying for the Grand Prix, saw the Woking team collect important points and secure a third row start for tomorrow's start. Oscar piastri He took fifth place on the grid, just ahead of his teammate Lando Norris, sixth at the end of Q3.

The Sprint Race: Between Tactics and the Safety Car

The morning opened with the short race, where energy management and responsiveness to the pit wall were crucial. From the moment the lights went out, both Norris and Piastri showed excellent momentum, maintaining top positions before the field stabilized. The pace shown by the MCL40 It appeared in line with what was seen at Melbourne, with a reassuring gap on the rest of the mid-table but still decidedly below the performance of the leaders.

The race was lively in the final stages with the entry of the Safety Car. McLaren took advantage of the neutralization to call the drivers into the pits, a move that allowed Lando Norris to gain positions on Lewis Hamilton e Kimi Antonelli. The latter was also given a ten-second penalty for a previous infringement. Despite the temporary advantage, Lewis's Ferrari demonstrated a clear superiority at the restart, managing to overtake the Briton again, who nevertheless held off Antonelli's comeback, finishing in an excellent fourth place.

As for Oscar Piastri, his race was marked by a significant incident in the closing stages. After the restart, the young Australian found himself in a close battle with Antonelli's Mercedes. Convinced that the Italian driver had exceeded track limits on the final corner, Oscar overtook him before the finish line. However, a quick video check revealed that Kimi had managed to keep two wheels on the white line. At the team's direction, Piastri correctly returned the position on the back straight, finishing the Sprint in sixth place.

Qualifying: McLaren starts from the third row

The afternoon qualifying session mirrored the results from Friday's Sprint Qualifying. McLaren managed their time through Q1 and Q2 with relative ease, focusing on saving tires for the final phase. Both drivers made it to Q3 with two sets of new Soft tires, a crucial feature for masking some of the car's aerodynamic shortcomings in Shanghai's longer corners.

Despite a convincing first attempt, neither Piastri nor Norris managed to improve on their second run due to a slight worsening of track conditions and imperfect management of the third sector. The fifth and sixth place finishes faithfully represent the current value of the McLaren technical package. who finds himself having to manage a deficit of speed on the straight and precision when entering curves compared to more direct competition.

The voices of the pilots

Oscar piastri He analyzed his day as follows: “I conclude this Saturday with a fifth-place finish in qualifying and a sixth in the Sprint. It was a positive day overall, although it's clear we still have room for improvement. The position we achieved in official qualifying accurately reflects our current potential on this circuit.”

"I have to admit that my final lap in Q3 wasn't perfect, so I could have refined some things further, but we still managed to seize the opportunities that presented themselves. Tomorrow's goal will be to get a clean start and manage tire degradation as best as possible, which proved to be a crucial factor already in this morning's race. The car's pace will be crucial to staying close to the frontrunners; we'll try to analyze the data tonight to unlock even more performance."

Lando Norris He was realistic about the gap to the leading teams: “It was a solid day, finishing exactly where we expected to be. I think fourth place in the Sprint was the best we could achieve today, and finishing ahead of a Mercedes was a better result than initially expected. We're aware that we have some weaknesses in our race setup that we're trying to address; progress is visible, but we still have a long way to go to close the gap to those ahead of us.”

"As for qualifying, the result is decent, but I feel we could have done slightly better. The third sector continues to be our critical point: we're losing too much time both on the straight and through the final corners. Looking ahead to the Grand Prix, our pace doesn't seem far from Ferrari's, but they have technical advantages that are difficult to counter. It's difficult to drastically change the car overnight, so tomorrow we'll have to race smart. The goal is to fight with Ferrari if the opportunity arises, but without compromising our race by chasing those who are simply faster than us at the moment."

The point of view of the wall

The team principal Andrea Stella He gave a technical assessment of the situation, highlighting the hierarchies of the 2026 world championship: "Today's sessions highlight a trend that is now clear for this start of the 2026 season. As we already noted in Melbourne, Mercedes currently holds the lead in both the flying lap and race pace, placing them at a level that will be difficult for us and Ferrari to match. The Maranello team still maintains a certain margin over us in terms of consistency in the race, as we were able to verify in this morning's Sprint."

“However, we are gradually closing the gap and have become very competitive in pure qualifying performance. It's worth noting that using new Soft tyres helped us today, making the challenge more even. Starting with both cars on the third row for the second consecutive weekend is proof that the team is working in the right direction, although the real challenge will be closing the gap completely before the next development packages arrive. Every time the MCL40 takes to the track, we gather valuable data on power unit management, improving performance session after session. Tomorrow's race will be another crucial test to understand our progress since the Melbourne test.”

The most interesting data to emerge from Saturday in Shanghai concerns McLaren's use of the Mercedes power unit. Despite having identical powertrains to the factory team, the Mercedes W17 still appears to have superior electrical management, especially during deployment on the long straight. The MCL40 struggles in the third sector not only due to drag, but also due to a difficult balance between the downforce needed in the fast corners and the top speed required on the two main straights.