2025 F1 Chinese GP: Winners and Losers

The 2025 F1 Chinese GP saw Oscar Piastri win his first race of the year fending off Lando Norris. The Australian made the most of the pole position start and once he got off the line perfectly, there was no looking back.

It was a slightly tactical race where the two-stop strategy turned into a one-stopper and it appears that the change has caught out a few drivers. Charles Leclerc who finished the race in P5 and Lewis Hamilton who was P6 in the F1 Chinese GP were both disqualified for technical infringement and in the end, we had Esteban Ocon in his Haas jumping to P5.

As the race comes to an end and we digest the numerous disqualifications, who would be satisfied with how the F1 Chinese GP panned out and who would be disappointed? Let's take a look.

2025 F1 Chinese GP

Winner

Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri needed this weekend! The Australian's one mistake turned everything on its head for him last week and almost earmarked his teammate as the leader of the team. Coming into the F1 Chinese GP, the driver knew a result was important if he was looking at the championship picture.

What he's done this weekend is nail everything in a perfect manner. The qualifying was good for both the sprint and the race. And then the execution in both of them was commendable. A p2 in the sprint and a P1 in the main race means Oscar Piastri has made a massive dent in Lando's championship lead.

Loser

Lando Norris

Looking back at the F1 Chinese GP, Lando Norris would not be happy. It's safe to say that he's left points on the table besides letting his teammate come back into the mix.

Could he have challenged Oscar Piastri? We don't know that primarily because Norris never really tried to push. There's this element of stage-managed races from McLaren that is not entirely the best look if you're looking to have title battles at the front of the grid.

Regardless, Lando will know that he just cannot let Oscar make up ground on him as we might be looking at the two championship contenders for the season.

Winner

George Russell

That's the second podium in a row for George Russell. He would be a bit upset with how easily he let Lando Norris through early in the second stint but he arguably didn't have much in hand to hold off the Mercedes driver anyway.

The British driver is slowly taking over the lead role at Mercedes this season and it looks like Lewis Hamilton leaving the team has helped Russell a lot in terms of being more assertive within the squad.

He's made the most of the package given to him by Mercedes in both races and that should tell you everything about the first two races from the driver.

Loser

Ferrari

The slightly agitated tone from Lewis Hamilton was an obvious sign that the driver was not entirely happy with how the F1 Chinese GP was going. Charles Leclerc with a broken front wing had the legs on Hamilton in the race and this came as a surprise after the pattern we'd seen in the last two days.

Well, all of that has come to nothing as both Ferrari drivers were disqualified from the race for technical infringements. When it comes to the start of a season, things are not going well for the Italian team. They should have been fighting for the title this season after just missing out last year but here we are and the team is struggling big time.

Winner

Haas

In all fairness, we didn't expect Haas to put together this kind of a comeback. The car was arguably 6th fastest this weekend but what is even more surprising is Esteban Ocon's claim that the potential has still not been tapped.

After the race in Australia, questions were rightly asked of Ayao Komatsu on what happened to the car after a decent pre-season. Whether the F1 Chinese GP has answered all the questions is an interesting debate whose answer we'll get in some time but Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman have got points on the board which is arguably the most important thing.

A P5 for Ocon and a P8 for Bearman is a lot more than the team would have hoped for and they'll take this result with both hands.

Loser

Racing Bulls

What is up with the teams from Italy and their strategies? While Ferrari had a bad one in Australia, Racing Bulls has carried on the tradition of having bad strategies for Yuki Tsunoda in both races. The Japanese driver was on course to score points but had it snatched from him when the team opted for a 2-stopper.

It's not a good look for the team because the driver has been brilliant and twice some very important points have been lost.