Formula 1 News: 2025 Chinese GP Sprint and Qualifying Quotes

All ten Formula 1 teams plus tire supplier Pirelli provided quotes after the Sprint Race and GP qualifying for the 2025 Chinese GP at Shanghai International Circuit.

McLaren

Oscar Piastri, Sprint: 2nd, Qualifying: 1st, 1:30.641

“My first pole position! I’m very, very happy with that Qualifying. I found a lot of pace in Q3 after genuinely struggling in Q1 and Q2. The car just came alive, I came alive, and I’m pumped to be on pole. It was a lot of fun out there, the new surface is extremely grippy, but when you lose grip, it bites pretty hard. It was pretty tricky today, but when you hook it up, it’s mega.

“Looking back to the Sprint, I was pretty happy with how the car performed – I’d have been happier to finish one place higher, but I couldn’t have asked for much more and we learned a lot to take forward, and hopefully can put that to good use tomorrow.”

Lando Norris, Sprint: 8th, Qualifying: 3rd, 1:30.793

“It’s always disappointing not to be on P1 but congratulations to Oscar on his first GP pole, he deserved it today. I can’t be too disappointed though because P3 is a step in the right direction after this morning’s frustrating Sprint. The car feels much better, and I’ve got a lot more confidence with the set-up changes. We worked hard to make those improvements for Quali, and I’ll continue to work hard with the team overnight in preparation for tomorrow’s race.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

“A strong effort by the team and both drivers in Qualifying to deliver the pace we knew we had in the car, but first of all I want to congratulate Oscar on his first GP pole. He put together a beautiful lap in Q3 after two strong sessions in Q1 and Q2, and delivered his best when it mattered most.

“As we expected, we have seen a very high level of competition from other teams once again. After a strong result by Ferrari this morning, Mercedes were extremely close this afternoon. Oscar and Lando have put us in a great position for the race tomorrow, which will no doubt be close and we’re focused now on extracting the maximum from the car when it counts.”

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc, Sprint: 5th, Qualifying: 6th, 1:31.021

“The Sprint Race was not ideal, we didn’t have the pace to do anything special in the first part, then the second was slightly better, but it just wasn’t enough to get further ahead without taking risks. I went with a slightly different configuration this morning, but I don’t think there was much more to gain in terms of set-up for tomorrow.

“Qualifying went as expected, our overall pace was not fast enough and it will be tricky now that we are both in the middle of the pack, starting side by side. We struggled a bit more today compared to Sprint Qualifying and we have to understand where we could have taken a step forward even if I feel I got everything I could out of the car this afternoon.

“The race will be challenging, and tire management will be a huge factor. There is an unknown in that we have never experienced these cars in similar track temperatures so far, whether in testing or a race, so it will be interesting to see how this will affect everyone’s performance. The aim is always to win, but starting from where we are on the grid, a podium would be a positive result.”

Lewis Hamilton, Sprint: 1st, Qualifying: 5th, 1:30.927

“Getting my first Sprint pole and then win in a Ferrari was such a special feeling. The car felt strong and we managed to bring everything together to cross the line first and bring home some good points for the team. The reaction from the crowd was just incredible.

“Qualifying was tougher and we didn’t get the most out of the car over a lap today, but clearly we have the potential and now it’s about working hard to make sure we can consistently unlock that pace across a weekend. The taste of winning has made us all even hungrier and although it will be tough tomorrow, we know the work we need to do.”

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

“This morning’s 19 laps demonstrated that tire management will be absolutely crucial tomorrow, given the characteristics of the new track surface in Shanghai. Today’s qualifying was really difficult to read and several teams, including ourselves, experienced a swing in performance. We were strong in Q1 before struggling in Q2 and in Q3 we came within three tenths of pole, most of the time lost in the final sector. Of course, we would have preferred to have qualified better, because even if you have good pace, we saw in the Sprint that running in dirty air, your tires suffer a lot more. The race will be all about strategy and we must be ready to take advantage of any situations that arise. The field looks very close and overnight, we will work on ensuring we are in the best possible shape to bring home another good points haul to add to the 12 from today.”

Mercedes

George Russell, Sprint: 4th, Qualifying: 2nd, 1:30.723

“When we are able to bring it all together, we can definitely compete right at the front. I’m therefore really pleased that we were able to qualify P2 and will start on the front-row tomorrow. I don’t think anybody expected to be challenging the McLarens, but I don’t think they optimized what they had today. P3 would have been a good result, so P2 is a great result. I’m proud of the whole team and the job they’ve done.

“For the final lap in Q3, we tried a slightly different out lap preparation. We’d been trying a few different things throughout the session but on that last lap it finally clicked. I think that was one of my best qualifying efforts of my career and it was really rewarding to come away with a good starting position for the race. Tomorrow is a new day, and the GP will be dictated by race pace. Hopefully we can look after the tires well, utilize the pace that is in the car, and come home with a strong result.”

Kimi Antonelli, Sprint: 7th, Qualifying: 8th, 1:31.103

“I am a little disappointed to qualify P8. We tried various out lap strategies, but it was a challenge to extract the best out of the tire consistently. I had some good laps throughout the session but my two laps in Q3 weren’t my strongest. It is useful in helping me continue to build my learning and my knowledge though. It was definitely a good experience to have such a tricky Qualifying session, having to adapt every run to get the best from the tires, and help me improve.

“The positives we can take from today are that, when it’s hooked up, the car is feeling good. George definitely showed what was possible today. The pace is there to move forward tomorrow, and we will be looking to make up some positions across the GP.”

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

“We were struggling to get the tires in the right window throughout Qualifying. We kept at it though, worked as a team, and got it right at the end of the session. George was able to put the whole lap together and P2 was the result. It was a great effort and another calm and composed performance from him. For Kimi, he had good speed in Q3 but was unfortunate to lose time on his final lap in the last sector. Without that, he would have been challenging for the top six. Nevertheless, it is more valuable experience for him in what was his first Q3 appearance of his career.

“Tomorrow’s race is set up to be very interesting. We expect the McLarens to be strong whilst the Ferraris were the stand-out in this morning’s Sprint. Starting from P2, we will be looking to hold our own in the early stages and see where we net out. Nobody has run the hard compound tire yet so that is an unknown going into Sunday. Let’s see what we can do.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

“Qualifying was a difficult session to manage. It was challenging to know exactly what the tires needed to extract the maximum performance. We tried various out lap profiles but didn’t manage to nail it in the first two segments of the session. We made a good step for Q3 though and George’s final lap was very strong. That gave him P2 on tomorrow’s grid. For Kimi, his first Q3 lap was deleted due to track limits. On his second and final effort, he lost a little bit of time in the final sector, but it was still a respectable effort, particularly given it was his first Q3 session of his F1 career. He will naturally be disappointed he’s not starting a couple of positions further up, but he can look forward to an attacking race tomorrow.

“We saw in this morning’s Sprint that graining was perhaps even worse than most expected. Cars were having to manage heavily, and as soon as you pushed the tire, it began to suffer. That is useful learning for tomorrow’s GP where the finishing result is likely to be dictated by how well you are able to manage the tires, particularly the front-left. Nobody has had any experience on the hard compound so that is another unknown to throw into the mix. We will be looking to execute well and bring home another solid points haul, as we were able to do in the Sprint.”

Red Bull

Max Verstappen, Sprint: 3rd, Qualifying: 4th, 1:30.817

“We were just a bit too slow today and I think we had quite a big gap to those out in front. It is quite difficult as we were really struggling for grip, which didn’t allow me to push hard. In some corners we had different balance, so it was hard to get good references for every single lap. I think it will likely be quite similar to tomorrow and tough on tires. I tried to do the best that we could and get the best lap possible, but it wasn’t easy. In the Sprint today we still finished P3, even though we did have a bit of degradation, so that was a good result for us. We will try and maximize everything that we can and the team will work hard to make some changes in the car that I hope will make things better for the race. I don’t expect a night and day difference as we lack race performance and it will be difficult to keep up with the cars ahead, but we will see ahead of tomorrow. It is one of my favorite races on the calendar, so it should still be fun.”

Liam Lawson, Sprint: 14th, Qualifying: 20th, 1:32.174

“It was a messy session and had we not dealt with traffic, it might have been okay, but it is still not good enough to be having these issues, we should be fast enough on our first lap. We shouldn’t need a perfect session to get out of Q1, we should be well down the road. It’s a tough car to drive for sure and you always want more time to get used to it. The window in this car is really small and that is known, but that is not an excuse. I have got to get a handle on it. We have had glimpses where it feels good, and I think to drive a Formula 1 car you need 100% confidence; I am not saying I don’t have it but right now I just seem to be missing the window I need the car in – it is that I need to get on top of. The team are doing a really good job to support me, it is not something they can do, we are all working together and they will continue to help me with the car but it is something I need to do, I need to drive the car faster. We have an opportunity tomorrow and, a bit like in the Sprint, we will just try to move forward and take learnings to get on top of the tire graining more. I will just try to do a better job.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal

“Today was quick for the pack, Ferrari took the win in the Sprint and McLaren grabbing pole in Qualifying. Max was right up there also, he did a great job and there were parts of his run that looked like he could stick it on pole but it was not to be. It was a tough day at the office for Liam today. We will take a good look at it and come back tomorrow. The problem is the tires are so sensitive here, we saw it in the Sprint earlier, different graining and different cars working in different ways. I don’t think pole position is essential for this race; it’s all going to be about strategy and that front left tire. Also, importantly today, a big congratulations and well done to our F1 Academy drivers, Alisha and Chloe, on an outstanding first race weekend and a one-two podium finish. It is a proud moment for the Red Bull Academy Program, achieving our first win in F1 Academy, and hopefully there are many more to come this season.”

Ted Kravitz: “You didn’t pay off Checo for this did you? The point was to replace Checo with a quicker driver, is he (Lawson) just not a quicker driver?”

Horner: “As I said we’ll have a good look at it. Errr will do what we can tomorrow.”#ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/FpjwIzZ6pG

— Marie🌸 (@ma_fe79) March 22, 2025

Racing Bulls

Isack Hadjar, Sprint: 13th, Qualifying: 7th, 1:31.079

“It was important for me to gain some experience in the Sprint race this morning, and I think it was a decent race for us where I also had fun battling with some of the other drivers. Towards the end of the race, we had a very good pace, in a circuit where tire degradation is pretty high for everyone. It seemed that for us it was better than the other midfield cars around, but I think we can still improve and we have some ideas on how to make a further step forward.

“This afternoon, Q1 was fantastic. I think I had my best balance there and I felt very good in the car. Then throughout Q2 and Q3, the wind changed, which impacted the feeling I had whilst I was driving. It was an intense and stressful Q3, and I was obviously very excited to be out there with the top guys, but at the same time, I’m a bit gutted about my final lap as I think there was still a bit more lap time to find. After Melbourne, the team did a great job coming here to Shanghai and maximizing the package in a very different circuit. The car works perfectly and we’ll do our best to try and get some points tomorrow.”

Yuki Tsunoda, Sprint: 6th, Qualifying: 9th, 1:31.638

“A strong Sprint race today, it was not certainly easy. I’m impressed with how the pace was throughout. I thought it was going to be a very tough race, but we were able to hold off quite well and keep the top teams behind. I definitely enjoyed it. Towards the end I had quite a lot of degradation, which I wasn’t expecting, but I was happy that I was able to maximize the performance of the car and squeeze the last couple of points in the bag, especially losing big points last week.

“In Quali, I’m happy that we have both cars in the mix, we are performing super super good. A big credit to the team here and in the factory, the amount of effort they’ve done, it’s massive, such a fantastic job. As for myself, I struggled in Q3, I made a bit of a mistake there. I had a bit of momentum in T13, I went off the track and wasn’t able to finish the lap. Until then it was a good lap. Isack did a very good job as well, he bounced back really strong. We’re in the mix for sure, we just need to put it all together with strategy, but I think there’s potential for both cars to score points tomorrow like we did in the Sprint race.”

Alan Permane, Racing Director

“Obviously, an extremely good day for us, starting with the Sprint race, where Yuki made an amazing start and two places up in the first lap to P6. Then, it was a case of managing the tires as best he could, there was a lot of front tire degradation from everybody, and we suffered similarly. But he managed it well and never really looked in trouble, never looked like a threat to lose that position. So, we could bring home our first points of the season with that sixth place. Then we went into Qualifying with high confidence and we managed the tire usage well. For Yuki, he was down a set because of getting into SQ3 yesterday, both drivers drove a brilliant Qualifying. It’s great to see Isack put the words of Melbourne behind him with a really solid performance. Both well into Q3, we start the race seventh and ninth tomorrow with excellent point scoring opportunities.”

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

“The whole team has done a mega job here in Shanghai over the past two days, with Yuki and Isack on top of their game, producing a strong showing in the Sprint this morning. Yuki brought home our first points of the season after a sensational drive, keeping much faster cars behind him.

“Qualifying this afternoon was a good confirmation of the pace we showed so far this weekend, and it’s great to see both Isack and Yuki in Q3 in such a competitive field! The weekend is far from being over and the ultimate test is tomorrow. We will be regrouping overnight and working very hard with everyone from the race track to the factory to extract everything we can from our car and target points with both drivers. Finally, well done also to Rafaela Ferreira, our F1 Academy driver, who finished fifth here today in a tremendous first race of the season.”

Williams

Alex Albon, Sprint: 11th, Qualifying: 10th, 1:31.706

“It’s so close out there! I think we had the whole of the midfield spread by a tenth by our calculations. Q1 and Q2 were honestly almost the same because the margins were so close. I’m very happy to have executed well and get clean laps on the board. The wind was gusting quite a lot during that session and it’s easy to make mistakes in those conditions, but I think I was consistent out there. It’s difficult to do that on a tricky track like this, it’s easy to overdrive and the tires are so sensitive. It felt like I was in a good rhythm. We made some set-up changes today but there’s still a lot to do. I’m happy to get through but it’s going to be a tough race tomorrow.”

Carlos Sainz, Sprint: 17th, Qualifying: 15th, 1:31.840

“Still struggling with the same issues during Qualifying. As soon as I begin to push, I lose the feeling with the car in certain corners and struggle to improve the total lap time. I’m trying to make the most of it, but the reality is that I am unfortunately not there yet, especially in the last sector. I know I’ll end up getting there with the car, it’s now a matter of shortening the process as much as possible. Regarding tomorrow’s race, we’ve made some big set-up changes to the car and hopefully we will be in better shape than this morning. Graining will again be key, so let’s see what we can achieve.”

James Vowles, Team Principal

“Sprint weekends are always challenging and this one is no different. We didn’t have the car in the right place this morning and in the Sprint Race, we suffered more graining than near enough all the cars around us and had to try our best to manage it. We made some quite significant set-up changes for both drivers for Qualifying and for the GP, which should put us in a better position. As we said before the season started, the field is so tight, and just milliseconds really makes a difference between making it to Q3 or being on the outside of it. With Carlos, we can absolutely see improvement; in reality it was just one corner that differentiated him from Alex, but it bodes well for the race tomorrow.”

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso, Sprint: 10th, Qualifying: 13th, 1:31.688

“It wasn’t the best Qualifying for us today and we missed out on the top 10 by one tenth. We had some difficulty with the out-lap traffic, but it was the same for everyone. We ended up making a few set-up changes to the car between the Sprint and Qualifying to try help us with improving tire degradation for the race. We couldn’t see any advantage today, but let’s see if these changes have helped. I’m still hopeful for some opportunities tomorrow and we will try to score some points.”

Lance Stroll, Sprint: 9th, Qualifying: 14th, 1:31.773

“Today was a good effort to reach Q2 and we are more or less where we expected to be. I had some space to get some clean runs in, and I used some learnings from the Sprint earlier today. The tires definitely made it tricky, but everyone is dealing with the same challenges. We’ll keep pushing to get everything out of the car tomorrow.”

Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer

“A strong Sprint this morning for both drivers – with Lance just missing out on a point after a great battle with Lando [Norris]. I think our qualification result this afternoon is just a reflection of our car pace right now. We made some set-up changes to both cars after the Sprint and both Lance and Fernando had pretty clean sessions. We saw in the Sprint this morning just how tough this track is on tires so managing tire degradation will be a major challenge tomorrow too. We will continue doing our homework tonight to see where we can improve for the race with the aim of progressing into the points.”

Kick Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg, Sprint: 19th, Qualifying: 12th, 1:31.632

“That was probably close to the maximum we could achieve today. My final lap in Q2 wasn’t perfect with the windy conditions causing a mini mistake in sector one, which likely cost me a shot at Q3. However, I’m pretty pleased with P12 in Quali this afternoon, as the connection with the car was the best I’ve had all weekend: it was a great team effort to come back from a difficult Sprint and we made some good changes to improve the car. Tomorrow is going to be a challenging race, but we’ve given ourselves a good chance to be in the fight.”

Gabriel Bortoleto, Sprint: 18th, Qualifying: 19th, 1:32.141

“My first Sprint weekend continues to provide me with important learning opportunities. This morning, despite a decent starting place on the grid, we unfortunately struggled with tire degradation and weren’t able to capitalize on the good work we had done on Friday. I couldn’t keep up with the pace, and the contact with Jack [Doohan] towards the end also added some car damage to the mix. We overall lacked grip compared to other competitors, which made maintaining our position challenging. Still, I’ve been enjoying racing on this circuit so far, and we got to learn something more that will turn useful in the race on Sunday. Qualifying has been a frustrating one for me: I got caught in traffic on the outlap, which ended up compromising my final push attempt. It’s a shame, because the car had been feeling good, and we had been making progress – we could realistically have had a shot at Q2. But that’s qualifying – sometimes things just don’t fall into place. The focus now is on tomorrow, making the most of what we’ve learned today, and fighting for every position in the race.”

Beat Zehnder, Director Signature Programs & Operations

“It was a busy day today, as it always is on a Sprint Saturday, but the team as a whole did a good job to gain performance and give us an improved chance for tomorrow’s race. The morning session was challenging, as we didn’t have the pace we needed to make progress, but the data we collected, both yesterday and today, allowed us to prepare better for this afternoon’s Qualifying. Gabriel missed the cut to make it to his third consecutive Q2 for two and a half tenths, mostly as his warm-up lap was compromised as he ended up too close to Lewis [Hamilton]. We know the key to performance on the single lap is tire preparation, and these conditions were not ideal for him to extract the full potential of the car, especially in such a close field. Nico, on the other hand, was agonizingly close to a place in Q3, and missed out by just 0.04s. It’s always frustrating to miss out by such a small margin, but it’s promising to see the improvement we have made throughout the weekend. Now we have to keep pushing, find some more performance and get ready for what is going to be an interesting race tomorrow.”

Haas

Esteban Ocon, Sprint: 16th, Qualifying: 11th, 1:31.625

“We learned quite a bit in the Sprint, obviously used it to get more data. It looks like it was difficult with tires for everyone – more for some than others. On our side it was a bit better at the end. We’ll give everything a good look but the race pace was okay I would say – that’s something we need to keep pushing forward though. For qualifying we probably changed about three quarters of the car, it was a huge turnaround from the team. They did a really good job to improve the car from the Sprint to where it is now – so I’m very happy with that. I think there’s still some performance to be gained from the car, so this isn’t a definite stop on where we are. So, it’s positive – especially coming from Melbourne. Let’s try and optimize tomorrow. We’re close to the points so let’s see what we can get.”

Oliver Bearman, Sprint: 15th, Qualifying: 17th, 1:32.018

“It was a tough Sprint, we’re still missing a bit of pace. We made a good start and held position but after that it was just a case of trying to manage the tires. I expected the fronts to drop off and they did a little bit more than some of the others. In qualifying we had planned three runs today in Q1, and we just didn’t quite make it out there for the last one. It’s tight to fit three runs in with all the turnaround and everything – unfortunately I just didn’t cross the line in time. We changed a few things on the car, my first lap was getting used to that, second one was better. I think the changes are more based towards the race so hopefully we can have a good one tomorrow.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“We struggled a bit in the Sprint with tire management and the car balance. So, based on what we learned in the Sprint, we changed the set-up on both cars ahead of qualifying. The positive there is it went in very much the right direction – both drivers were much happier with the car in qualifying. I know it was the right direction for tomorrow’s race as well. Another positive was how close we got in terms of getting into Q3 – Esteban’s final lap in Q2 was a good lap, it wasn’t perfect, but if I remember correctly it was only something like a tenth off Hamilton in P8. That was a good effort. I’m sure Ollie would have had a similar chance as well, he just couldn’t start his final timed lap in Q1 by the tiniest of margins. There are a couple of things operationally we can improve. It’s all about tiny margins but the encouraging thing is we’re understanding the car better. We managed to make a good change between the Sprint and qualifying. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

Alpine

Pierre Gasly, Sprint: 12th, Qualifying: 16th, 1:31.992

“It has been a challenging Saturday as a team but one where we have learned a lot and there are definitely some things we can take into tomorrow’s race when it counts. It was an exciting Sprint Race this morning even if we started too far back to really be in contention for the points. We gained five positions, made some nice moves and, importantly, learned some lessons on the tires ahead of Sunday’s race. In Qualifying, in the afternoon, we seemed to lack pace and we need to understand why. It’s very tight on the timesheets and very fine margins make a big difference in terms of our end position. We will see what opportunities come tomorrow and aim to gain some places up towards the points.”

Jack Doohan, Sprint: 20th, Qualifying: 18th, 1:32.092

“Overall, it has been quite a tough day and we will regroup as a team and focus on having a more positive one tomorrow. This morning’s Sprint Race was one where we focused on learning about the tires and, in the end, it was a difficult one to make progress with the DRS train and quite high tire degradation. We learned a lot from the session in preparation for Sunday’s race. We tried to maximize what we could in Qualifying despite less than optimal circumstances on the out lap and quite tight timing amongst a number of cars ahead of the final run. We will analyze everything as a team and, importantly, focus straight away on tomorrow and see how we can try and make our way up the field.”

Oliver Oakes, Team Principal

“The field is so competitive and condensed, which showed in both the Sprint and in Qualifying, with 15 cars separately by less than one second this afternoon. We fell the wrong side of it in Qualifying today and ultimately are missing a little at this track, particularly over a single lap. With how tight the field spread is, it really exacerbates the result in either direction, if you hook a lap up or are a little bit off it. From looking at the Sprint, I think we have a better car in race trim and with high degradation expected tomorrow, we hope we can capitalize on that in the GP tomorrow and make some progress.”

Pirelli

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director

“A day of records. In Qualifying we saw yesterday’s lap times beaten and in the Sprint, taking into account the stint from today’s winner compared to the same event last year, we saw lap times over four seconds faster, even though temperatures were significantly higher. From one year to the next, we therefore see a huge increase in performance, much greater than that based on simulations going into this race, which it should be noted, are based on data received from all the teams. It was therefore absolutely logical to raise the minimum pressures for the start, by one psi on each axle.

“As for strategy, the level of degradation leads us to suggest that a two-stop is obligatory, featuring the medium and the hard. Although the new soft is fairly close to the medium in terms of performance, we don’t think it’s a valid choice, even if it could offer more grip off the start line. In fact, those starting near the back might go for the hard to extend the first stint as long as possible, before making up places in the run of pit stops.

“What we can be sure of is that everything would seem to be in place to deliver an uncertain and exciting race. In yesterday’s Sprint Qualifying, we saw the top three covered by just 80 thousandths, while today it was 82: a further indication of just how close it all is in Formula 1 in the early part of the 2025 season.”