Chinese Grand Prix 2026: Mercedes dominate with superior power
The pattern is this: Ferrari’s strong launches and superior cornering speed bring them into the mix in the early laps, and the new hybrid engine with “boost” and “overtaking” modes leads to a change of positions for a while.
However, the longer the race goes on, the more Mercedes’ natural advantage pays off.
Hamilton said: “We definitely feel power hungry when we’re behind them. It’s really hard to keep up with them and you can see they’re grunting more, they’re holding on longer.”
“That’s why I died this morning [in the sprint]. “I was just trying to compensate for the corners but it wasn’t making any difference so I destroyed my tyres.”
Hamilton praised Antonelli’s new record as “an incredible achievement” and predicted that “it will take a while for anyone to come close to that.”
Seven-time champion Hamilton looks reinvigorated by the new 2026 cars and appears to have returned to something close to his previous form before the ground-effect cars of the last four years, which he was never comfortable with.
And Russell is still wary of the Ferraris’ potential to upset the order.
“The first few laps of the last two races have been great. We know Ferrari are off the line quickly and we’ve got them into third and fourth for the first time of the season and Lewis was absolutely fantastic at the start of the race this morning so I’m sure it won’t be easy.”
He says he’s enjoying the scraps with Ferrari.
“With the overtake mode, the rear rider can use the boost button up to I think 330 km/h, while the front guy can only use it up to 290 km/h,” Russell said. he said.
“It seems to work pretty well. It’s not DRS but it works in a similar pattern for speed delta.”
“It was pretty interesting, pretty fun, and I think even some of the diehards might not enjoy it as much as they did a week ago. We still need to give it a shot.”
The McLaren team finished fifth and sixth, with Oscar Piastri ahead of world champion Lando Norris. Can they mix it with Ferraris?
Norris said: “We have a better power unit than Ferrari. Our advantage is that we have more speed on the straights.
“But it’s still a car that corners even faster than the Mercedes, so it’s difficult to catch up with them in the corners and then try to get them onto the straights.”
“So there are different strengths between them and Mercedes.
“But we will see. So they have better tire management, more grip. So if the tire is like this, everything will be much easier for the car.”
“We have to push like crazy through the corners to keep going and then we can obviously catch up on the straights. It’s kind of the wrong end of the stick sometimes where you want to be in a race situation.”
“But never say never. If we can improve things from this morning, then we certainly haven’t given up competing with them.”
