Martin Brundle laments Chinese Grand Prix decision that ‘took the sting’ out of the race for all 20 F1 drivers

The Chinese Grand Prix won’t be remembered for the incredible action on the track but still provided plenty of talking points.

Oscar Piastri won his first race of the season while Lewis Hamilton tasted victory for Ferrari for the first time in Saturday’s Sprint Race.

Piastri broke Sebastian Vettel’s lap record in qualifying with a 1:30.641, earning him pole position by less than one-tenth of a second ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.

During the Sprint Race, every driver was struggling with their tyres as Lando Norris struggled to pass Lance Stroll after struggling to extract any performance from his Pirelli tyres.

Pirelli made a change to the pressures for the Chinese Grand Prix main event but Martin Brundle wonders if it ended up hampering the excitement of the event.

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Martin Brundle says Pirelli tyres were ‘a bit too good’ during the Chinese Grand Prix

In a press release after Saturday’s running, Pirelli’s director of motorsport Mario Isola said: “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.”

Isola also believed it would be ‘obligatory’ for every team to do a two-stop strategy but every driver who attempted that on Sunday was penalised for not dialling back their performance slightly and making a one-stop strategy work.

The #ChineseGP ended with a one-two finish for McLaren, with Oscar Piastri ahead of Lando Norris, the Australian taking the third win of his career. For the English team, it was win number 191. Piastri and Norris secured McLaren’s 50th one-two finish, 👉https://t.co/LcFQvjOUt6 pic.twitter.com/T9NhWaj3wm

— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) March 23, 2025

Brundle and commentator David Croft were talking after the race on Sky Sports F1 (23/3 8:41 am) and said: “I think there was a lot of pacing going on, wasn’t there in terms of getting to the end.

“But, in the end, those hard compound tyres were peachy weren’t they? Fourty-two laps Piastri did on his.”

Croft added: “Antonelli did 44 [laps], Ocon did 45 [laps].”

Brundle continued: “Gasly 46 laps, so, blimey, they’ve done nearly the whole race on them.

“It kind of took the sting out of it a little bit, didn’t they? They were a bit too good today weren’t they those tyres?”

Croft concluded: “Maybe, we’ll go a step softer for next year but the cars will be very different, the engines will be very different, the fuels very different in 2026.”

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George Russell pinpointed change in Pirelli tyres early in the Chinese Grand Prix

There were several drivers who lost out after pitting twice during the Chinese Grand Prix.

Yuki Tsunoda missed out on points in Australia due to his strategy and that happened again on Sunday, although his front wing breaking of its own accord ended up seeing him finish dead last.

Lewis Hamilton initially was the highest finisher of the two-stoppers, coming home in P6 before he was disqualified.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar were the only other drivers to attempt it but none of them finished in the points.

George Russell spotted the one-stop strategy early and recorded back-to-back podiums as a result.

However, if he had been pushing at 100% throughout the race, he could have potentially caught Norris when his brakes started to fail.

Pirelli will have to assess whether the pressure change was the right decision with many drivers forced to avoid pushing too hard to achieve the optimum result.