Former Aston Martin strategy chief Bernie Collins believes “McLaren have got a bit of analysis to do” after Sprint qualifying in China.

And that – Collins suggests – is due to their strategy for the final SQ3 session, with Oscar Piastri P3 on the grid and Lando Norris P6 only going into the first Sprint race of F1 2025.

McLaren Chinese GP Sprint qualy strategy: Wrong call made?

After the medium Pirelli tyres had their fun as mandated across SQ1 and SQ2, the final segment saw the softs come out to play and intrigue spiked around McLaren, after Norris had dominated the sole practice session.

But, it would be Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton who sealed P1 on the grid for Saturday’s Sprint with a new Shanghai Circuit lap record, bettering Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just 0.018s as the former title rivals prepare to share the front row, with Piastri the highest McLaren qualifier in P3.

Norris meanwhile aborted his final lap, leaving him P6 on the grid.

And speaking after the session, Bernie Collins – the former McLaren head performance engineer and Aston Martin strategy chief, now a Sky F1 analyst – questioned whether McLaren made the right call in that all-important SQ3 by following a different path to rivals.

“I think McLaren have got a bit of analysis to do post that session,” she said.

“When we look at just SQ3, every other team went for a single lap in SQ3. McLaren were the only drivers to go for the push-cool-push.

“Piastri’s lap looked so strong at the beginning of that SQ3 session, but with the track temperature dropping, and it’s still improving a little bit, perhaps, in hindsight, that wasn’t necessarily the way to go, and they should have put it a bit more on the line for both of the drivers to do the single lap.

“It didn’t work for everyone in SQ2, so I can see why they did it, but they’ll go back and they’ll review and they’ll think, and by tomorrow afternoon, we could see a very different order.”

While Collins admitted that it’s always a “risk” taking that approach of a single push lap at the end of the session, with the threat of “yellow flags” and “red flags” high, she added: “But sometimes, you just need to send it out there, be fully confident in your driver, get the best track, because you need everything to get that pole position.”

More on the F1 Sprint

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👉 F1 starting grid: What is the grid order for the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix sprint?

McLaren has been the early title favourites since F1 2025 testing and further strengthened that view with a dominant front-row lockout at the Melbourne season-opener, before Norris held off Verstappen in a wet Grand Prix.

However, with McLaren absent from the Chinese GP Sprint front row, Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok is predicting a “fun watch” as Hamilton and Verstappen ready to launch from P1 and P2.

“We haven’t got a McLaren on the front row. That’s the thing,” said Chandhok.

“We have George Russell saying McLaren are going to walk it and blitz it and they can stop development. Everyone’s saying McLaren are going to be the favourites, but we haven’t got a McLaren on the front row.

“We’ve got a Hamilton versus Verstappen for the front row, which is going to be fun to watch.”

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