Formula One returned to the glittering Shanghai International Circuit last month and FHM was in the paddock with Sir Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and rising star Kimi Antonelli…
The 2026 Formula One Chinese Grand Prix will surely go down as one for the books. Falling exactly one week after the season opener in Melbourne, Shanghai featured the year’s first sprint race as well as a history-busting performance by rising Mercedes star Kimi Antonelli. The 19-year-old broke the all-time record for youngest pole-sitter after an impressive qualifying performance and went on to become the first Italian to win a Grand Prix in two decades. Shanghai also solidified Mercedes early lead in the constructor’s championship, thanks in part to a radical engine concept which compliments the latest set of regulations. This year’s regulation changes mean lighter cars with active aerodynamics and, controversially, a 50-50 power split between electric and internal combustion. Last year’s constructors’ champs McLaren have been left in the dust, while four-time drivers’ world champion Max Verstappen is relegated to a very unfamiliar territory known as the midfield.
Mercedes driver George Russell, who claimed second place in the main event after winning the sprint, is lightly defensive amid calls to wind back the regulation changes. “I think these new cars, regardless if you’ve got high tyre deg or low tyre deg, can offer quite good racing,” he tells us.
A resurgent Ferrari gave Sir Lewis Hamilton a hard-earned third place, his first podium since leaving the silver arrows for the prancing horse last season. No one has won in Shanghai more times than Hamilton, who can also lay significant claim to helping grow Formula One in China, and indeed globally, over the past two decades. “You can see the sport has taken so many monumental steps,” Sir Lewis said. “During my time here, in the early days it was kind of not progressing much (and) some people didn’t really want much change within the sport. Now they’re seeing it’s actually been great for the sport just to see it grow into new audiences.”
In addition to hosting the second round of the 2026 Formula One Championship, Shanghai will bookend the year as host of the FIA Awards, the motorsport industry’s night of nights. China will also stage three separate rounds of the fast-growing Formula E, two races in Shanghai and another on the tropical island of Hainan. Remarkably, it was only 30 years ago that China built its first permanent racetrack on the Chinese mainland. Today, China rivals only Japan as Asia’s most motorsport-mad nation.
Sir Lewis, who has witnessed Shanghai’s rise from F1 afterthought to one of the most-attended races, is a longtime proponent of finally returning Formula One to Africa. “I always talk about it – that there’s one continent that we’re not at currently – and I think we’ve got to definitely create more opportunity for things in the future,” he explained. The addition of this year’s new street race in Madrid means Spain has two grand prix on the calendar, while several countries vying for hosting rights have been knocked back. “Maybe in the future that could be a slot for another race,” Hamilton pointed out.
Perhaps the ultimate dichotomy of Formula One is, while its race weekends are steeped in pageantry and tradition, its stakeholders have never shied away from tinkering with their sport. In fact, change has been about the only actual constant in F1, where machinery, drivers, regulations and teams constantly evolve. The actual race format stayed largely static until the introduction of three sprint races during the 2021 season, which has now grown to six.
Discussions are underway to double the number of sprint races to 12 weekends from 2027 onwards, meaning more racing for fans and more points up for grabs. Russell, who is currently trailing the driver’s world championship with Mercedes, welcomes the addition of more sprints to the calendar. “Yeah, I enjoy sprints to be honest,” he said. “I don’t think you’d want it every single weekend, but doubling it, I don’t think we’re against.”
“I think sprint races on one side are a very good challenge for the drivers because you need to get up to speed quickly,” Antonelli told FHM. “For the team maybe it’s not the best format because engineers like to look at data and improve the car and everything, but I think it is a cool format. It’s a very good sign for the drivers because you need to get up to speed and try to be on point straight away. So, I don’t think it’s a bad format, actually I kind of like it.”
“I love the sprint weekends personally,” Sir Lewis agreed. “I’ve obviously been here a long time, so I remember where we’d have the normal weekend just 18 or 20 or 24 times through the year and it was a little bit dull, and I like that we switch between the two.” Hamilton, who served as a producer on last year’s smash hit F1 movie, believes the sport needs to continue exploring new race formats. “What’s the next step?” he pondered, “Maybe there’s a third type that we have through a season, whether you have more qualifying or, I don’t know, I’ve not really thought about it, but is there another option?”
He also reckons the famed Monaco Grand Prix – widely regarded as the crown jewel of international motorsport – is in dire need of a revamp. “Monaco, which is a beautiful, beautiful place, the most beautiful place for us to go to, but the most boring race because it’s the same normal format,” he said frankly. Racing in the tiny principality was once likened by Nelson Piquet to “riding a bicycle around your living room” and offers precious few opportunities for overtaking.
“I don’t know if there could be a different format for (Monaco) to really be able to extract more from the amazing place that it is, the principality,” Hamilton said.
“I think we need to brainstorm rather than just make more sprints.”
The glamorous world of Formula One can sometimes feel immune to the realities of global geopolitics, but recent events in the Middle East have infiltrated the paddock. The FIA quietly cancelled rounds four and five in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in light of the ongoing conflict in the region, shrinking the calendar to 22 races and giving everyone the month of April off.
Audi driver Nico Hülkenberg, whose racing career has persisted through pandemics, countless silly seasons and endless regulation changes, has a philosophical attitude towards the cancellations. “It is what it is, we all see and understand the reasons,” Hülkenberg told FHM. “There are bigger things in the world going on where our sport has to move to the side and the safety of everyone is the most important.”
A month off after the Japanese Grand Prix is also a golden opportunity for teams to iron out some of their garage troubles before racing resumes at the Miami Grand Prix on May 4. On that note, McLaren Principal Andrea Stella made it clear that it would be foolish to count out the papaya team just yet. “There’s good stuff happening in development, so I would expect that the car will be significantly improved in the coming races, especially starting from Miami,” he told us. “Hopefully, like we were able to do in 2023, we’re gonna have a faster development rate than our competitors.”
We’ll take your word for it, Andrea. ■
By REILLY SULLIVAN
