FIA's forced rule tweak, McLaren-Norris-Piastri's biggest test yet - 2025 Chinese GP Preview

[00:00:00] Welcome everyone to the Inside Line F1 Podcast and I can't tell what's the biggest story this weekend because heading into the Chinese GP we have a ton to talk about Kunal like Visa Cash App Racing Bulls. I've said it. I know just before the recording we were discussing don't say the sponsor's name but I've said it. I love it. We can't. We've got them not scoring points. We've got Ferrari in seventh in the constructors. We've got Williams in fourth.

[00:00:28] We've got so many rookies to look for. We've got Oscar Piastri's redemption arc. Lewis adjusting to life at Ferrari. And to top it off we have a sprint weekend. And to top it off we have a sudden change in regulations. The FIA have enforced some of the mini DRS conversations that have happened. So lots of things already in just the second race weekend which I love double headers by the way. Everyone listening in for all these years.

[00:00:57] Just knows that I used to dream about why can't we just have 52 race weekends if there are 52 Sundays and what's a Sunday if it's not a racing Sunday. Kunal that only works for you because you can survive on five hours of sleep and be active 24-7. I'm amazed by energy but the rest of the world we can't keep up. We're mortals. Let us be. Let us be.

[00:01:18] I can globally share my secret recipe. Yoga and being plant-based. And you can get a lot of energy through the day. And of course having a four and a half year old who's so energized that you have no option but to also, you know, sort of reflect the same energy.

[00:01:36] And Formula One because that always keeps us energetic. Like here we are after a long workday at least for Sarang and me because Sarang is our producer by the way. We're at post-dinner time India time. Kunal's somewhere in the early evening. But we're still energetic. Here we are. I mean, we're willing to talk about Formula One with all of our energy because we feel it.

[00:01:57] And heading into a weekend like this, Kunal, you can feel the buzz because Oscar Piastri, for him, the redemption arc in my mind is such a big story. Lando's over and done with. We know Lando is good and he will be fighting for the win this time because he feels so much more complete. And we talked about that in the Australian GP review episode that we had with F1 Stats Guru who was also a part of that one, who we're missing for this one.

[00:02:20] But Oscar, redemption should be on his mind because clearly in Australia he was good enough and call it bad luck, call it him being stopped by McLaren at the wrong time, whatever it is, he needs to win this race. I feel this is the most important race of Oscar Piastri's Formula One career because if he doesn't win here, Lando could take the lead and McLaren could just favor him all the way through. And the snowball effect begins. That's spot on. I agree. This is actually the most important race of his Formula One career.

[00:02:50] And I know people might think we're sensationalizing it, but there is truth in that because yes, it's a 24 race season. Okay, we all know that, but we know that there are literally two rule changes that are happening this season. The first one coming from this weekend and then more rules around flexi wings from the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, which means you have to optimize every single race you can. Now, Oscar himself said he was a faster driver in China, but guess what?

[00:03:18] He wasn't the one who scored maximum points. He already has a deficit to Lando Norris. Okay, can this be that weekend where he outscores Lando Norris? There are more points available because it's the sprint weekend and the Grand Prix weekend. And being number one in the team, it's yes, there are politics involved, but the easiest way is to be the quickest driver on track. And then the team is just forced to back you.

[00:03:45] But let's actually expand on that little bit more, Samuel, because again, two in-season changes in the regulations that we're going to see. What does that mean? Can McLaren dominate as much as we know they can dominate? And what do I mean by that? Nithyanand has put out this graph from lap 17 in Australia to lap 33. A coincidence that it's, you know, Max Verstappen's race car number.

[00:04:12] Lando Norris was almost a second faster than Verstappen every single lap. Okay, which means that if McLaren are dominating Formula One, they have to maximize their chances. Lando's never won three in a row. McLaren has never won three in a row. I mean this McLaren. And how do they behave as a dominating team in Formula One is what I'd love to see. That means no mistakes. That means pole position in the sprint. That means winning the sprint.

[00:04:41] That means pole again for the Grand Prix. Then that means having a race win again. Getting the fastest pit stops. Not that you get points for that. But nailing the strategy. So McLaren are going to be tested even more so now that they are the quickest team. That is gone from being the hunters to being the hunted. And that is a mindset shift. That is a mindset shift. Because ultimately, you need to be treating both of your drivers properly. If you're operating in McLaren's mental framework of papaya rules.

[00:05:11] Where both drivers are equal. Championship winning teams like Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes. They had a clear number one. McLaren are defying the usual way of running a world championship winning team. And hence, they've got to face an uncertain path. And an uncertain path is also ahead for Oscar Piastri. Because he needs to craft his own space in here. He has an opportunity that no second driver at Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari ever had in the last 10 years. And with this weekend, with the sprint on offer.

[00:05:39] I think he has the best possible chance of doing so. Because statistically, Oscar Piastri has more sprint wins than Lando Norris. And remember, he was the first driver in that McLaren team to win a race. 2023 Qatar. He became the first driver there. And he won the sprint race. And then Lando in Miami got his first Grand Prix win. But nevertheless, Piastri was the first driver to win a race in McLaren. And it was a sprint. And last year, Piastri would have won the Brazilian GP sprint as well. But he let that go to give Lando Norris the advantage.

[00:06:08] And he then, of course, didn't make the best of it. It was a long shot. But yeah, it was a gesture from Oscar to let Lando fight for the championship that didn't go very well. Eventually, Lando thanked him back by giving him a sprint win in Qatar yet again. But it goes to show that Oscar on a sprint weekend is dangerous. China is a sprint weekend. Oscar has it all to prove. Like, I just want to see Kunal mentally, where is Oscar at?

[00:06:35] Because he reminds me a lot of the Australian cricket team from the mid-2000s. That grit, that determination, that even if things go down, he's always focused on how can I make this problem into a solution? How can I find my way out of here? And this probably would be the deepest or the lowest he's gone. Because first race of the season, home race, not having a chance to win it when you're quick enough. The way he responds here for me will be the biggest story of the entire weekend. And I can't wait for Piastri's redemption arc.

[00:07:03] Yes, that's going to be what I'm going to look out for as well. Since you mentioned sprint weekend, it's the 19th sprint in the history of all Formula 1 sprints. So, you know, clearly just the repetition is where now Formula 1 is relying on fans loving it. But Oscar Piastri has two sprint wins. He's been second three times. He's not been third. Which means he's got five sprint medals, if you were to look at the tally.

[00:07:27] The Lando Norris has six sprint medals, but he's not rated higher than Oscar because Oscar has more number one finishes. And yes, if you remember the medals that are given out, drivers actually have a medal stally. And on top of that list is Max Verstappen. But second in the all-time F1 sprints is actually Oscar Piastri.

[00:07:49] And I think the very fact that he qualified less than a tenth away from Max Verstappen, sorry, but away from Lando Norris in Australia in itself is a great start. Because he sort of tapered off in the end of 2024, if you remember. He started going away and further away from Lando Norris. So him having this start to the season is pretty fantastic.

[00:08:15] And let's switch to actually talking off sprints because I think sprint weekends are fantastic. I think sprint weekends offer three days of entertainment, three days of values, money worth for everyone. And we may not like it necessarily, but it is entertainment. And the biggest challenge for the sprint weekend is going to be all the rookies. Because in Australia, they had a different challenge, right? What was the challenge?

[00:08:42] It started to rain, it dried, it rained again. Lots of mixed conditions. The rookies were pretty much the first ones to bin the car even before the race started or on the opening lap, etc. Now, you know, what do you say? There's a different challenge that's going to be facing them. One sprint, no, not one. One practice session is all they have before being in the thick of action for the entire weekend. And I'd love to see how the rookies actually swim.

[00:09:12] Because I'd love for all of them to swim. Not a single one should drown. That's just how, you know, these rookies are this year. They're so popular and, you know, lovable and quick drivers. I can't imagine how tough of a calendar Formula One has given them at the start of the year. Firstly, you begin with Australia and a wet race, which is the toughest thing to do. Wet race and a street race. And then you're like, hmm, that wasn't easy enough. Here, in your second Formula One race, you're going to have a sprint weekend with just one practice session. It's crazy.

[00:09:42] Have some mercy on the kids. They're just kids. They've only done three days of testing. Out of which one and a half day was actually, a day and a half was actually spent with their teammate having the car. So I don't understand when these kids will actually get a chance to really learn what it's like to be a Formula One driver and how to adapt to all the systems. But then again, the best swim, even though the water might be super deep. So we're going to find out a lot more about that.

[00:10:09] And I love the sprint weekends for that because there's action every day. And there's also going to be action every day on the Inside Line F1 podcast YouTube page. Kunal, we're going to go live after every major session, which means not sprint qualifying. That will be too much. But we should go live after the sprint, after the qualifying, after the sprint race and after the main race. So you're going to catch a lot more fun stuff happening on the Inside Line F1 podcast.

[00:10:36] And the way you can keep up is by subscribing to the channel and making sure that you share it with all your friends and family members who might love it too. Because we're doing some good stuff here, Kunal. There's a lot cooking. There's a lot cooking. Our technology got overcooked for the live stream after the Rake Grand Prix in Australia. We're trying to bring some new systems. There's a lovely new energized team that we also have in the back end talking to us in the year when we are talking to you guys.

[00:11:02] But all in all, you know, lots of excitement on the show, on the channel, on the podcast, with everything we're doing. Excellent guests that we've already had on the podcast as well, which Antonio Luigi and FIS Stewart was the guest we opened the show and the year with. And then we've had Craig Scarborough taking us deeper down into what each team needs to do to succeed in 2025.

[00:11:25] But even Craig wouldn't have possibly guessed this new technical directive that the FIA has forced upon us at the Chinese Grand Prix. Okay, now here's some funny takes. Firstly, at the Chinese Grand Prix, they want, they want, they want, you know, wings to be more sturdy, more stringent. But this technical... They're too busy applauding Joe Guan Yu for his home race. Will he be there? He must be there.

[00:11:54] He needs to, I mean, we need to continue the tradition of Joe Guan Yu getting a standing ovation at every Chinese GP. But otherwise, it's not fun. He could be an ambassador. He is the ambassador of, you know, Ferrari. So pretty much he'll be in the Ferrari garage. We'll see visuals of him. But, you know, a team like, I don't know why, Sauber or one of the teams should just sort of take him and say, here, come and drive and he'll probably pay a few millions for that.

[00:12:18] But the Australian Grand Prix had 465,000 people attending. Okay, that's almost half a million people over the Grand Prix weekend. Without Joe Guan Yu, I really wonder what the attendance this weekend in China is going to be. Toto Wolff has said, he said this last year. He's repeated it this year. He said, China is one of the most important countries to have a race in. It's one of the largest automotive markets in the world.

[00:12:48] It is one of the largest economies in the world. Blah, blah, blah. All of those things make sense. But if they don't have a Chinese driver, will the Chinese fans be interested? And is this the race where Mohamed Ben Sulayem certainly says, guess what? I need a Chinese team in Formula 1. I need to have a 12th team and I'm going to make that happen. But there's one more thing that the FI are doing, which is what we should get to. Some serious stuff, some technical stuff, because Formula 1 is a technical sport.

[00:13:18] First things first, in Melbourne, they actually used a lot of camera footage to assess the flexing of wings, especially the upper rear wing. And the rear wing basically has what's called a slot gap. And that the gap when the DRS wing is closed is what they are assessing. Okay. How are they going to assess that is interesting, but I'll get to some numbers, right?

[00:13:43] But the most important thing to clarify for everyone who could troll, you know, the teams on this subject is all cars after the race in Melbourne were confirmed to conform to the Formula 1 regulation. So none of the cars ran illegally. Okay. Now, what are the changes that they're going to make? So firstly, and I'm going to read this because I tweeted this and I was pretty proud. There is a gap in that slot gap. Okay.

[00:14:11] Which is two millimeters long. Okay. That gap is now going to be reduced to 0.5 of a millimeter. So 25% of what it originally was. Everyone in the paddock thinks it's a very, very harsh and astringent, you know, move that's happened literally after the first race of the season. There is a variation allowed of 0.25 millimeters.

[00:14:38] So a 50% variation of the new limit is allowed. And that allowance is because the directive has come one day or less than 24 hours after the first race in Melbourne. So they're giving the teams a bit of a leeway. And you can ask, how is it that they're measuring this? So there is a 75 kilogram of vertical load that is applied on the extremities of the rear wing main plane.

[00:15:06] And the distance between the main plane and the flap. That's what we're looking at, like I said, as the slot gap. So anyway, now that I put all the technical stuff there, Samuel, the key thing is, will this change the pecking order? So let my non-engineering brain understand. Basically, the wing has a small gap between itself and the upper portion of it. The portion that has the DRS or the top part of the wing, let's put it that way.

[00:15:35] And that's currently 0.2 millimeter. That's currently what? 25 millimeters? You said? What's the number? Two millimeters. Two millimeters. Wow. Okay. And they want it to become 0.5 millimeters, which means that if they bring it closer, it'll be more structurally a part of the wing and hence it will flex less. Correct? That's correct. Yes. What's the issue with flexing? Like just to put it out there. Well, when there are wings, there will be flexing. That's just how cars are designed.

[00:16:01] Wings are designed because when you drive these cars, there's load on the wings and it's just structural for every surface or every material to flex. In fact, flexing within the regulations is what teams consciously try and do because flexing at the right speeds means you're letting go of drag, which is crucial to get those speeds. So typically what happens is when you're on the main straight, actually you don't need the front and the rear wings.

[00:16:31] I mean, I'm not being literal, but what I mean is for performance, right? You need the wings for cornering. So can you achieve flexing in a way that you reduce drag or you drop drag on the main straight? And then when the car slows down, the wings sort of move back, flex back into action, which gives you the front end or the rear end or both of the grip levels that you need to make an efficient corner, right? Or to corner efficiently. So that's why flexing has always been around.

[00:17:01] Red Bull Racing used to be the masters of flexing in the 2010s. I remember that. And yeah, flexing all the muscles and the wings. And now it's going to be down to watching which team actually will be affected by this the most. There will clearly be a change in the pecking order or an impact in the pecking order. And largely, I think this is a political game, Somal.

[00:17:25] Red Bull are not happy that the other teams are giving wings to their drivers that can flex, while the team that has Red Bull as the main owner and Red Bull is known for giving wings, right? So gives you wings, which means if you're a Red Bull driver, you don't get flexy wings. And that's what they're trying to sort of get at. They're trying to reduce the mini DRS effect. And the suspects are McLaren and Ferrari after the preseason testing. That's what they are after.

[00:17:54] Can you imagine Ferrari going actually slower because of this? It'll be weird. But you know what I find interesting? I remember Turkey 2020. And we had so many videos after that race weekend of people analyzing Sergio Perez's rear wing. Like, I remember because it was flexing. And I was like, what the hell is going on here? Like, rear wings are meant to flex. But then when you watch the footage, you do realize that it is something quite extreme.

[00:18:23] And my understanding of it is, and correct me if I'm wrong, Kunal, the FIA wants to clamp down on this. Because it is structurally a hazard. If the wings flex too much, they could fall off. They could, I don't know, drop down. And that's not what the FIA wants, right? They want a structurally intact Formula One car with components that are designed to be in place. There is some limit to which you're allowed to do it. But then they don't want the whole car to be a gigantic piece of flex.

[00:18:53] Like, if every wing could flex to unlimited degrees, maybe the Formula One car wouldn't be structurally integral is what the whole idea behind this is. So maybe that's why they're clamping it all down. So one of the reasons why they're clamping it down is actually partially what you said. They want things to conform to the regulations, right? And there are variations. There are degrees of accepted variations that they are happy to play with because there are, you know, laws of physics and at play.

[00:19:22] But truth be told, Sawmill, this is also seen as one of those loopholes in the regulation. Okay, we saw that in Baku last year with Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc having a go at each other and how Leclerc, even when the DRS flap was shut, was still almost having a DRS-ish effect on his car, right? Which is why even Leclerc with DRS on was struggling to catch Oscar Piastri as everyone

[00:19:48] would remember that beautiful race that we also saw both the drivers sort of, you know, rallying outside of, rallying while exiting the final corner. Before getting onto the main straight. But yeah, so that's what's going to happen this weekend. And let's see if it bunches the field up even further and where that impact goes. And yes, but it is a Chinese Grand Prix weekend. 18th race in China, Sawmill. Can you imagine? It's been there for so many years.

[00:20:18] Lewis Hamilton has won 50% of all the races in China. We're going to have the sprint race, which you already know of. 19 laps. And I think it's 56 or 58 laps for the Grand Prix format. You should know that. My numbers are always out of whack here. But yeah, there are 623 points available in the Drivers' Championship. A large chunk this weekend because you get eight points for winning the sprint. 25 points for winning the Grand Prix.

[00:20:48] And then the pole position, very crucial in China, is starting on the left-hand side of the grid. So that's a crucial one. And I love the circuit for what it stands. It stands for that Chinese symbol, the shang, which basically means to ascend or to go upward. And they do go upwards at turn number one. They go upwards and then they swing back down and loop around in itself. It's a phenomenal circuit.

[00:21:15] Like, I wish this circuit was, how do I put it? I wish this circuit was in a country where we saw a lot more racing on an international scale. I was about to say I wish the circuit wasn't in China. But that's not what I mean. My problem is not with China. My problem is with the circuit not being used to the full capacity in which it can be used. Like, imagine 24-hour races here. Imagine if we had more championships here. Weck coming every single year.

[00:21:43] I think Weck still does come here quite often. But imagine if we had Formula E coming back every year like they now do. Like, imagine if we had more GT championships, more Formula 4 championships. And imagine if we could see this internationally. Because whatever happens in China is just always something that happens in China. It always feels distant. So, I love this circuit. It's phenomenal. And watch out for the tyre strategies here. Normally, normally two-stopper. Lots of, lots of really long straights here.

[00:22:13] So, drivers need to watch out. Especially that one at the very back. So, that's an interesting thing to keep an eye on. And overtaking zones are fun. Which then takes us to our five big things to watch for at the Chinese Grand Prix. Or, let me just say that correctly. Because, you know, if we make a reel out of this, I want to have that as one clean slate. So, you also know what happens behind the scenes while we're recording. So, here we go. What are the five big things that we need to watch for at the Chinese Grand Prix? The big story is Kunal.

[00:22:41] I think the biggest story, apart from Oscar and Lando and whatever happens with Max, is Lewis's redemption. Or rather, Lewis's learning. Because we have not seen Lewis fully get to grips with that Ferrari. I'm intrigued to see how much more that development curve advances in a weekend where he has limited practice sessions. And this means pressure situations, crisis management, problem solving on the fly. That's going to be fun to watch how he deals with Ricardo Adami.

[00:23:10] And communication. Yeah. Exactly. Lewis and Ferrari, you know, he said, this is not the start I was hoping for. It was worse than I thought it would be. But like I said, and I was, you know, a lot of people had lots of points on Twitter with me. Because I'm just surprised that they did not foresee such situations in the preseason and sort of, you know, practice it, relive it. I mean, we go back and watch races and see situations and then see them again

[00:23:39] and see it from another angle. I'm just surprised that Ferrari probably didn't do that. Because if they did, then it didn't show, at least in Australia, that they went through some of these routines and processes and so on. And, you know, like everyone's been saying that the aura is now over. The hype is over. The racing has began. And Frederic Wasseur has already said that China is where our season will start. And very interestingly, F1 data analysis or formula data analysis pointed out something

[00:24:09] very, very crucial. It seems that after such a strong Friday in Australia, on the Saturday, Ferrari had to raise their car a little bit because they were worried of excessive plank wear. So that was one of those things. The second thing is that they were lifting a lot more to turn 12. Again, could just be down to plank wear. But crucially, they were shifting between engine modes, alternating between engine modes.

[00:24:37] I'm reading my notes in qualifying in Australia. So comparison was FP2 versus qualifying. So I would love to see if Ferrari's issues were just Australia specific and if they can take the fight to McLaren in China. Because truth be told, Red Bull doesn't seem like they're taking the fight to McLaren, nor is Mercedes. So who is going to turn up to be that rival to McLaren who can challenge them?

[00:25:06] And I said Red Bull wasn't there to take the fight because it was actually Max Verstappen who took the fight to McLaren. Or could it be Kimi Antonelli and George Russell? Like Kimi, he's done the hard stuff. Australia was the hardest challenge you can prove, you can offer to a rookie in their first race. Can he do the easy stuff? Can he do the basics? Can he execute a dry race very well? Manage the tyres? Get a dry qualifying done properly? Make sure he's in Q3. That will be interesting. As will be the case of Oliver Behrman. Can he have a cleaner weekend?

[00:25:36] And can he manage things properly without putting that pressure on him? Because now that the pressure is on Haas, if he adds an extra layer of it, he probably might end up making more crashes. It helps that the walls are further away, but still, a tough thing. And also, the one thing that I'm most excited about, how good is Carlos Sainz going to be in his first proper race with Williams? I'm not counting Australia. That didn't happen. That's like the men in black thing. The taser has been put in front of me, and that has been wiped away from my memories.

[00:26:04] This is the start of the season for Williams and Carlos Sainz. And now we shall find out if that partnership properly works. But then again, that brings another question, Gunal. Who is actually going to be knocked out of Q1? Like, genuinely, let's make this our hot take segment. Who are the five drivers you think are going to be knocked out of qualifying in China? And I'm not counting sprint qualifying. That is just convolute matters because there's just so much happening. But the five main drivers, who are you picking for that? Very, very interesting.

[00:26:31] I think both the Haas drivers, Haas has clearly sort of, you know, taken time. Maybe Jack Doohan. Maybe Antonelli. I get a feeling. What? Yeah, I think it's... And maybe Hadjar. Let's remember, none of the rookies have driven at China. Because China doesn't have Formula 2, doesn't have Formula 3. The F1 Academy will debut this season or this weekend. And they've got some Porsche, Super Cup, Carrera series, Asia rounds that are there.

[00:27:00] But Lewis Hamilton had a Q1 exit here last year. And since, again, I know we are not supposed to talk about a sprint anymore. But Leclerc and Hamilton have never won a sprint in the history of them racing in Formula 1 and the history of sprints happening in Formula 1 as well. But it's an interesting circuit, Samuel. Maybe we can spend a couple of minutes just talking to the circuit. Because, you know, 16 corners, we've got three key overtaking spots, turns 1 and 2.

[00:27:28] I love that because you can literally come back out as you exit turn 2 and onto 3. Turn 6 is another key overtaking spot. And then the long back straight, the 1.2-kilometer back straight, which a lot of you have seen Kimi Raikkonen drive straight on while others were warming up their tires. That back straight ending at that very tricky hairpin.

[00:27:52] And I say tricky because lots of drivers have sort of spun their wheels around, spun their rivals around or overshot their braking points out there, which is turn 14. So very crucial corner to remember as well. Two DRS zones. Imagine they're going to test many DRSs in only two DRS zones versus the four that we had in Australia. But Samuel, I absolutely love that, you know, media center and the restaurant they have, which is a bridge between the main grandstand and the Formula One paddock.

[00:28:22] And crucially, from a performance point of view, the circuit, it is now confirmed, has been resurfaced ahead of this weekend's Grand Prix. And we had only 13 cars finishing in Australia, usually a race of high attrition. But China is a race of high reliability. It's seen some of the most reliable races being held where lots of drivers have just ended up finishing races.

[00:28:47] So I'd love to see that end of the spectrum being balanced out as well, going from high attrition in Australia to high reliability for all 10 teams and, you know, the 20 drivers in China as well. You know, we're meant to end an episode in 30 minutes. And then at the end, you say these interesting things that I have such a fun opinion on. And then we end up overshooting and going to 40. So I'm going to save some of that for our social media, because that's another way for us to interact over there. But yes, that paddock is phenomenal.

[00:29:16] It's shaped like a Chinese village. They've got a lake in the middle and they've got these wooden bridges made out of bamboo. It's phenomenal. But my five drivers to be knocked out of Q1, if I have to go there very quickly, both the Haas drivers, I feel genuinely, I can't pick. Sorry, I can't pick. I give up. I give up. I can't do this. It's so hard. It's so hard. I can't do this. Sorry. Let me give you a hint. Let me give you a hint. Lance Stroll.

[00:29:45] It's going to be his 90th race with Aston Martin. Lance Stroll. In 2023, he finished fourth in Melbourne. His best finish of the season. In 2024, he finished sixth in Melbourne. Where did he finish again? Did he score points? He crashed last year. No, this year. This year, where did he finish? I'm so lost with Australia. B6. Yeah, he was there, right? So he got his best race of the season again. I mean, best result. It's already only one race in.

[00:30:15] But usually, he went to China and then he was out of the point. So I think Lance Stroll is like, I have done enough for now. Let me just relax a little bit. It's anyway China. Maybe there's an Aston Martin car production factory somewhere there as well. But yeah, maybe Lance Stroll could be on your list of five. Stroll, Bottoletto and Hulkenberg because Sauber haven't been the best over here. So that's my five if I have to pick any. But that is about it. I mean, we'll have to call this episode. Are we doing predictions of who's going to win?

[00:30:45] Oh, we should do that quickly. We should do that quickly. Okay. Race winner. I'm going Lando Norris. He got pole in qualifying here last year in the wet. This guy understands the circuit. He's good. Run of confidence. I won't go against him. Yes, it's easy to pass to China. But in the way and the form that he's in, I'm not betting against him. So Lando for pole. Lando for win. Double down. I'm going on him. What are you picking, Gondal?

[00:31:11] I think Oscar Piastri is going to bounce back. And I'm going to say, I don't know. Did I pronounce it right? Because you guys are being trolled a lot on fan code for pronunciations. And I don't even know what not. It's not even that deep. It's not even that deep. Seriously, man. Yeah. Okay. Five different drivers have taken pole position in the last five years in China. So we had Verstappen before that, Bottas, Vettel, Hamilton, and then Rosberg.

[00:31:40] So I anyway think it's going to be a six different driver. I don't think it's Max on pole. It's probably going to be either Lando or PS3 on pole. But I think it's going to be Lando on pole. He's got the edge in qualifying. Okay. In general. Three different drivers have actually won the last three Chinese Grand Prixs. We've seen Verstappen, Hamilton, and Ricciardo. Ricciardo actually won in 2018 from sixth place. Okay. I get a feeling Piastri is going to win this race, extending it to four different drivers

[00:32:08] who won the Chinese Grand Prix in four different years. That's my hot take. And that will mean McLaren, who had their last pole in 2008, that stat will be overwritten. And the last win in 2011, that stat will also be overwritten. And I think 2025 is just going to be one of those seasons where McLaren just rewrites all of these historical stats that they've had. And here's one last thing I'm really looking forward to. I know we're overshot. Sarang is in the years saying, guys, it's time to end.

[00:32:36] But in Australia, we saw strangely slow pit stops. The fastest pit stop that was registered was with Leclerc. With Ferrari, of course, was 2.32 seconds. Okay. Really think we need to go back to the sub-to-second pit stops. And that's my wild prediction. That McLaren will win, dominate, but also slam in that fastest, really hyper-quick pit stop this weekend. Yeah. Let's see. I mean, it'll be a phenomenal weekend.

[00:33:06] So many stories. And we'll be back, firstly, for live videos after each major session, where we would love to hear your opinions on everything and discuss it with you. That'll be superb. And then, of course, the review episode on Sunday with F1 Stats Guru also a part of it. So make sure you subscribe to the Inside Line F1 podcast. If you're in India and you love to listen to Hindi Coventry, and if you don't have any negative opinions about it and just want to try something out, subscribe to Fancore.

[00:33:33] Listen to myself and Shetan Narula over there, and you'll have a really good time. And if you want to troll us, troll us. Sure, do your thing, man. But just let us be. Just let us be. And we're creating a beautiful community over there and also here on the Inside Line F1 podcast. But thank you for watching and listening, folks. We'll catch you very soon. Bye-bye.