Sprints are Back!
At just Round 2 of the 2025 Formula 1 Season, we already have ourselves the first Sprint Weekend of the year! If you’re new to F1 or can’t remember the Sprint format, Sprint Qualifying takes place on a Friday with the Sprint itself being early on a Saturday before the main Qualifying Session for the Grand Prix! Max Verstappen won the Sprint here last year, and Max is just one of a few people to keep an eye on as Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg, and Pierre Gasly all tend to go pretty well in this format too! On the opposite side of the spectrum, Aston Martin are pretty poor in the Sprint Format so don’t expect much from them!
Can Lance Stroll Build on a Positive Opening Weekend?
Whilst plenty of drivers struggled to tackle the tricky conditions in Australia, Lance Stroll was not one of them, he kept calm and avoided all the chaos to ultimately finish 6th, his best result since Melbourne last year! To be fair, Lance’s Qualifying was also decent, he was pretty close to teammate Fernando Alonso, and Alonso of course smashed his car up on the Sunday! Stroll’s biggest weakness is his consistency, the performance is there, but he struggles to deliver it for most weekends! However, there’s clearly a bit of confidence building for Lance Stroll, so let’s see if the Canadian can build on it!
Ferrari Need Results!
Most, if not all of the stories heading into this season have been about Ferrari, about Lewis Hamilton joining the team, and the expectations are severely high when it comes to ending the year as at least Constructors’ World Champions! However, if Australia is anything to go by, the Scuderia isn’t going to be anyway near the front! See, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton could only lock out the 4th Row in Qualifying, both drivers then struggled in the Race with different issues, and a strategy error ultimately saw the team score less points than Kick Sauber (which is quite frankly ridiculous)! It’s definitely fair to expect Ferrari to bounce back this weekend, at least do better than they did last weekend, but whether they can challenge for a Podium is another question entirely!
Isack Hadjar’s Grand Prix Debut (Hopefully)!
Out of all the drivers last weekend, no one’s Season Opener went worse than Isack Hadjar’s! After Qualifying well in P11, Isack lost the car in Turn 2 on the Formation Lap, spinning into the wall and taking himself out of proceedings before the Race had even started! The emotions were clear, Hadjar was distraught, and you couldn’t not feel for him, even if it was his mistake. However, because of this, it still means that Isack Hadjar is yet to start a Grand Prix, and in fact, it means he’ll be doing a Sprint before an actual Race which is pretty insane when you think about it! The saving grace for Isack was the pace was there, he was the best Rookie in Qualifying, and like I said in the build-up to the season, if Hadjar can cut out the errors, he will be a consistent points contender!
Will Andrea Kimi Antonelli Go One Step Further this Weekend?
Coming out of the Australian Grand Prix, a lot of the headlines were on the terrific debut display of Andrea Kimi Antonelli! After a tricky Qualifying which saw him get knocked out in Q1, Kimi kept calm during the Race, making plenty of great overtakes as he stayed out of trouble (just about) to end the Race 4th, just one place behind Mercedes teammate George Russell! That was a statement performance from Antonelli, he made it clear that he doesn’t need too much time to get dialled in, and that is a massive deal for Mercedes! Now, the interesting thing about last week is it was a wet Race, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli has always been known for being super strong in those conditions, so it’s going to be interesting to see how he fares in a fully dry weekend! However, if Kimi Antonelli can get himself straight on the pace again, he could well be challenging for a Podium come Sunday!
My Predictions for Chinese Sprint Qualifying
Lando Norris
Oscar Piastri
Max Verstappen
George Russell
Andrea Kimi Antonelli
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