F1Weekly Podcast # 1087

Oscar Piastri takes his first Grand Prix win in dominant fashion, Norris behind nursing his brakes home. Consistent George on the podium again and, It’s time for Liam Lawson to switch seats with Yuki Tsunoda! More Classic Nasir Hameed with history of the Nurburgring and Gilles Villeneuve.

Breaking: Ferrari disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix!

Formula One F1 – Chinese Grand Prix – Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China – March 23, 2025 McLaren’s Oscar Piastri celebrates with a trophy on the podium after winning the Chinese Grand Prix as second placed McLaren’s Lando Norris applauds REUTERS/Edgar Su

Oscar Piastri raised the stakes in his championship battle with Lando Norris by securing a dominant victory at the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.
Norris won last weekend’s opening round in Australia, with Piastri only ninth after he slipped off the road in the rain when narrowly trailing his McLaren team-mate, but it was roles reversed in Shanghai.
At the second round of the season in Shanghai, Piastri led from start to finish to lead home a one-two finish. Norris managed a late brake issue to finish second, with George Russell in third

Max Verstappen took fourth spot, one place ahead of Charles Leclerc – who had superior pace to Ferrari teammate and sprint race winner Lewis Hamilton, who finished a disappointing sixth. British teenager Ollie Bearman secured his first point of the 2025 season as he finished 10th for Haas.

MAX:

“Today the beginning of the race was quite tough on mediums. We set out to do our pace, which was a fair bit slower than the cars around us as we were working to try not to destroy our tyres. On the hard tyre, it was a tough beginning, but on the second stint the performance was a lot more promising and we were seeing a lot more pace in the car. The last 19 laps were more positive and better than expected as we were having equal lap times to the front runners.

We were handling the car better and had a lot more grip on the tyres, so everything looked more hopeful and it was more fun to drive. We can take a lot of lessons from this weekend and hopefully this means that we can see a better performance in Japan, especially on a circuit that I really enjoy driving at. We do still have a lot of work to do, as we are not where we want to be and our car is not that easy to drive, but at least the final stint was more promising and there is a lot that we can go back and analyse. Overall, it was nice racing in Shanghai: it is a great track and great city.”

SHANGHAI, CHINA – MARCH 23: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing and Gianpiero Lambiase, Head of Racing of Oracle Red Bull Racing talk on the grid during the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 23, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

YUKI:

“Very disappointed, I was definitely expecting more. How I ended up in this race is definitely not the way I wanted. We didn’t have as much pace as the Sprint race, we’ll have to analyse that. Strategy is something we have to revise what happened there as well. I can understand the thoughts behind it, but I guess the main learning is how we can prevent those situations for the future. The front wing damage was a bit frustrating, maybe it was debris, we will investigate, but some things are a bit unfortunate. At least I scored points in Sprint race, which is important, we have good pace in the car so, let’s stay positive. Next race is Suzuka and my motivation is naturally coming from inside already.”

FERNANDO:

“We suffered with extremely high rear brake temperatures very early into our race today, so we were forced to retire the car. It was quite scary losing the brakes suddenly, so I’m grateful we were able to get the car back safely. We will analyse why this happened and look to improve for Japan. Hopefully our luck will improve for the upcoming triple header and we can fight for some points over the three weeks.”

Nasir with the History of Gilles Villeneuve.

Gilles Villeneuve trouve la mort le 8 mai 1982 au cours d’une séance de qualification au Grand Prix de Belgique, après une collision avec une autre voiture à 250 km/h. Le circuit utilisé pour le Grand Prix du Canada à Montréal porte son nom depuis.

Le musée Gilles-Villeneuve est inauguré en 1988 à Berthierville, au Québec. Une statue de bronze de 5’3” est érigée devant l’édifice. Le 1er novembre 2024, on signale que la statue a été volée, et seules les bottes de bronze demeurent sur le podium.

En tout, Gilles Villeneuve participe à 67 épreuves de Grand Prix; il en remporte 6, et monte 13 fois sur le podium. Plus de vingt ans après sa mort (1982), Gilles Villeneuve fascine encore les amateurs de Formule 1 européenne, qui le comptent parmi les meilleurs coureurs de Grand Prix de l’histoire. Malgré une carrière relativement courte, il conserve une place au palmarès des dix meilleurs coureurs. On le décrit comme étant un coureur « brillant, rapide, doué d’une maîtrise étonnante. » De nombreux fans considèrent qu’il « cours[e] autant pour le plaisir que pour la victoire, » et que c’était un véritable plaisir de le regarder. Sa technique agressive en fait un concurrent redoutable. Toutefois, en dehors de la piste, il est d’un abord facile et bavarde volontiers avec ses fans, les photographes ou les journalistes.