Antonelli, Hamilton, Hadjar… All the reactions after the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix

Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) – Winner

"I'm speechless. I'm about to cry. Thank you so much to my team… (sobs) they allowed me to fulfill this dream… (cries) I'm very happy. As I said yesterday, I wanted to put Italy back on top of the F1I almost gave myself a heart attack at the end. It was a good race. It wasn't an easy start. I covered a bit too much on the inside and gave too much room to the others. Classic Ferrari for saleBut the pace was good and we were able to bring the car home. (F1)

 

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George Russell (Mercedes) – 2th

“Huge congratulations to Kimi. It’s always very special to win your first F1 race. I’m happy to be on the podium with him and Lewis. It was a big battle. We had another bad start. Ferrari were able to overtake us, but we got what we could have hoped for at the finish.” (F1)

Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) – 3rd

"A huge congratulations to Kimi, I'm so happy for you and I'm happy to share this moment. He took my seat at..." Mercedes Benz And congratulations to them because they're way ahead at the moment. We have a lot of work ahead of us. I really enjoyed myself. I got a good start. I was able to stay in the fight even though I couldn't hold off Kimi or George. These new cars meant I was also able to battle with Charles. It was incredible to be wheel-to-wheel. It was very good. We need to keep pushing. This is the biggest crowd I've ever seen here in China. Thank you.

I think we touched at one point (with Leclerc). It was light, just a little kiss, but that's the kind of hard racing we love. I have to thank everyone at Ferrari and Maranello for allowing us to be in this position. It's not exactly where we would have liked to be, but we have a fantastic platform to work from. We're going to put all our energy into it. (F1)

The class of Lewis Hamilton towards Kimi Antonelli 😍#f1 #chinesegp pic.twitter.com/LD6VDiWuHi

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) March 15, 2026

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 4th

“I loved it! I’m sure Fred didn’t, and the other team members were probably a bit stressed during the race. Honestly, it’s cool to see a Formula 1 car like this in a race. Qualifying is different. Talking with the other drivers, we’re all in the same boat, we need to make some changes. Anyway, I really enjoyed the race. In Australia yesterday in the Sprint, today in the race… Today Lewis was simply faster from start to finish. He was on another level this weekend. Well done to him, I’m happy for his podium finish. Of course, I’m disappointed not to be there myself, but that’s how it goes. I’ll work to be better on this circuit.”

Lewis has been incredibly fast since the start of the season. He was also fast last year, but the cars were very different. It's great that we at least have these two cars. With these new regulations, there's definitely something to be done when you're battling with the drivers at the front. Lewis and I having the opportunity to constantly attack the Mercedes is a positive thing. (Canal+)

Oliver Bearman (TGR Haas) – 5th

« It's a shame what happened to Isack (Hadjar). He was on soft tires, managed to pull alongside me, and then lost control right in front of me! I was like a deer caught in headlights, I didn't know what to do! I didn't know if he was going to release the brakes or not; I really only had half a second to react, maybe less. I went left; I probably should have gone right, but you do everything by instinct in that moment, to avoid damaging the car.

I found myself quite far back, I managed to overtake a few cars and then we had good timing with the Safety Car. We had some bad luck on the first lap but some luck with the Safety Car, it evened out! After that, I had a good race. I was able to overtake some drivers, the car was good, I'm all smiles. We can't really ask for a better start to the season, I want to keep pushing in this direction. (F1)

Pierre Gasly (Alpine) – 6th

“On one hand, I’m very happy with all these points. We really had a solid weekend, right from sprint qualifying. Starting from seventh, I got a very good start. At the beginning, we were really comfortable. Then the safety car put us in a difficult position. In terms of race pace, we were really very good. It was complicated in the middle of the race with the cars around us. I lost a lot of time. Max and Bearman pulled away, and then at the end of the race, I was giving it 3000%. I managed to come back, and I was very close to catching Bearman. I would have preferred to take that fifth place. I think we had it. There are still one or two small things to sort out.”

For the restart under the safety car, I had no energy left. That's why Bearman overtook me, signaling as soon as we crossed the finish line. In any case, it's sixth place, it's a good start.

The battle with Max was intense, just as I expected. I'll watch the footage again, but that's racing. Afterwards, I had him in my sights. It's definitely satisfying when you catch up to Max. I think it would have been quite fun to continue the fight. (Canal+)

Pierre Gasly before Max Verstappen at the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix. Photo: DPPI

Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) – 7th

“I’m quite happy with the result. I don’t think we could have expected it, honestly. The safety car came out at the worst possible time, we had just stopped, I thought the race was over.”

The pace was finally good at the end of the race, I think it wasn't enough to go for the Haas and Alpine who were really fast, so to be able to finish 7th is very good for us. We need a bit more performance; in terms of strategy, we did everything right this weekend, everyone did a very good job. If we had an even faster car, we could be higher up the order. (F1)

Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) – 8th

“Honestly, the way the car went surprised me. It was a good battle with Ollie (Bearman). I had managed to regain the position, and then the car went off in such a way that I had no chance of catching up. It’s a shame because we could have fought for better points.”

This is the first time I've completed so many laps in a row. There's a lot to analyze. I've run on all the tires this weekend. We tried a lot of things on the car. It didn't help us in terms of pure performance, but we'll learn a lot. (Canal+)

Carlos Sainz (Williams) – 9th

“You could say it’s a mini-victory for us. I got a great start, which allowed me to get into the points early in the race. Then it was a matter of managing the one-stop strategy and seeing if any drivers would make mistakes. Our pace still isn’t good enough to score points, but by doing everything else correctly, we managed to finish in ninth position. For us, it’s a bit like a gold medal.”

We're going to keep pushing, and I hope this will motivate the whole team to keep trying to improve the car's performance. I hope it will be a boost because we're not where we want to be; we've been below our expectations at the start of the season, and I hope everyone will continue to give their all. That's what we're doing on track to get the most out of the car, but it's still a difficult time for the team. I hope these two points will motivate us even more. (F1)

Franco Colapinto (Alpine) – 10th

" He (Or with"It touched me, but honestly the race against him was really fun, we had a good battle, it's a shame it ended like that. I lost two points because of that contact, and that's not what I wanted. The afternoon was tricky. I'm happy to bring home a point for the team, it could have been much better but I was really unlucky, I did everything I could. It was a positive weekend, we started badly but we finished really fast. We still need to find more performance, but it's getting better." (F1)

Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) – 11th

“First race of the season for me, so it’s good to learn, gain experience, and get some laps in. I was able to learn a lot about energy management, deployment, that sort of thing. There’s a lot of data to take into account now. We had quite a few problems, but it’s always useful. I think it’s good to have a week off to analyze everything properly at the factory; we’ll regroup and try to get back in the fight in Japan.” (F1)

Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) – 12th

“It wasn’t a very good race. The first lap wasn’t too bad, things were going pretty well before the Safety Car. I wasn’t exceptionally fast, but it was okay. The timing of the Safety Car was unlucky for us because if we had put on medium tires, we wouldn’t have been able to finish the race, so it forced us to stay on hard tires. After that, I was really slow compared to the others who were on new tires. I struggled, I dropped a lot down the order, and we were hoping for another Safety Car, which never came.”

It wasn't an easy weekend; there were too many mistakes on my end. We'll analyze everything with the team to bounce back in Japan. It was a different format this weekend, and being able to gain experience was important. This format is already difficult because there's so little track time, and given how my weekend unfolded, it was the toughest possible baptism of fire! New circuit, my second F1 Grand Prix, having a mechanical issue in free practice, retiring from the Sprint… It certainly didn't help. There's a lot to learn, and that's what I'll focus on for Suzuka. (F1)

Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) – 13th

“Sergio (Pérez) and I touched, but that happens. I didn’t see him and I didn’t have room to move out. We’ve already spoken, everything’s fine. I’m just glad we both finished, that was the main objective today, as well as fighting against the…” Aston Martin"What we did. Honestly, I'm very proud of everyone. It's only our second Formula 1 race and we finished 13th. We've made progress in all areas between the two races, which is very good to see, and we're moving in the right direction step by step, even though we still have a lot of work to do." (F1)

Esteban Ocon (TGR Haas) – 14th

“It’s my fault (the collision with Colapinto), I made a mistake, I misjudged the overtaking maneuver. I’m glad Franco still scored a point because he really had a great race. We battled really well right up until the contact. It’s a shame it ended like that, but he’s still in the top 10, he deserves it. I deserved the penalty today, that’s very clear.”

We were well on our way to a good race, but for the second time in a row, the Safety Car came out at the worst possible time for us. We started on the opposite strategy; I knew it would happen like this. The Safety Car always comes out around lap 15 these days! It happened at Saturday's Sprint, just like in Australia on Sunday. So we fell back. These things happen. We were on track for some very good points, so it's disappointing. (F1)

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Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) – 15nd

“It was entirely my fault. I saw an opening, I dived, but Valtteri had nowhere to go. It was a bit too optimistic of me, so I sincerely apologize to Valtteri and the team. It ultimately cost me the race. I spun and found myself far back. I came back, I was about to overtake Valtteri on the straight, but suddenly I had deployment problems. I lost five seconds the first time, then fifteen seconds the second time. So we need to improve in that area. We really need to have a clean weekend from start to finish, which isn't the case yet, so we need to keep working hard to make that happen.” (F1)

Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – Retirement

“Same problem as yesterday! The procedure was different, though. I don’t understand why it’s happening again (at the start – Ed.), it makes things incredibly difficult for us in the race afterwards. Even back in a normal position, I wouldn’t have had any pace compared to Mercedes and Ferrari. I suffered a lot of degradation, and there’s not much you can do in those situations. You’re just a passenger in the car, and you have to make do with what the tires can give you.”

"I didn't do anything wrong, honestly I have no explanation. It's so complicated with these regulations, I don't know why this is happening to my car." (Canal+)

Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) – Retirement

“It was difficult today; we had more vibrations than in any of the other sessions this weekend. Physically, I couldn’t continue much longer. I started losing feeling in my hands and feet, which wasn’t pleasant. I’ll continue to train, to prepare, I’ll do my homework in a certain way, so that I arrive ready in Japan.” (F1)

Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) – Retirement

“I went into the first corner and everything cut out. I don’t know what the problem was, whether it was the engine, the battery, something electrical… I’m not sure. We know what problems we have, so we’ll continue to work on them. We’ll try to improve the car and the engine in Japan, look for performance, and that’s all we can do.” (F1)

Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – Non-starter

"There was an electrical problem on the power unit, a different problem from Lando's (NorrisIt's very unfortunate that we both have problems, but we don't know anything more about it at the moment. It's disappointing, of course. We need to learn what we can by watching the race, and then work as hard as possible before Japan. Today's problems are annoying, but I think apart from that we have work to do to find performance, so we'll try to focus on that. (F1)

Lando Norris (McLaren) – Non-starter

"We encountered electronic problems with the car's power unit. They tried to fix the problem, tried to understand it, but luck wasn't on our side today; it's really disappointing. It's not just me, for Oscar (Piastres) as well. As a team, it's a lot of work that isn't coming to fruition.

There's not much we can do. I believed in the mechanics. They tried everything to fix the problem, but it was significant. We've looked into it, and we'll make sure it doesn't happen again. For me, it's about seeing what I can learn from today's race and focusing on the next one. (Canal+)

Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) – Non-starter

“What I can say is that I had a technical problem which unfortunately prevented me from starting the race. It’s disappointing, of course, but these things can happen at the beginning of a new set of regulations like this. I’m very disappointed because I feel there were opportunities in this race; several cars didn’t start, others didn’t finish, so there was a chance to score points, but we’ll move on.”

These first two races have been positive overall. Melbourne was incredible, and here things were going well right up until the race. We were fighting for points, for good qualifying results. I'm disappointed not to have been able to take part in a race that's so fun to watch; you always want to be in those kinds of races. (F1)

Alexander Albon (Williams) – Non-starter

“I suffered a hydraulic problem. Honestly, there was a huge list of issues this weekend, and we don't really understand why. We need to improve; it's frustrating. On the other hand, if we look for a positive, Carlos is scoring points, which is important for us; it means a lot. We need to understand what's not working with the car. We have a lot of reliability issues, and we need to understand what the car is doing to cause them. We need to get a reliable car and make sure we look into everything possible within the car so that it doesn't have any more problems.” (F1)

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