China, second date of the season and, as promised, we have a gift in store that we thought we would share with you. The 2026 season, which marks the beginning of a new regulatory era, presents a myriad of pitfalls for teams and drivers. That's why we decided to prepare a video for you that tracks the variation in gaps between the various teams and drivers on the grid.
Beware the 2026 gap - From Australia to China - Team
At the moment we have data from only two races available. So it's still pretty simple. Compared to Australia, Mercedes are still the team that remains top of the qualifying group, although the gaps have been significantly narrowed compared to the other cars. If you only consider Ferrari, the Italian team went from 8 tenths behind in Melbourne to 351 thousandths behind in Shanghai.
The teams may have been helped by Russell's inability to perform, who experienced technical problems during the third quarter, but the visual effect leaves no room for interpretation. All teams made a clear leap forward. All except Red Bull and VCARB, who instead withdraw. The manufacturer Red Bull Powertrains-Ford had been hit by some breakdowns and technical problems in Australia (Verstappen out in qualifying, Hadjar out with the engine on fire in the race). It could also be that the new engineer chose to safeguard the power unit a little more this weekend, at the expense of performance, to avoid further problems.
Beware the 2026 Gap - From Australia to China - Drivers
As for the driver-by-driver situation, in addition to noticing an approach by Ferrari and McLaren to Mercedes, we can notice some differences in the battles involving teammates in the pits. Antonelli beats Russell to take his first career pole at the age of 19 years, 6 months and 17 days. Thanks to these numbers he becomes the youngest driver of all time to have achieved this feat.
Looking at Ferrari, Hamilton beats Leclerc by just 13 thousandths. While everything remains unchanged regarding the internal comparison within the McLaren team. Piastri secured a resounding 2-0 victory, finishing ahead of teammate Norris each time. In Australia unfortunately, due to an error/problem in the verification laps, Oscar was unable to even take part in his home GP and was unable to do so in China either due to problems with his car before the start. Norris in Shanghai shared the same fate. Verstappen beat teammate Hadjar by just over a tenth, but remains 9 tenths behind the time of Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Cover photo: Pirelli
Read also in italian language: Occhio al gap: GP Cina 2026
All the news, photos, weather, session times and times from the Chinese GP 2026
