Who's Staying Ahead of Lewis Hamilton in This Weekend’s Racing?

Motorsport photo It must have been a great race for any Italian to watch. Two Ferrari drivers, in what appears to be one of the best cars produced in Maranello for many years, battled for the lead with the sport's most promising young rising star, Italy's best hope for a world title since… Mamma mia! Alberto Ascari in 1953.

The first victory for the new national hero was delivered in almost dominant fashion, but still after a fierce battle. Italian fans are probably not too unhappy, at least. Stefano Domenicali is a top manager leading one of the world's biggest entertainment businesses, but make no mistake: someone born in Imola who had to climb over fences to watch cars racing is a true Formula 1 fan.

Whether he enjoyed the race in Shanghai on Sunday was probably still affected by his job title and the responsibility that comes with it, but he was probably feeling relieved above all else: the Chinese Grand Prix was quite a spectacle, and there's almost no way to argue with that. Read Also: Five quick takeaways from F1’s 2026 Chinese Grand Prix Did he enjoy it as a fan? The question could almost certainly have been answered positively had numerous drivers not voiced so many concerns in recent weeks about how they have to deal with some 'unnatural' quirks of this new formula.

Racing certainly looked a lot more entertaining than it did last year. Standing in the paddock media pen, interviewing the hapless McLaren drivers while the race hadn’t even reached the halfway point, it was really hard not to keep glancing at the monitors showing the TV feed. Especially at moments when more than 230,000 people sitting in the absolutely packed grandstands unanimously gasped and exhaled after every new piece of race action, of which there were plenty.