Chinese Grand Prix Talking Points: Oscar the great rises as McLaren continues to dominate, Lawson set for axe

Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were getting excited for the opening round of the 2025 F1 season and now we’re two rounds in? How quickly time flies, especially when you’re an Aussie F1 fan and you are tasting success so early on in the season.

Welcome back to another edition of F1 talking points, where we discover if anyone can beat McLaren in 2025, talk about how good it is to see a certain British driver win in red and work out if Liam Lawson should be getting the flick already.

Intrigued? Let’s get to them.

Shades of 1998 emerging as McLaren dominance gets scary

Back in 1998, McLaren were the most dominant team in F1. They had emerged with by far the best car of the new rules that were introduced that season, and opened the season with two dominant 1-2 finishes.

In 2025, the team has shown similar dominance, albeit with the lack of a 1-2 from Australia (which should’ve happened), they have started the season as perfect as you can. Which, considering how open this season was predicted to be, has come as a bit of a shock.

By the time the cars rolled around to the third race of the season in 1998, things evened up slightly, with Michael Schumacher and Ferrari breaking the streak to win the Argentinian Grand Prix, and the season of 1988 style dominance didn’t materialise. And in no way am I predicting that we are set for a single team dominance this year either.

But it has to be said with all the talk of four teams going for race wins and the closeness of the field, only one team have shown that they are likely to win so far in 2025. And just like 1998, it’s the team that is looking very good right now to claim both Championships and bring McLaren fans a big smile come the end of the season.

The challenge from behind will come

In a quick contradiction, I do believe that this season remains even.

McLaren have had a great start, and look by far the team to beat. But we know how F1 works, and we know how quickly things can, and do change.

Ferrari, well off the pace in Australia, managed to sneak through for a sprint pole and win in China. Mercedes looked solid, as George Russell claimed a second consecutive podium and nearly took pole for the main race. And Red Bull, in the hands of one of their drivers at least, look ever close to springing through a decent result.

Let’s just hope that challenge will come soon so that we can live up to the hype this season has had for quite some time.

Hamilton + red + winning = visual stimulation

Speaking of Ferrari sprint wins, how great was it to see Lewis Hamilton celebrate a win in red?

All the hype. All the promise. It delivered by that simple visual of him raising his fists in celebration following his sprint win on the Saturday.

It wasn’t the main win he would’ve wanted, and his solid performance on the Sunday came to nothing with the disqualification for him and teammate Charles Leclerc. But it was still enough to bring a bit of joy to us Ferrari fans who expect to see lots of that in the years to come.

Baby steps…

The Liam Lawson debacle

Another year, another Red Bull driver debacle. This time only two races in, a lot quicker than we all thought right?

Liam Lawson has had an absolute stinker of a start to the year. Two races, two woeful qualifying performances mixed with two horrible race performances. This definitely wasn’t the plan when it came to the Kiwi driver getting the promotion and replacing Sergio Perez.

Speculation about his future has picked up speed with reports suggesting the Formula One team have decided to replace the New Zealander with Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda.

Dutch newspapers De Telegraaf and De Limburger reported Honda-backed Tsunoda would swap seats with Lawson as Max Verstappen’s teammate from next week’s Japanese Grand Prix after a Red Bull meeting in Dubai.

The reports said an official announcement was expected later in the week – but is it really that vital to move on from him so soon?

Let’s be honest, this isn’t 2024. Red Bull as of now aren’t going to be in the hunt for the Constructors’ Championship, meaning the role of that second driver isn’t maybe as important as it has been the last few years.

Not to discount the importance of both drivers performing, it just seems somewhat rushed if they were to dump him after literally two races.

There is also the fact, outside of many of his issues in the car so far, that he had never driven around both Albert Park of Shanghai before. Suzuka on the other hand, the next race, is a track he is very familiar with. Surely that is a real test of his skill and ability in the car to really get a gauge of just where he is at with the team?

It also does perhaps go to show there is far more to that second seat at Red Bull than is ever let on. Having one or two drivers struggle there is perhaps a sign of driver issues. Having four drivers struggle, something has to be looked at deeper within that team that simply the fault of the driver.

Yes Lawson needs to improve, but let’s not panic so quickly and have this conversation in a few more races.

The great wall of Stroll

Quick last note on my man Lance Stroll.

For pretty much all of the sprint race, Stroll held an incredible line of defense against the much faster Lando Norris. It looked likely he would hold on for eighth and one point, but in the end Norris got past him and Stroll finished 9th.

In the race, he drove a solid Grand Prix on an alternative strategy to the rest of the field, making a long stint on the hard tyres work in an attempt to finish in the points. On track it didn’t work, but after three disqualifications it did, with Stroll finishing the race in ninth place.

Three races, three top ten finishes for Stroll. Meanwhile in the other car at Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso has failed to finish two races and finished behind Stroll in the sprint.

Not bad for a driver who many think is only there because his dad owns a team.

This article was originally written for The Roar. You can read the published version here