Chinese Grand Prix Recap

In past life I am convinced I was a librarian in the children’s section of a small New England coastal town library & in my next life I will out my dream as a bookstore owner. It’s what I daydream about probably more than I should, mainly because one day I will decide to actually full send & do it.

This is to say that I chose to help you best understand the F1 Chinese Grand Prix weekend through the children’s books I believe best encapsulates the drivers sprint race & main race performance.

Formula 1 101

Last week we went over the terms DNF & DNS & this week we will go over the Sprint race weekend structure.

A sprint race is as it sounds-a sprint. It is just an extremely shortened version of the main race. A sprint race lap amount can vary track to track. This past weekend it was 19 laps for the sprint compared to the 56 laps of the main race. I created a cutie little Venn Diagram for you to just see the main differences between a normal race & sprint.

The normal race weekend structure of 3 practice sessions, a qualifying session, & race looks a little different. On a Sprint weekend, like this past weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix looks like this:

Friday

• Practice Session

• Sprint Race Qualifying

Saturday

• Sprint Race

• Race Qualifying

Sunday

• Race

A sprint race weekend allows for drivers & teams to earn more points toward the championship races & there will be 5 more sprint race weekends. They will be in Miami, Canada, Great Britain, Netherlands, & Singapore. These race weekends are scattered throughout the season & can really help boost a driver or team standing depending on how tight the championship races are at any given point.

Hopefully, this gives you a better understanding of the Sprint race weekend & insight into what actually makes them different than a regular F1 race. Now, to get to driver analysis.

Grand Prix Recap

Given that there was 2 races for our drivers, there was a lot more action happening on the track this weekend that ups the competition levels. Some drivers did well in both where others may have struggled in either one or, both. I tried to take into consideration both drivers races & have that reflect in their book. Some of these drivers are given the same book & I will explain why for some of them below.

So, here is the Chinese Grand Prix according to Kat Bowe.

In order of race finish

Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

• Race: 1st

• Sprint: 5th

  • Book: Eloise

George Russell (Mercedes)

• Race: 2nd

• Sprint: 1st

  • Book: Junie B. Jones (Series)

    • 2 divas navigating the world & being sassy while delivering exactly what the world expects

  Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

  • Race: 3rd

  • Sprint: 3rd

    • Book: Fancy Nancy

      • Serves.

  Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

  • Race: 4th

  • Sprint: 2nd

    • Book: Pete the Cat

      • Chill book for a chill weekend

  Ollie Bearman (Haas)

  • Race: 5th

  • Sprint: 8th

    • Book: Little Engine that Could

  Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

  • Race: 6th

  • Sprint: 11th

    • Book: Frog & Toad

  Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)

  • Race: 7th

  • Sprint: 7th

    • Book: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

  Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)

  • Race: 8th

  • Sprint: 15th

    • Book: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

      • Can not believe this is his life. A real rollercoaster of momentum

  Carlos Sainz (Williams)

  • Race: 9th

  • Sprint: 12th

    • Book: Are you my mother?

      • Continuing his search for a car that will deliver for him

  Franco Colapinto (Alpine)

  • Race: 10th

  • Sprint: 14th

    • Book: Strega Nona

      • Had so much potential for the weekend & I need him to R&R with Nona.

  Nico Hulkenburg (Audi)

  • Race: 11th

  • Sprint: DNF

    • Book: Magic Treehouse

      • Always a weird side quest & subplot to the weekend.

  Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls)

  • Race: 12th

  • Sprint: DNF

    • Book: Strega Nona

      • After such a great showing last week, our lone rookie had a rough weekend. Booking him a trip to Nona.

  Valterri Bottas (Cadillac)

  • Race: 13th

  • Sprint: DNF

    • Book : Cat in the Hat

      • Love him but sometimes the actions make you question just how much

  Esteban Ocon (Haas)

  • Race: 14th

  • Sprint: 10th

    • Book: Frog & Toad

  Sergio (Checo) Perez (Cadillac)

  • Race: 15th

  • Sprint: 19th

    • Book: Day the Crayons Quit

  Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

  • Race: DNF

  • Sprint: 9th

    • Book: Dragons Love Tacos

      • Loves to race but the second something goes slightly off - fire. Fire (metaphorical) everywhere.

  Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

  • Race: DNF

  • Sprint: 17th

    • Book: Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

  Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

  • Race: DNF

  • Sprint: 19th

    • Book: No David!

  Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

  • Race: DNS

  • Sprint: 6th

    • Book: Strega Nona

      • DNS for the first 2 races. He needs to have an entire summer with Nona to recover.

  Lando Norris (McLaren)

  • Race: DNS

  • Sprint: 4th

    • Book: Junie B. Jones & the Stupid Smelly Bus

      • Just assuming this is what he called the car this weekend

  Gabriel Bortoletto (Audi)

  • Race: DNS

  • Sprint: 13th

    • Book: Day the Crayons Quit

  Alex Albon (Williams)

  • Race: DNS

  • Sprint: 16th

    • Book: Magic School Bus

      • He needs to get Ms. Frizzle to shrink down & figure out whats wrong with this car

  _______

  I had a lot of fun with this one & hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I did. I tried to pick books that maybe some of you have read & are familiar with along with newer titles that reflect how their weekend went.

  Next week no race but there will still be a blog. Maybe a state of the union (life update) we shall see.

  Have yourself a magical week!

  Talk soon.