F1 Chinese GP live updates - media day

On Russell's earlier comments, and Oscar Piastri has suggested that he'd quite happily let the Mercedes driver "write off his season" over the perceived gap to McLaren.

"George, he's come up with some funny things in the last couple of weeks. It's, just one race, it's been a track that's been competitive for us the last couple of years, even when our car wasn't even more dominant than a Red Bull.

"We'll go to different tracks where we'll struggle more, that's for sure. If he wants to write off his season after the first weekend, then I'll let him do that."

Liam Lawson says he wants to turn the page on his difficult first outing with Red Bull, and accepts that he needs to pick up his game in the next few races.

"I know that there's no guarantee in Formula One, I know how Red Bull is and that if you go through half the year not performing, they'll have no difficulty in switching you.

"It's not that I have a guarantee, but it's more we've done the prep before the season, and it's a more rounded setup that I've had now that I've ever had in previous years."

Some amusement from Max Verstappen as he sounded confused on being told of Lando Norris' assertion that the McLaren doesn't suit his driving style. "He doesn't like his own McLaren?" the Dutchman pondered, nothing the competitive situation.

"I think, myself, so Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari were all quite close, and they probably will differ a bit track to track."

"I think the clear picture that you saw was McLaren was quite far ahead. I don't think I'm an idiot in the wet, but in the first stint, I didn't really have a lot of chance to fight."

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, now with his first race in the books, says that bringing the car home fourth in Australia has given him a healthy boost - and admitted to pre-flight nerves as he lined up for his first F1 race last Sunday.

"It was a really good boost of confidence. I feel so more relaxed now! I'm not going to lie; for my first weekend I was a bit stressed. I was a bit nervous, because everything was new.

"But a race like that really helps your confidence and, and to relax you as well.  Conditions were really tricky but really happy how I have managed and also how the team managed. They've been really guiding me throughout the the whole race in the best way as possible."

Having predicted back in 2023 that Red Bull would win every race, George Russell now feels that McLaren has a bigger advantage than Red Bull ever did that year - and does not believe Mercedes can catch the British squad.

"I think their car is definitely capable of winning every race and their car should win every race, but I don't think they will win every race this year."

"I think the gap they have on everybody this this year is bigger than Red Bull has ever had. But you know, when Max was in that car, he was pretty reliable every single lap."

Alex Albon had sympathy with the inquisition Liam Lawson faced after Australia, and felt it was far too early to assume how the Kiwi would get on at the team. After all, Albon has been there, done that at Red Bull...

"I think it's very early to say how he's going to do. I think for everyone out there, the conditions and the general format of qualifying now. I think qualifying is now closer than ever, which is great for everyone.

"But it does mean that if you're a little bit off, you're going to likely be out in Q1. But then at the same time, there's nothing really to say about the race conditions. Everyone was struggling out there, especially the rookies and the ones with a little bit less experience were on the back foot for most of Sunday. I think you've got to give them a bit of time to get up to speed."

Isack Hadjar took solace in the fact that China was running back to back with Australia, and seeks to atone for his formation lap spin out of his debut race.

"I would say on Monday already I felt quite a lot better, especially knowing that it's a back-to-back weekend. So I got to run [through] it back quite early, not having a month to dwell on it."

"I know the [China] track really well from the sim. It's one track I've been, since I'm a kid, playing on PS3, PS4 with the controller. So I know the track well, I would say, even though I never drove here."

Haas rookie Ollie Bearman reckoned that the Australia rain helped him out after his very limited running down under, after crashing in FP2, spinning out in FP3, and missing qualifying:

"I was quite glad to have the rain on on race day, kind of levelled the playing field a little because I hadn't done any dry laps. Then the mindset was completely shifted and it was really just about surviving on Sunday; we had so many DNFs that day, super difficult conditions going through the the track drying.|

Pierre Gasly relayed his confidence that he would be "in the mix" with Alpine during the China weekend; he felt that the A525 package was more suited to Bahrain than Australia, but it was a good sign he could reach Q3 at Albert Park.

"I think to be fair, last week gave us some good confidence that we'll be in the mix. It's an extremely tight midfield. It's been only one race track, and personally felt that we probably felt a bit better in Bahrain and nonetheless, in Australia we're still able to put it in Q3.

"So it does bring us some good confidence that we'll be in that fight - the gap with the cars ahead is also not insane. Hopefully on the track where the car will switch on and kind of come a bit more together in different conditions, it can really put us up there."

Carlos Sainz went into the details of his Australia crash, explaining that it was an eventuality that the team could never have explored in Bahrain.

"You cannot be too hard on yourself on because it just takes time and it takes examples like this in order to learn from this kind of situations. How am I going to test that situation in Bahrain?

"You're never going to be on a wet track with a cold intermediate tyre in safety car mode. How are you going to put yourself in this kind of situation in Bahrain and learn from this and say, 'hey, there's something here that I don't quite like with the shifts and it could put me out in Australia'."

We've had our first batch of sessions - Nico Hulkenberg started us off to talk about his seventh place in Australia. He reckoned Sauber had made progress from Bahrain testing - but that there's still a lot more work to do:

"Without the crazy circumstances and the safety car and the change of conditions, we would have not finished P7. That's also very clear and you know we have to be realistic about that.

"But that's racing. You have to use these opportunities when they come and, that's what we did. We stayed clean, we made some good calls and that's why it was nice to to take that one, in the books already."