For the first time in his Formula 1 career, McLaren driver Lando Norris enters a race weekend as the championship leader.

Coming off a superb victory in the season-opening race in Melbourne, Norris solidified himself as a championship contender in 2025, and McLaren as the team to beat in the early stages of this season. 

The weekend could have been so much better for McLaren, who are defending constructors’ champions, but Australian Oscar Piastri spun late in his home grand prix while running second.

This weekend is also the first time since the Monaco Grand Prix 2022 that Max Verstappen has not entered the weekend as the drivers’ championship leader. 

Despite the excitement surrounding Norris, the 25-year-old British driver was quick to hose down any talk of the championships after just one of 24 grands prix this season.

“I’m not thinking about it. I don’t really care about it. It shouldn’t change anything I do. It shouldn’t change what the team does,” he said during Thursday’s drivers’ press conference in China.

“I had one good weekend — people need to calm down a little bit. I’m focused on trying to do the same here.

“I probably won’t even think about the championship until at least halfway through the year.”

This weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix will be the first with a sprint race this season. 

Six weekends this season will feature a sprint race, including the Miami, Belgium, United States (Austin), Sau Paulo, and Qatar grand prix weekends. 

This weekend, drivers will have just one free practice session before sprint qualifying and the sprint race are completed. In Melbourne, drivers and teams had three one-hour practice sessions to prepare the cars for the grand prix.

Following a four-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Max Verstappen won last year’s Chinese Grand Prix. 

It was the first time the Dutchman won at the Shanghai circuit and the third for Red Bull (Sebastian Vettel 2009, Daniel Ricciardo 2018).

Lewis Hamilton has been the master of the Shanghai International Circuit, which hosted its first F1 grand prix in 2004.

Hamilton won the race six times. Fernando Alonso is the only other active driver who has won the Chinese Grand Prix, claiming wins in 2005 and 2013.

McLaren has not stood on the top step in Shanghai since Hamilton triumphed in 2011.