Brundle explains tyre change that changed face of Chinese Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri led home a McLaren one-two in a race that was far from a classic, as teams were able to stretch the life of their Pirelli tyres to a one-stop at the Shanghai International Circuit.

This was in spite of an expected two-stop given the aerodynamic loads at the circuit, with excessive graining present on the front left tyres making life for the drivers even more difficult. 

After Friday's practice and sprint qualifying session, Pirelli raised the minimum tyre pressures on safety grounds, which former F1 driver Brundle felt had an impact on racing spectacle.

Speaking on commentary at the end of the race, Brundle pointed to the long-stinted one-stops and said: “It kind of took the sting out of it a little bit, didn’t they? They were a bit too good today weren’t they those tyres?”

Variability the name of the game

What we did get was a shake to the pecking order for the 19-lap sprint, with Lewis Hamilton leading home Max Verstappen to earn a first 'win' for Ferrari.

Writing in his post-weekend column for Sky Sports F1, Brundle explained: "Mandatory minimum tyre pressures were high due to the high aerodynamic loads in the 270-degree first turn which also incorporates Turns two and three. And also Turns 12 and 13 onto the long back straight.

"For a qualifying lap the drivers needed to hang around a little in the pitlane and the pit-out lap to let temperatures and therefore pressures drop down, not least because the minimum pressures were raised again by one psi front and rear overnight on Friday. This voodoo and imprecise process leads to a lot of variability.

"Hence we had the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen on the front row for the 19-lap Sprint, and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri and Mercedes of George Russell on the front row of the 56-lap race. Variability was the name of the game in Shanghai."

Strategy confusion

But the face of the race changed as the event went on, leaving a confusing state of play for onlookers.

"It was expected to be a two-stop race, medium/hard/hard, for an optimum glorious victory," added Brundle.  

"Three drivers in the second half of the field tried a contrary strategy, and why not, by starting on the hard tyres. The early signs were that this mystery tyre was working well but it was confusing as Liam Lawson pitted his Red Bull to park the hard tyres on Lap 18, Ollie Bearman in the Haas on Lap 26, and Lance Stroll in his Aston Martin got to Lap 36 of the scheduled 56 laps.

"With pace management on their medium tyres, the leaders started pitting for the first time on Lap 14. Because McLaren were running a reasonably close one and two, Norris had to wait until Lap 15 and this put him behind Russell again. Another overtake was required and which was duly delivered in style with some hard racing heading into Lap 18, re-establishing the McLaren one-two.

"These tyres looked good and it began to dawn on teams that, against all expectations, they could make it to the end of the race without another pit stop which takes 23 seconds, if all goes well."

And so it turned out that the one-stop was the way to go and as Brundle pointed out: "Anybody who two-stopped such as Hamilton and the two Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda were not rewarded."