With the excitement of Melbourne still fresh in the memory, Formula 1 made the relatively short trip north for Round 2 of the 2025 season. After a 6-year absence, it returned to the Shanghai International and with it came the year’s first Sprint weekend format, adding to the challenge. With only a single Free Practice session before competitive sessions began, it was always going to be a test of adaptability and sharp decision-making for the drivers and teams. And so it proved for the Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team, as the weekend presented both opportunities and setbacks. Also, out of respect to the announcement of the death of former team owner (and Aston Martin predecessor) Eddie Jordan earlier in the week, the AM cars had a shamrock painted onto their cars, with a tribute message as well.
Stroll was the last driver to emerge from the pit lane in FP1, while Alonso quickly settled into his rhythm in cool but dry conditions. It was clear early on that the mid-field especially was tightly packed and any mistake would be costly. At the 15-minute mark, the Aston pair sat P11 (Alonso) and P13 (Stroll), quietly going about their setup work. Lance and Fernando both ran a mix of soft and medium compounds as the team sought to gather as much setup data as possible in the lone practice session. The session was red flagged with 12 minutes to go when Jack Doohan’s car stopped out on track, interrupting the flow of data collection. After a 5-minute delay, the green flag returned and the session resumed, with both AM drivers finishing respectably – Alonso P8 and Stroll P12. Not ideal, but setup experimentation and traffic played a part. Norris set the pace for McLaren.
Just a few hours later, it was time for competitive action and Sprint Qualifying. In the opening session (SQ1), both Alonso and Stroll did enough to progress comfortably, with Alonso finishing in P8 and Stroll in P12. SQ2 was more tense, as with a couple of minutes remaining, Stroll was in the drop zone, 15th, but he produced a tidy lap to jump up to P9, while Alonso narrowly missed out on joining the top 10, finishing in P11. In SQ3, Stroll wasn’t able to improve and despite running P9 for a while he ended up 10th on the grid for the Sprint race. Hamilton stunned the paddock by taking pole, ahead of Verstappen and Piastri. Post-session, both Stroll and Leclerc were summoned by the FIA for allegedly driving unnecessarily slowly during SQ1 cooldown laps – although no grid penalties were ultimately issued.
The next day the 19-lap Sprint race was full of early drama. Off the start, both of the green machines had a clean getaway and got the better of Albon. Norris, however, got out of shape on the outside kerbs through turns 1 and 2 and lost places to both Aston Martins in the process, but regained a place from Alonso by the end of the opening lap, forming a sandwich between Stroll in P8 (the final points-paying position) and Alonso in P10. When DRS was enabled, Stroll was looking vulnerable to Norris, who was within a second of him, but Stroll stayed focused, showed sensible tyre management and pulled out of DRS range over the ensuing laps, due partly to Norris's tyres experiencing graining. At the halfway stage, Hamilton was still leading the race, Stroll was 8th and Alonso 10th. 3 laps later, Stroll had pulled up to within a second of Antonelli in 7th but couldn’t make DRS work any more for him against the faster Mercedes, which allowed Norris to gain on Stroll. At the end of lap 16 he was right on the back of Stroll and attacking hard, both of them caught in a train, behind Tsunoda in 6th, Antonelli 7th, Stroll 8th and Norris 9th, all about a second apart from each other. The pressure eventually told on lap 18, when Norris squeezed past a struggling Stroll – whose tyres had begun to fall away by then. It was frustrating for the Canadian, who was just two laps shy of bringing home a valuable point. Stroll therefore finished in 9th, with Alonso in 10th. Hamilton won his first race for Ferrari, albeit the Sprint.
Qualifying began under clear skies and with 15+ cars queuing up to get going in Q1 when the lights eventually went green. Both AM drivers were among the first in line, but after most drivers had completed their first runs they were left well down the order – Stroll in 13th, Alonso in 14th and with just 10 minutes remaining. As the track improved, both AMs improved significantly, with first of all Stroll briefly putting his AMR25 in P5 and then Alonso grabbing the same position, with Stroll dropping to P8. However, when the final runs were completed, Alonso could only secure 12th place and Stroll – despite being blocked by Bearman – just scraped through into Q2, in 15th. In Q2, the performance indications were ominous when after their first runs Stroll was in P11 and Alonso down in P14. With just 2 mins left on the clock the AMs headed out for their final runs. But they didn’t improve and Alonso ended up 13th and Stroll was 14th. Piastri secured his first pole position, Russell was 2nd and Norris, who had to abort his final lap, was 3rd.
When the cars set off for the formation lap it became evident that Aston Martin had adopted different strategies for their drivers, with Alonso starting on the medium compound tyres (as did the majority of the grid) and Stroll starting on the hard compound tyres – one of only three drivers to do so and taking a long-run gamble that could pay dividends. Off the start, Alonso made initial gains, climbing a couple of positions, but by Lap 2 had dropped back to P12. Just two laps later, a remarkable moment unfolded: Alonso reported rear brake issues. “No brakes” came the message over the team radio and he limped back to the pits, was wheeled into the garage and his car was retired. It marked his second consecutive DNF to start the season – cruel luck for the Spaniard. That was the end of his race - 2nd DNF in 2 weekends for him.
With Alonso retiring, all hopes rested on Stroll, who moved up a place, to 13th. Then, from lap 11 onwards, as others began stopping for fresh tyres, Stroll moved up to P12 initially and 4 laps later he’d surged to P5 – the hard tyres proving to be a wise early call as he could go further into the race He also engaged in a spirited battle with Russell and Norris on lap 16, both of whom had pitted for fresh tyres and rejoined just ahead of him. By Lap 19, Hamilton and Leclerc had passed Stroll, dropping him 7th. On Lap 23, Stroll had Bearman bearing down on him and he tried to pass – but locked up into Turn 1 and allowed Stroll to reclaim the position in a fine display of racecraft. Bearman pitted shortly after, and at the halfway stage, Stroll was beaming and holding a solid P7. The Canadian continued to manage the tyres well, remaining on track until Lap 37 before finally pitting for fresh medium tyres. He rejoined in P14 but on much fresher tyres and with clear air. Over the next few laps, he overtook Doohan, then hunted down Sainz and passed him cleanly on Lap 44 to move up to P11. Gasly was next, but after the gap had narrowed down to 1.5 seconds, stubbornly, it started to increase again, such that by the last lap, the gap was up to three seconds. Despite a push in the final laps, Stroll couldn’t close in any further and finished the race in P12.
However, well after the race finished, it was announced that Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly would both be disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix after their respective Ferrari and Alpine cars were found to be underweight in post-race checks. Additionally, Lewis Hamilton was disqualified after the rear skid block on his Ferrari was found to be under the minimum thickness required in the technical regulations. As these 3 drivers had finished ahead of Stroll, it resulted him in being promoted up the order, to 9th, securing 2 valuable points.
After the race, Alonso was visibly disappointed but determined to look forward: “It’s unfortunate – two weekends, two issues. We had decent pace in FP1 and were competitive in the Sprint. We suffered with extremely high rear brake temperatures very early into our race today, so we were forced to retire the car. It was quite scary losing the brakes suddenly, so I'm grateful we were able to get the car back safely. We will analyse why this happened and look to improve for Japan. Stroll, meanwhile, was more upbeat, especially when learning about the disqualifications for the other drivers: “It’s a shame to miss the points (initially), especially after that first stint – we were flying on the hards. The car was good in clean air. It was tough out there. I thought the race was coming to us but as it progressed it ended up being a one-stop race for most. Still, a lot of positives and we’ll aim higher in Suzuka.”
After two races, the AMR25 shows glimpses of midfield competitiveness, but there’s more to extract – especially in qualifying trim. As the team heads to Japan, the objective will be clear: improved reliability, better single-lap performance, and maximising Lance’s consistency and Fernando’s tenacity. The season is young.