Race Notes | 2026 Chinese Grand Prix | 166 | Antonelli Arrives, McLaren Implodes & The New Era Keeps Score

A 19-year-old Italian just won the Chinese Grand Prix. The reigning constructors' champions didn't make it to the starting grid. And two races into the most significant regulation change in a decade, the sport is still figuring out what it's actually built.

Shanghai gave us a lot to hold at once. The kind of victory that makes you feel something -- Kimi Antonelli on the top step, the tears, Italy's first Formula 1 winner in twenty years. And in the same afternoon, the reigning world champion's team watching from the garage while everyone else raced. Both things happened. Both matter. And they point in completely different directions about where this sport is going.

Dick and Sabrina don't agree on everything they saw in China. Dick thinks Antonelli's win is a signal -- that the next chapter of Formula 1 isn't coming, it's already here. Sabrina is asking a different question: not just what Kimi did, but what had to be true about how he was developed for this moment to be possible. The contrast with how other young drivers have been handled in this sport is not subtle.

On McLaren: the questions don't have clean answers yet. Two cars. Same component. Different failures. Minutes apart. Neither Dick nor Sabrina can tell you definitively what went wrong or why -- and they're honest about that. But Sabrina has one question that's hard to dismiss, and it has to do with what a sprint weekend actually demands of a power unit before the race even starts.

There's more. Red Bull and Max Verstappen in the midfield. Lewis Hamilton's first Ferrari podium and what to make of it this early. The Bahrain and Saudi races officially gone -- and the knock-on effects most fans haven't thought about, including a regulatory mechanism that could directly shape whether Honda gets the development lifeline it needs. Dick and Sabrina are not going to skip the parts that are complicated.

Two races in, nothing is settled. But the 2026 era is already asking hard questions. This is where Dick and Sabrina start answering them.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Have episode feedback or ideas? Drop them a line at: [email protected]

Follow 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 on Instagram.

Check out Dick's karting documentary, Power Drive Vegas.
Interested in Dick's return to kart racing? Check out, Begin Again.

Thanks to all who have become members of the 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 via our “Buy me A Coffee” page. This community is growing because of you.  To become a member, click here.

Like the 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 background music? It's "An Adventure Called Life" by Score Squad. It's available for purchase at Premium Beat.  Use referral code SNSAEDUB at checkout to get 25% off your first purchase.

2025 Sound Engineers: Paul Douglas and Elena Richey