Russell stated the brand new fashion of F1 had made his early battle with Leclerc “dicey”.
Leclerc, who completed third behind Russell and his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli, stated the brand new requirement to always cost and deploy 350kw (470bhp) {of electrical} energy “will definitely change the way we go about racing and overtaking”.
Lewis Hamilton, fourth behind Ferrari team-mate Leclerc, stated he “loved it, the race was really fun to drive”.
World champion Lando Norris, who completed fifth, predicted that F1 was “just waiting for something to go horribly wrong” given the velocity differentials concerned.
And four-time champion Max Verstappen stated he liked racing however not like this. “I do want it to be better than this,” he stated.
Of the battle for the lead for the primary 10 laps, Ferrari staff principal Frederic Vasseur stated: “I’m not sure that I saw something like this the last 10 years.”
But the misgivings stay, and staff bosses retain open minds concerning the potential that the foundations may should be tweaked after three races this yr – a level at which all have agreed to take a pause and replicate.
The battle between Russell and Leclerc was a operate of the brand new expertise.
One would use the overtake or increase mode to go. But this not solely left them weak to being overtaken once more, because the automobiles swapped round who had probably the most electrical power, but additionally made it tough for them to interrupt away from one another, and the remainder of the sphere.
In truth, their battle compromised them closely, permitting Hamilton and Antonelli to catch up and briefly make it a four-way scrap for the lead earlier than a digital security automotive led to separate methods and an finally comfy victory for Russell and a one-two for Mercedes. They look formidably robust heading to the second race in China this coming weekend.
There was sufficient proof within the race that the considerations expressed by the drivers have been actual, too.
The velocity differentials in the beginning have been startling. There was one very close to miss between Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls and Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, and Norris and Russell each expressed considerations about them in racing on monitor, too.
Norris was probably the most outspoken.
“It’s chaos,” he stated. “You’re going to have a big accident, which is a shame. You’re kind of driving and we’re the ones just waiting for something to happen and something to go quite horribly wrong, and that’s not a nice position to be in.
“Just relying on what folks do, you may have a 30, 40, 50 km/h velocity (differential), and when somebody hits somebody at that velocity, you are going to fly and you are going to go over the fence and you are going to do a lot of harm to your self and perhaps to others. And that is a fairly horrible factor to consider.”
Equally, is racing by pressing a button for more electrical energy really racing? McLaren team principal Andrea Stella described it as “a little bit synthetic”.
He added: “When the tempo settles and everyone seems to be on the identical sample from a deployment schedule perspective, then I believe that overtaking turns into tough. So I believe even from an overtaking perspective, that is one thing that we have to preserve reviewing.”
