PADDOCK INSIDER: Will McLaren remain the team to beat in Shanghai – or can a rival team spoil their early-season party?

A few days after a cracker of an opening race of the season in Melbourne, the Formula 1 paddock reconvened 8,050km north in Shanghai for round two – and the anticipation for what could be the sport’s closest-ever season showed no signs of dissipating.

Are McLaren the ones to beat again?

You’d struggle to find someone in the Shanghai paddock who didn’t put McLaren as favourites for back-to-back wins, so convincing was their pace in both dry and wet conditions in Australia.