Official Chinese Grand Prix - Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 2
The build-up
The new era of F1 set off in Australia just a week ago, with testing promise delivered on in the form of Mercedes, and a 1-2, including a win for seasoned pro George Russell, while Ferrari at least initially gave them a hard time of it, ultimately losing out, perhaps due to being strategically weak on pit stop timing during VSCs. Ferrari also lived up to their promise when it came to race starts, and that is something they should keep capitalising on while it remains their advantage.
McLaren and Red Bull were reasonable too, and Shanghai is a totally different track from Melbourne so it is quite possible they will get more in the battle too, even though you might have Mercedes as your favourites. We must return to Ferrari here too, though, as China was actually the scene of their only win last year (in the Sprint) by Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton has won the Chinese Grand Prix six times, so he certainly has form here.
Arvid Lindblad made a stunning and composed debut in Melbourne for Racing Bulls, at the age of 18 years old, while in the senior Red Bull team, the dissatisfied Isack Hadjar, who looks like a driver who is not easily pleased with results, can at least take heart from the fact that he was well in the thick of it in competitiveness against Max Verstappen, something no Red Bull driver can consistently have said for a long, long time.
With the Sprint and Grand Prix this weekend, there are plenty of points on offer for teams who can make hay while the sun shines, before others get a handle on their car (we're looking at you, Aston Martin, Williams and a few others) and before the huge time gaps close. The new regulations have caused a stir among some fans, particularly with regard to harvesting - this is one area where we might expect times to even up between teams, as both team and driver understand the optimum way around a lap and best exploit these rules. And with an enforced one-month break potentially on the way due to the cancellation of a few Grands Prix, now is the time to take advantage for those who were on it out of the blocks.
The history
The inaugural Chinese Grand Prix was in 2004, but the country had plans to race at Zhuhai, located in Guangdong Province in the south of the country, which was on the provisional calendar for 1999, but eventually fell short of the FIA's requirements.
The debut race was won by Rubens Barrichello in his Ferrari, while his world champion team-mate Michael Schumacher had a scrappy race, starting from the pit lane after spinning out in qualifying and then ending the Grand Prix in 12th after another spin, a collision and a puncture.
In 2005, Shanghai hosted the season closer and newly-crowned first-time world champion Fernando Alonso took the race victory and helped to seal Renault's first constructors' crown. As he did the previous year, Michael Schumacher had to start the race from the pit lane after a collision with Minardi's Christijan Albers on the way to the grid. Schumacher subsequently spun out of the race.
In 2006, there had been talk that GP2 champion and rising star Lewis Hamilton would start his career as early as China, as Juan Pablo Montoya was out of action, but in the end McLaren stuck with Pedro de la Rosa. Michael Schumacher made amends for his last two Chinese adventures by winning and putting himself equal on points with Fernando Alonso, but ahead on countback to keep himself in the frame for the title. It was to be the seven-time world champion’s 91st and final victory.
It rained before the race and Schumacher, who had started in 6th, scythed his way through the field. Race leader Alonso's pace had dropped away dramatically in the wet and he had been passed by Michael, when he finally pitted for dry tyres and suffered a wheel nut problem, which put him yet further back. He eventually caught up with Schumacher, but could only finish runner-up, three seconds back.
The 2007 Chinese Grand Prix is memorable for a twist in the championship fight, as McLaren riskily kept Lewis Hamilton out on struggling tyres in a bid to keep him in contention for the win, prompting him to wear them to the canvas. Hamilton had gone into the race leading the championship by 12 points after Alonso had crashed out in the wet in Fuji. Kimi Räikkönen took the Chinese victory for the Scuderia, while Lewis's race ended frustratingly in a gravel trap on the pitlane entry. Boss Ron Dennis made what were to become notorious remarks that “we weren't racing Kimi; we were racing Alonso”.
In 2008, Hamilton took victory over Felipe Massa, setting himself up for the championship win he was to take by a whisker in the next and final race in Brazil.
The Shanghai race switched to the early part of the season in 2009 and Jenson Button and Brawn's dominance in the first seven races was only broken by Red Bull's first ever win here. Sebastian Vettel led Mark Webber home in a 1-2 and Button took the final spot on the podium in a wet race. The British national anthem was played erroneously for the Milton Keynes-based team, instead of the Austrian one.
Following his switch of teams, it was Jenson Button who topped the podium in 2010, this time making it a McLaren 1-2 after a race in wet conditions, with Lewis Hamilton second. It was the first British 1-2 since 1999 (Irvine and Coulthard in Austria) and the first English 1-2 since 1969 (Hill and Courage in Monaco). Following this fourth race in the championship, Button led the championship again. In practice, Sébastian Buemi's front upright broke, causing both his front wheels to come off, in a bizarre-looking accident.
The next year, Hamilton only just avoided having to start from the pitlane, as he left for the grid with 35 seconds to spare following a fuel problem. He went on to win the race with three stops, becoming the first driver to take two wins in Shanghai, beating Sebastian Vettel and his two-stop strategy. Hamilton’s teammate Button lost time when he stopped at the Red Bull pit on Lap 15.
In 2012, Nico Rosberg took his first Grand Prix victory and the first win in the modern era for Mercedes-Benz, by almost 21 seconds from the McLaren pair of Hamilton and Button. Rosberg's team-mate Schumacher, who had qualified third, missed out on a potentially high finish, after retiring when his front-right was not fitted properly during a pit stop. In a race with heavy degradation, Alonso took victory with Ferrari the following year. Ma Qinghua participated in Free Practice for Caterham, thereby becoming the first Chinese driver to drive in his home Grand Prix weekend (having driven for HRT in Free Practice the previous year).
2014 saw Lewis Hamilton top the podium and lead home a Mercedes 1-2, with the chequered flag erroneously being waved a lap early at the end of Lap 55. This saw the race result declared as things had stood at the end of Lap 54.
In 2015, Hamilton was the first driver to get back-to-back Chinese Grands Prix victories, as he again showed Rosberg the way home. A year later, Rosberg took victory from Vettel and Daniil Kvyat. Kvyat’s Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had beaten Rosberg into the first turn but dropped back after a tyre failure on Lap 3, eventually coming home in fourth.
In 2017, Hamilton beat Vettel, while Max Verstappen had a superb drive from 19th on the grid to complete the podium. In 2018, 6th-placed starter Daniel Ricciardo overtook Valtteri Bottas to take victory. Vettel collided with Verstappen and ended up in 8th, the latter of whom had earlier lost a place to his Australian team-mate after running wide.
In 2019, Hamilton won from Bottas. Bottas had started on pole, but lost ground to his Mercedes teammate off the start. Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris and Kvyat all collided on Lap 1 at Turn 4, leading to the much later retirement of the latter two.
Returning after Covid in 2024, Hamilton split the Red Bulls of Verstappen (1st) and Pérez in the Sprint, while Norris did the same in the Grand Prix. Last year, Hamilton won the Sprint from Oscar Piastri and George Russell, while in the Grand Prix, it was Piastri who took top honours, leading a McLaren 1-2 from teammate and eventual world champion Lando Norris and this year's championship favourite George Russell.
The track
The Shanghai International Circuit, a Hermann Tilke creation, has a layout based on the Chinese symbol 'Shang' - ? - the first character in the name of the city itself, which means 'above', 'ascend' or 'high'.
The circuit offers up an interesting challenge to the drivers and teams, with some long, winding curves where finely-judged throttle control and decent aero stability are an asset, in addition to long straights where they will want as little drag as possible. It is quite a front-limited track.
Turns 1 and 2 are basically one long corner, albeit with two apex points. Into the first one, drivers go down the gears to about 6th as they touch the apex, before patiently letting the car roll through the corner and dropping to as low as 2nd gear before hitting the second apex. The front-lefts work hard here and are prone to graining. Hitting the Turn 3 apex, the car is then just kept level as they go through Turn 4 (effectively making it one corner with Turn 4 just an exit of Turn 3), before the slight kink at 5. Braking downhill into Turn 6, drivers then approach a faster section.
They head for the most intense complex, approaching Turn 7 with quite a late apex and keeping some throttle down during the turn before getting fully back on the power and swinging right into 8. A short straight is followed by Turns 9 and 10, where it is easy to lock the fronts on the entry, two slower left-handers following in quick succession, which lead onto a significant straight.
Heading into Turn 11, a left-hander, drivers soon need to be getting it into 12, a long, long right-hander which takes them through to Turn 13 too, a continuation of this. After the longest straight on the circuit (1.17km), they jump on the brakes between the 150 and 100 metre boards and go through the tight and then more open rights at Turns 14 and 15. The final corner is a quick left-hander which favours those prepared to risk it and carry a lot of speed in the curve. Braking a bit early here can be an advantage as the corner is short and quick and hurls the drivers back onto the start-finish straight.
Other information
Circuit length: 5.451km
Number of laps: 56
Race distance: 305.066km
Race lap record: 1:32.238 (Michael Schumacher - Ferrari - 2004)
Dry weather tyre compounds: C2, C3 & C4
First Chinese Grand Prix: 2004
First Chinese Grand Prix at this circuit: 2004
First Chinese Grand Prix on this configuration: 2004
Join in the fun with the Predictions Contest and Fantasy F1:
https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=160072
https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=160035
The new era of F1 set off in Australia just a week ago, with testing promise delivered on in the form of Mercedes, and a 1-2, including a win for seasoned pro George Russell, while Ferrari at least initially gave them a hard time of it, ultimately losing out, perhaps due to being strategically weak on pit stop timing during VSCs. Ferrari also lived up to their promise when it came to race starts, and that is something they should keep capitalising on while it remains their advantage.
McLaren and Red Bull were reasonable too, and Shanghai is a totally different track from Melbourne so it is quite possible they will get more in the battle too, even though you might have Mercedes as your favourites. We must return to Ferrari here too, though, as China was actually the scene of their only win last year (in the Sprint) by Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton has won the Chinese Grand Prix six times, so he certainly has form here.
Arvid Lindblad made a stunning and composed debut in Melbourne for Racing Bulls, at the age of 18 years old, while in the senior Red Bull team, the dissatisfied Isack Hadjar, who looks like a driver who is not easily pleased with results, can at least take heart from the fact that he was well in the thick of it in competitiveness against Max Verstappen, something no Red Bull driver can consistently have said for a long, long time.
With the Sprint and Grand Prix this weekend, there are plenty of points on offer for teams who can make hay while the sun shines, before others get a handle on their car (we're looking at you, Aston Martin, Williams and a few others) and before the huge time gaps close. The new regulations have caused a stir among some fans, particularly with regard to harvesting - this is one area where we might expect times to even up between teams, as both team and driver understand the optimum way around a lap and best exploit these rules. And with an enforced one-month break potentially on the way due to the cancellation of a few Grands Prix, now is the time to take advantage for those who were on it out of the blocks.
The history
The inaugural Chinese Grand Prix was in 2004, but the country had plans to race at Zhuhai, located in Guangdong Province in the south of the country, which was on the provisional calendar for 1999, but eventually fell short of the FIA's requirements.
The debut race was won by Rubens Barrichello in his Ferrari, while his world champion team-mate Michael Schumacher had a scrappy race, starting from the pit lane after spinning out in qualifying and then ending the Grand Prix in 12th after another spin, a collision and a puncture.
In 2005, Shanghai hosted the season closer and newly-crowned first-time world champion Fernando Alonso took the race victory and helped to seal Renault's first constructors' crown. As he did the previous year, Michael Schumacher had to start the race from the pit lane after a collision with Minardi's Christijan Albers on the way to the grid. Schumacher subsequently spun out of the race.
In 2006, there had been talk that GP2 champion and rising star Lewis Hamilton would start his career as early as China, as Juan Pablo Montoya was out of action, but in the end McLaren stuck with Pedro de la Rosa. Michael Schumacher made amends for his last two Chinese adventures by winning and putting himself equal on points with Fernando Alonso, but ahead on countback to keep himself in the frame for the title. It was to be the seven-time world champion’s 91st and final victory.
It rained before the race and Schumacher, who had started in 6th, scythed his way through the field. Race leader Alonso's pace had dropped away dramatically in the wet and he had been passed by Michael, when he finally pitted for dry tyres and suffered a wheel nut problem, which put him yet further back. He eventually caught up with Schumacher, but could only finish runner-up, three seconds back.
The 2007 Chinese Grand Prix is memorable for a twist in the championship fight, as McLaren riskily kept Lewis Hamilton out on struggling tyres in a bid to keep him in contention for the win, prompting him to wear them to the canvas. Hamilton had gone into the race leading the championship by 12 points after Alonso had crashed out in the wet in Fuji. Kimi Räikkönen took the Chinese victory for the Scuderia, while Lewis's race ended frustratingly in a gravel trap on the pitlane entry. Boss Ron Dennis made what were to become notorious remarks that “we weren't racing Kimi; we were racing Alonso”.
In 2008, Hamilton took victory over Felipe Massa, setting himself up for the championship win he was to take by a whisker in the next and final race in Brazil.
The Shanghai race switched to the early part of the season in 2009 and Jenson Button and Brawn's dominance in the first seven races was only broken by Red Bull's first ever win here. Sebastian Vettel led Mark Webber home in a 1-2 and Button took the final spot on the podium in a wet race. The British national anthem was played erroneously for the Milton Keynes-based team, instead of the Austrian one.
Following his switch of teams, it was Jenson Button who topped the podium in 2010, this time making it a McLaren 1-2 after a race in wet conditions, with Lewis Hamilton second. It was the first British 1-2 since 1999 (Irvine and Coulthard in Austria) and the first English 1-2 since 1969 (Hill and Courage in Monaco). Following this fourth race in the championship, Button led the championship again. In practice, Sébastian Buemi's front upright broke, causing both his front wheels to come off, in a bizarre-looking accident.
The next year, Hamilton only just avoided having to start from the pitlane, as he left for the grid with 35 seconds to spare following a fuel problem. He went on to win the race with three stops, becoming the first driver to take two wins in Shanghai, beating Sebastian Vettel and his two-stop strategy. Hamilton’s teammate Button lost time when he stopped at the Red Bull pit on Lap 15.
In 2012, Nico Rosberg took his first Grand Prix victory and the first win in the modern era for Mercedes-Benz, by almost 21 seconds from the McLaren pair of Hamilton and Button. Rosberg's team-mate Schumacher, who had qualified third, missed out on a potentially high finish, after retiring when his front-right was not fitted properly during a pit stop. In a race with heavy degradation, Alonso took victory with Ferrari the following year. Ma Qinghua participated in Free Practice for Caterham, thereby becoming the first Chinese driver to drive in his home Grand Prix weekend (having driven for HRT in Free Practice the previous year).
2014 saw Lewis Hamilton top the podium and lead home a Mercedes 1-2, with the chequered flag erroneously being waved a lap early at the end of Lap 55. This saw the race result declared as things had stood at the end of Lap 54.
In 2015, Hamilton was the first driver to get back-to-back Chinese Grands Prix victories, as he again showed Rosberg the way home. A year later, Rosberg took victory from Vettel and Daniil Kvyat. Kvyat’s Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had beaten Rosberg into the first turn but dropped back after a tyre failure on Lap 3, eventually coming home in fourth.
In 2017, Hamilton beat Vettel, while Max Verstappen had a superb drive from 19th on the grid to complete the podium. In 2018, 6th-placed starter Daniel Ricciardo overtook Valtteri Bottas to take victory. Vettel collided with Verstappen and ended up in 8th, the latter of whom had earlier lost a place to his Australian team-mate after running wide.
In 2019, Hamilton won from Bottas. Bottas had started on pole, but lost ground to his Mercedes teammate off the start. Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris and Kvyat all collided on Lap 1 at Turn 4, leading to the much later retirement of the latter two.
Returning after Covid in 2024, Hamilton split the Red Bulls of Verstappen (1st) and Pérez in the Sprint, while Norris did the same in the Grand Prix. Last year, Hamilton won the Sprint from Oscar Piastri and George Russell, while in the Grand Prix, it was Piastri who took top honours, leading a McLaren 1-2 from teammate and eventual world champion Lando Norris and this year's championship favourite George Russell.
The track
The Shanghai International Circuit, a Hermann Tilke creation, has a layout based on the Chinese symbol 'Shang' - ? - the first character in the name of the city itself, which means 'above', 'ascend' or 'high'.
The circuit offers up an interesting challenge to the drivers and teams, with some long, winding curves where finely-judged throttle control and decent aero stability are an asset, in addition to long straights where they will want as little drag as possible. It is quite a front-limited track.
Turns 1 and 2 are basically one long corner, albeit with two apex points. Into the first one, drivers go down the gears to about 6th as they touch the apex, before patiently letting the car roll through the corner and dropping to as low as 2nd gear before hitting the second apex. The front-lefts work hard here and are prone to graining. Hitting the Turn 3 apex, the car is then just kept level as they go through Turn 4 (effectively making it one corner with Turn 4 just an exit of Turn 3), before the slight kink at 5. Braking downhill into Turn 6, drivers then approach a faster section.
They head for the most intense complex, approaching Turn 7 with quite a late apex and keeping some throttle down during the turn before getting fully back on the power and swinging right into 8. A short straight is followed by Turns 9 and 10, where it is easy to lock the fronts on the entry, two slower left-handers following in quick succession, which lead onto a significant straight.
Heading into Turn 11, a left-hander, drivers soon need to be getting it into 12, a long, long right-hander which takes them through to Turn 13 too, a continuation of this. After the longest straight on the circuit (1.17km), they jump on the brakes between the 150 and 100 metre boards and go through the tight and then more open rights at Turns 14 and 15. The final corner is a quick left-hander which favours those prepared to risk it and carry a lot of speed in the curve. Braking a bit early here can be an advantage as the corner is short and quick and hurls the drivers back onto the start-finish straight.
Other information
Circuit length: 5.451km
Number of laps: 56
Race distance: 305.066km
Race lap record: 1:32.238 (Michael Schumacher - Ferrari - 2004)
Dry weather tyre compounds: C2, C3 & C4
First Chinese Grand Prix: 2004
First Chinese Grand Prix at this circuit: 2004
First Chinese Grand Prix on this configuration: 2004
Join in the fun with the Predictions Contest and Fantasy F1:
https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=160072
https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=160035