It’s time for another race week, and this time around we’re visiting China. It’s been a while since Formula 1 took a trip to the Shanghai International Circuit, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it’s finally back and we’re set for our first Sprint weekend of 2024!
There have been 16 Grands Prix in Shanghai since its debut on the calendar in 2004, and it’s a circuit we love. We’ve had the most success here in terms of wins out of any team on the grid, lifting that first place trophy on six occasions over the years. Lewis has also had six victories here, and Nico Rosberg helped deliver us two wins including our first as a works team in over five decades – more on that later!
The 5.451km circuit consists of 16 turns, has two DRS zones and features one of the longest straights on the calendar as cars fly down the 1.2km stretch to Turn 14. This weekend, the cars will be back on the track for the first time in five years, with the last event being in 2019 and marking a huge milestone for F1 as it was their 1,000th race.
As well as getting to grips with a track that has been absent from our schedules for some time, we also have the extra task of it being a Sprint weekend. This will be the first of six Sprints over the season, with the others being in Miami, Austria, Austin, Brazil and Qatar. The structure of Sprint weekends have also had a change for this year, with several tweaks to get your head around.
Lewis and George will get a one-hour practice session on Friday, before they go into the newly renamed Sprint Qualifying. This was previously on the Saturday but has now been moved to Friday afternoons and will set up the grid for Saturday’s Sprint. Fast forward to Saturday, and the day now starts with the 100km Sprint which gets under way at 11:00 local time. Traditional qualifying will follow as normal and the Chinese Grand Prix will occur on the Sunday, completely unaffected by the scheduling changes.
The reshuffle will allow for a very important change of parc ferme regulations for us, as they previously stopped teams from being able to make important changes to the setup of the cars from the moment traditional qualifying began on the Friday until the end of the weekend on Sunday.