Like Bahrain, the Chinese Grand Prix made its first foray into Formula 1 in 2004. At a time of expansion of the sport, moving away from its concentration on the traditional homeland of Europe, it at least seemed that of all the potential new countries in which to stage a race, the world's most populous country was an obvious one.
The arrival of the world championship in China was due to come some years earlier. Zhuhai, located in Guangdong Province in the south of the country, was built for F1 and on the provisional calendar for 1999, but fell foul of the FIA's stringent standards. It was arguably a tough call for motorsport to make a dent in the public consciousness in the country, but choosing Shanghai as a location, the city with the highest number of people in the country with the highest number in the world, was a wise option.
The Shanghai International Circuit, one of Hermann Tilke's creations, has a layout based on the Chinese symbol 'Shang' - 上 - the first character in the name of the city itself, which means 'above', 'ascend' or 'high'. In a further nod to Chinese symbolism, standing aside the main grandstand are the two traditional Chinese lions often found in front of Chinese buildings, guarding the guests, while water, a major factor in the decorating concept of feng shui is found in the lake which encircles the team buildings. It would be fairer to call these team pavilions, as they were crafted to resemble Shanghai's ancient Yuyan Garden.
It would be reasonable to say that many of Herr Tilke's tracks are not universally acclaimed as masterpieces of circuit design when they are first showcased, other features such as the facilities and the aforementioned symbolism being seen as more noteworthy than the flow of the circuit. Perhaps, though, with time we can at least appreciate them for what they are and see more individualism. Shanghai 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.
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. 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, 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, as they hit the DRS Detection Zone 1 and go through this 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) and DRS, 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. Drivers pick up the second DRS Detection before the final corner, which 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.
Let's look back at the previous Chinese Grands Prix. The inaugural race was won by Rubens Barrichello in his Ferrari, while his world champion team-mate Michael Schumacher had a scrappy race, starting from the pitlane 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 nearly-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 pitlane after a collision with Minardi's Christijan Albers on the way to the grid. Schumacher subsequently spun out of the race. Speaking of Minardi, this was the final race for the Faenza-based team before its acquisition by Red Bull, who converted it into Toro Rosso and for Jordan who morphed into Midland the next year. It was also the last time we saw a win for a car with a six-speed gearbox (many teams were already running seven-speed gearboxes that season, including Ferrari).
In 2006, Michael Schumacher kept himself in frame for the title (one he was not to go on to pull off) by winning here and taking what turned out to be his 91st and last one before his first retirement from the sport. 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 bore witness to a dramatic denouement 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 down the canvas. They arguably focused too much on the implications of the race on his battle with team-mate Fernando Alonso and didn't see enough of the threat coming from Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen taking the Chinese victory for the Scuderia, while Lewis's race ended frustratingly in a gravel trap that happened to be situated on the pitlane entry. Ron Dennis made what were to become notorious remarks that “we weren't racing Kimi; we were racing Alonso”. The event was close to the conclusion of the world championship and was one of few big mistakes that season that would prevent Hamilton from managing to achieve an astonishing championship victory in his maiden season.
In 2008, Lewis made amends with victory over Massa setting himself up for the championship win he was to take by a whisker in the next and final race in Brazil, which so nearly slipped through his fingers again.
Shanghai switched to the early part of the season in 2009 and Jenson Button and Brawn's dominance in the seven races was only broken by Red Bull's first ever win, which came in the Chinese Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel led Mark Webber home in a 1-2 and Button took the final spot on the podium in a wet race.
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, Jenson was leading the championship again.
The next year, Lewis 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 stops. Lewis's team-mate Jenson Button lost time when he stopped at the Red Bull pit on Lap 15.
Nico Rosberg had often gone well in China and in 2012 he 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. In a race with heavy degradation, Fernando Alonso took victory with Ferrari the following year.
Despite being the largest country in the world by population, a Chinese driver has never raced in Formula 1, although Ma Qinghua participated in Free Practice for Caterham and also did some FP sessions the previous year with HRT.
2014 saw Lewis Hamilton top the podium and lead home a Mercedes home, with the chequered flag erroneously being waved a lap early at the end of Lap 55. Due to the way the rules work, this saw the race result declared as things stood at the end of Lap 54.
Last year, Lewis Hamilton was the first driver to get back-to-back Chinese Grands Prix victories as he again showed Rosberg the way home. This win now meant that Lewis enjoyed a 17-point advantage in the drivers' championship.
One year late and the tables have turned, as it is Nico who has a 17-point lead over Hamilton, this time after only two rounds. Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, is 35 points back already.
Ferrari say they have got to the bottom of the engine failure in Bahrain, a software failure causing a problem at low revs and so they expect that this is not a fundamental problem that will continue into their updated version, which will appear in Spain. After Kimi Raikkonen's turbo failure in Australia, the team is fifty points behind Mercedes. The update on the turbo will solve a vibration problem which has been causing overheating and restricting how the team run the engine. Some quarters expect that Ferrari and Mercedes's power output will be very close once the update comes. This is, at least, the longest season in F1's history, at a sprawling calendar of 21 Grands Prix, so there is arguably plenty of time for Lewis Hamilton to catch up with Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel to catch up with both of them.
After Stoffel Vandoorne's battling and steady debut in Bahrain netted McLaren-Honda's first point of the year, Fernando Alonso is confident of returning to the cockpit. However, it won't be confirmed one way or the other until a scan on Thursday.
One team that had an really good race in Bahrain with one of its drivers in particular was Manor. The plucky racers have solid motorsport pedigree but have struggled since their arrival in Formula 1, crushed by the big budget teams and a lack of development which has kept them in a kind of second tier – until now. It is looking as though they are starting to race other teams on merit and Pascal Werhlein is looking like a real find.
One team they battled with in Bahrain was Sauber. The Swiss team is facing other battles too; salaries were not paid on time in February and March and Marcus Ericsson's sponsors had to step in. However, it is expected to have no problems to compete in China. The team's tyre selection looks interesting when compared with other teams, choosing more sets of the medium tyres than any other team. Both drivers will have 5 sets of mediums over the weekend, with 4 of softs and 4 of supersofts.
This is radically different from Haas, the 'feel-good story' of 2016 so far. Again, Haas look to be going aggressive with tyre selection, particularly with Romain Grosjean, who has taken just 1 set of mediums for the weekend, 5 of softs and 7 of supersofts. Similarly, Williams, who had a bad race in Bahrain, killing Felipe Massa's chances of a good result by running 2 long stints on the mediums, have this time chosen 1 set of mediums for the Brazilian, 5 of softs and 7 of supersofts. Bottas has a similar selection.
Both Ferrari drivers have 6 sets of supersofts and both Mercedes 1 set fewer, although Lewis Hamilton has gone for 1 more set of mediums than Nico Rosberg and Nico 1 more set of softs than Lewis.
The widely unpopular qualifying system in place for the first two rounds of the season has been ditched and Formula 1 is reverting to the 2015 system from China. Following a unanimous request by the teams to the FIA, Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone submitted the proposal to the F1 Commission and the World Motor Sports Council to go back to the previous style of qualifying.
To join in our predictions contest on Ten-Tenths, go here:
http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...14#post3631814
We need more entrants to join in the fun, so come and have a go.
Our Fantasy F1 contest is here:
http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146625
Constructors’ championship standings:
http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...standings.html
Drivers’ championship standings:
http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...standings.html
Chinese Grand Prix tyre selections:
http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...for-china.html
Circuit length: 5.451km
Number of laps: 56
Race distance: 305.066km
First World Championship*Grand*Prix: 2004
Dry weather tyre compounds: Medium, Soft and Supersoft
DRS Detection Zone 1: Between Turns 9 and 10
DRS Activation Zone 1: On straight between Turns 10 and 11
DRS Detection Zone 2: At end of straight just before Turn 14
DRS Activation Zone 2: On start-finish straight
Speed trap: At end of start-finish straight
Lap Record: 1:32.238 – Michael Schumacher – Ferrari (2004)
