This weekend, the Shanghai International Circuit will host round five of the World Championship, bringing Formula 1 back to China after a five-year hiatus. Twenty years ago, the location played host to the first Formula One race. The circuit’s aerial design was inspired by the Chinese character for “shang,” which means “upon.”
The first of six Sprint weekends this year will take place in Shanghai with the resumption of Formula 1 (the second will take place in Miami in two weeks). This year’s schedule has been adjusted; sprint qualifying now occurs on Friday afternoon, the 100-kilometer sprint race is held at noon local time, and traditional grand prix qualifying still happens on Saturday afternoon.
The burden is on the teams and drivers to master their setups in the allotted one-hour practice session on Friday morning, given claims that the Shanghai International Circuit has been resurfaced. One of the main challenges for the engineers is the series of right-handers that occur at the beginning and finish of the lap. These turns put additional strain on the tires, especially the left front tire, which complicates car setup. The paucity of track time will raise the stakes for everyone in the field during what promises to be an exciting weekend.
Max Verstappen is the clear favorite going into this weekend’s event in China, having won three of the first four this year. In Japan, his teammate Sergio Perez came considerably closer to becoming the world champion and will be vying for the top slot.
This weekend, Zhou Guanyu of the Stake F1 Team will make history by being the first Chinese driver to start from the pole at his home race. As a result, we can anticipate a sell-out crowd.
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