All Info You Want to See Before the 2024 Chinese F1 GP Starts

The fifth Grand Prix of the 2024 Formula 1 season is here. The Chinese Grand Prix returns to the F1 calendar for the first time since 2019 and it will do so on a Sprint weekend, the first of the 2024 Formula 1 campaign.

First 2024 GP with New Sprint Format

There's been yet another adjustment to the Sprint format, the Sprint events will be out of the way before the main Qualifying and the Grand Prix. We will see one Free Practice on Friday, followed by the Sprint Qualifying. Early on Saturday, we will have the Sprint race followed by the main Qualifying session, which will set the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix.

Even with all the tweaks, the weekend could still be a predictable one, with Red Bull returning to dominant ways in the previous race in Japan. Max Verstappen won the race for his third victory in four events this year, with Sergio Pérez following comfortably in second place for Red Bull's third 1-2 of the season and the ninth in the last two campaigns.

Ferrari finished third and fourth in Japan, with Carlos Sainz earning yet another podium finish ahead of Charles Leclerc, who perfectly executed his strategy.

At the moment, Verstappen leads the World Drivers' Championship with 77 points, followed by his teammate Pérez with 64 points. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc is third in the WDC standings with 59, followed by his teammate Carlos Sainz, who has scored 55 points in three races (has finished on the podium each time).

Among teams, Red Bull leads the World Constructors' Championship with 141 points. Ferrari is 20 points behind already, while McLaren (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri) has scored 69 points to sit in third place. The Top 3 in the WCC is clearly ahead of the rest, with Mercedes (George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton) scoring only 34 points so far, less than half of McLaren's tally.

Aston Martin (Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll) has 33 points, only one shy of Mercedes' tally. The bottom half includes only two teams that have scored points, with RB (Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo) and Haas (Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen) scoring seven and four points, respectively.

Williams (Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant), Kick Sauber (Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu), and Alpine (Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly) haven't scored points yet.

2024 Chinese GP Facts & Figures

The 2024 Chinese Grand Prix is next in the Formula 1 calendar and the event will be the 17th Chinese round as part of the F1 World Championship.

The first World Championship Chinese Grand Prix was celebrated in 2004 and has been celebrated at the same venue each time.

In its first years in the calendar (until 2008), the Chinese Grand Prix was often the final race or was positioned near the end of the campaign. Although a Drivers' title was never decided in China, the event gave us some impactful moments in championship fights before. Rubens Barrichello won the first Chinese Grand Prix in 2004, followed by Fernando Alonso winning in 2005 and giving Renault the World Constructors' Championship.

In 2006, Michael Schumacher won his 91st and final F1 race in China, and the win was important in his quest for an eighth title, but his chances eventually faded.

Lewis Hamilton had a chance to close out the championship in his rookie season in 2007. However, delayed pitstop from intermediate tyres to slick ones ended his chances when his car, equipped with worn tyres (the canvas was visible), was beached in the pit-lane entry. Hamilton's and McLaren's "mistake" proved costly that year, with Hamiton losing the title to Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), the 2007 winner.

Hamilton won in 2008 and entered the final race of the season with strong chances of winning his maiden title, which he won dramatically in Brazil. Sebastian Vettel gave Red Bull its first win and Pole Position in 2009, followed by his teammate Mark Webber for a 1-2.

McLaren won in 2010 and 2011, with Jenson Button and Hamilton, respectively. Nico Rosberg took his maiden win in the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, also giving Mercedes' factory team its first win since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. Mercedes had returned to F1 as a team in 2010 and went on to dominate the series from 2014 to 2020.

Alonso won for Ferrari in 2013, while Hamilton achieved his first Pole Position for Mercedes that same weekend. Hamilton went on to win for Mercedes in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019 (in F1's 1000th Grand Prix). Rosberg won again in 2016 for Mercedes, while Daniel Ricciardo took a tremendous win in 2018 for Red Bull with great overtakes.

The most successful driver in the Chinese Grand Prix is Lewis Hamilton with six wins (two with McLaren and four with Mercedes). Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo are the other active drivers with wins in China. The Spaniard and Nico Rosberg are the only other drivers with more than one win in the event, apart from Hamilton.

Among teams, Mercedes leads with six wins, ahead of Ferrari's four. McLaren has three wins in Shanghai, while Red Bull has a couple.

Shanghai International Circuit

The Shanghai International Circuit includes probably the prettiest Turn 1-Turn 2-Turn 3 section at any start of a Formula 1 event, with the long corners looking beautiful when packed with the F1 grid of cars.

The circuit, which was opened on 6 June 2004, is 5.451 km long and was designed by Hermann Tilke. The Grand Prix Circuit has 16 corners and has hosted every F1 Chinese Grand Prix from 2004 to 2019. The circuit wasn't in the Formula 1 calendar from 2020 to 2023.

There will be 56 laps (305.066 km race distance) and two DRS zones in the race. Between Turns 13 and 14, there is a 1.2 km straight which includes the longest DRS zone of the track.

The current records around the layout are the following:

Outright record: 1:31.095 min by Sebastian Vettel in 2018, driving the Ferrari SF71H at an average speed of 215,419 km/h.

Fastest Lap during a race: 1:32.238 min by Michael Schumacher in 2004, driving the Ferrari F2004 at an average speed of 211,750 km/h.

2024 Chinese Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix will be the C2 as P Zero White hard, C3 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C4 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli's views for the weekend were explained in a press release: "The Chinese Grand Prix is back on the calendar after a five year break. 2019 was the last year Formula 1 raced in Shanghai, on that occasion hosting celebrations to mark the 1000th event in the history of motorsport’s most prestigious world championship.

The long break was down to the slow return to normality following on from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and China is now back on the calendar, having made its first appearance a few months short of twenty years ago. The first edition of this Grand Prix was held in September 2004.

All 16 editions have been run on the Shanghai International Circuit, designed by Hermann Tilke, its outline loosely based on the Chinese “shang” character, meaning “up above.” The 5.451 kilometre-long track boasts 16 corners, many of them very slow, for example the section through turns 1 to 3 and 6 to 14, while others are high speed such as the esses through turns 7 and 8.

There are two long straights, both used as a DRS zone, with one on the start-finish straight and the other on the over a kilometre long back straight, from turn 13, which is slightly banked into turn 14.

Based on simulations and past data, the tyres are subjected to lateral and longitudinal forces here that fall into the medium category, with the outside of the tyre, especially on the left hand side of the car, wearing the most. The trio of tyres chosen back in the winter for Shanghai is in the midrange, with the C2 as Hard, the C3 as Medium and the C4 as Soft. Nominally, that’s the same selection as in 2019 but the scenario is very different.

Five years ago, the 13 inch tyres were still in use, fitted to the previous generation of car, which had a flat floor and completely different aerodynamics to the current car. In fact, for the drivers, the teams and indeed for Pirelli, it’s pretty much a matter of starting from scratch, given that the references are very vague.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that the Chinese Grand Prix is the first of six events this season running to the Sprint format, which itself has been slightly modified for this year in terms of the running order of the sessions.

Free practice and Sprint qualifying are on Friday, the Sprint race and qualifying on Saturday, with the Grand Prix, as always, on the Sunday. Parc ferme has also been changed, so that it is now split into two parts: one which covers qualifying and the Sprint race and the other that starts before Saturday afternoon’s qualifying.

That means there is only one hour of free practice on Friday to find the right set-up for the cars and, above all, to evaluate the tyres over a long run on a track that will inevitably be in far from optimal condition. It is likely that, in terms of grip, evolution of the track that has not changed since 2019 and has only been used very infrequently since then, will be very significant, as bit by bit the cars rubber-in the surface.

This means that work in the simulator takes on even greater importance for the drivers and engineers, both in the run up to the event and during it.

The Sprint format also means a different dry tyre allocation, dropping from 13 sets to 12 (two Hard, four Medium and six Soft) while the number of wet weather sets remains the same (five Intermediate and two Extreme Wet).

April in Shanghai can see a marked change in temperatures with variations of around 10 °C, which adds another variable to the puzzle that the teams and drivers must piece together. Usually, the Chinese Grand Prix is a two-stop race, partly because there are several places where overtaking is possible, such as braking into turn 14 and then on the main straight and braking into turn 6. Just as it was in Suzuka, the undercut is usually very effective in Shanghai."

The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 25.0 PSI (front) and 23.0 PSI (rear).

2024 Chinese Grand Prix - Weather Forecast

Friday, Apr 19th - FP & Sprint Qualifying
Conditions: Cloudy
Max. temperature: 20°C
Chance of rain: 14%

Saturday, Apr 20th - Sprint Race & Main Qualifying
Conditions: Cloudy
Max. temperature: 24°C
Chance of rain: 16%

Sunday, Apr 21st - Main Race
Conditions: Mostly cloudy
Max. temperature: 18°C
Chance of rain: 23%

Who will be on the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix Podium?

2019 Chinese F1 GP podium: 1. Hamilton, 2. Bottas & 3. Vettel

Red Bull and Ferrari seem to be separated between them and also separated from the rest. It is quite likely that Max Verstappen will take his first win in China this weekend, while Ferrari drivers should be fighting between themselves for a podium spot.

Red Bull's most recent victory in China came in 2018, while Verstappen finished fourth in the most recent Chinese Grand Prix, back in 2019.

The Dutchman finished third in the Chinese Grand Prix in 2017 and is the clear favorite to win the upcoming race. McLaren could be fighting a bit with Ferrari for a podium place, but the Maranello-based team seems comfortable as the second force on the track.

The prediction for the top three of the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Sergio Pérez, 3. Charles Leclerc.

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