Toto Wolff can see four clear reasons why the first Chinese Grand Prix since 2019 will pose an ‘interesting’ challenge for Mercedes as Formula 1 finally returns to Shanghai.
Strict covid regulations in the country have prevented F1 from visiting the Jiading District for the last four seasons. Yet the Chinese GP is back on the calendar in 2024 to give Sauber star Zhou Guanyu his first home race. But a lot has changed since Lewis Hamilton won it in 2019.
Hamilton is the most successful driver at the Chinese GP with six career wins in Shanghai so far. The 39-year-old has also secured four of those victories with Mercedes to help make the Silver Arrows the most successful F1 team at the Chinese GP with six race wins of their own.
Mercedes are the most successful F1 team at the Chinese GP to date
Mercedes have dominated the Chinese GP since Nico Rosberg took his first career win at the 2012 meet. It was also the Brackley natives’ first win since their return to Formula 1 in 2010. Rosberg got another Shanghai win in 2016 and Hamilton won in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2019.
Only in 2013 when Fernando Alonso won for Ferrari plus in 2018 when Daniel Ricciardo won for Red Bull has a constructor beaten Mercedes to win a Chinese GP since 2012. But Wolff is expecting Mercedes to face an ‘interesting’ time as F1 holds the first Chinese GP since 2019.
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Toto Wolff expects an ‘interesting’ Chinese GP weekend for Mercedes
Mercedes team principal Wolff sees four clear reasons why the Chinese GP will challenge his Brackley natives. The gap between this weekend’s race and the 2019 edition has allowed the circuit to make changes to the track, while F1 also races with different technical regulations.
Pirelli will also take different tyres to Shanghai than the manufacturer provided in 2019. But the biggest change since 2019 is the addition of the F1 Sprint to the Chinese GP schedule in 2024. Formula 1 has also changed the weekend format relating to the Sprint for this season.
“We are looking forward to racing in Shanghai for the first time in five years and bringing F1 back to the Chinese fans,” Wolff noted, via the Mirror. “With a sell-out crowd expected, I am sure it will be a fantastic event.
“It will be an interesting weekend on track. With new cars, new tyres and changes to the track surface since we last raced in China, there will be plenty of unknowns. We have the first Sprint weekend of the year, too, and that brings its own challenges.”
How is the F1 Sprint different in 2024 to 2023?
Formula 1 introduced the Sprint to the schedule in 2021 but has tweaked the format, again, in 2024. The Sprint Shootout is now on a Friday after FP1, rather than on Saturday morning. The 100km Sprint is also now on the Saturday morning before qualifying for the Grand Prix.
Changing the order of events also allows the 10 teams to tweak their set-ups following the Sprint ahead of qualifying. The previous weekend format brought Parc Fermé regulations in after FP1. So, the teams were locked to their full weekend set-up after one practice session.
Now, the 10 teams will lock in their Sprint set-ups at the start of the Shootout, before their Grand Prix set-ups at the start of qualifying. The Sprint Shootout format remains unchanged from 2023 with the medium tyre mandated in SQ1 plus SQ2 and the soft mandated for SQ3.
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