The Chinese Grand Prix is going to be a step into the unknown for every team after the circuit’s five-year absence from the calendar.
For several drivers – including home town hero Zhou Guanyu – it’s also their time first racing in Shanghai in an F1 car.
Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, F1 expert and former strategist has been assessing how the teams will cope with the challenges of preparing for such a race.
It’s yet to be seen how the new ground effect cars will cope on a track where the condition of the surface is still completely unknown.
Martin Brundle commented that the weather could also play its part in making the race even more difficult to prepare for.
That’s before you take into account the fact that it’s the first Sprint weekend of the season, meaning teams only have one practice session to acclimatise before Sprint qualifying.
Bernie Collins believes that given how difficult they’ve found this season, Mercedes might be apprehensive heading into the Chinese Grand Prix.
They’ve had issues with their simulator data and frequently got their car set up wrong in 2024.
It’s left George Russell and Lewis Hamilton mainly battling at the bottom end of the top ten each weekend.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Mercedes AMG F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Bernie Collins worried about Mercedes ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix
Despite being in the third season of the most recent regulation changes, Mercedes don’t appear to be any closer to completely understanding this set of rules.
At the end of last season, they went from nailing their set-up in Austin – only for Lewis Hamilton to be disqualified – to look well off the pace in Brazil and struggling to score a point.
That hasn’t changed in 2024 and despite Hamilton saying after practice in Japan that he was happier than ever with the car, they were still nowhere near Ferrari or Red Bull on race day.
The Chinese Grand Prix provides an even tougher challenge for Mercedes in this respect and Collins is concerned with how they’re going to face it.
Mercedes have previously been successful in Shanghai, but that run might come to an end this weekend.
Mercedes have plenty to prove in China
Previewing this weekend’s action, Collins said: “I think that previous to Japan, Mercedes were really unhappy with the car and there was a lot of discussion that their simulation wasn’t working correctly.
“That’s not great if you’re going into a new race or if you’re going into a race with a lot of unknowns.
“If you’re struggling to simulate a race that you’ve been to four times in the last four years, then it’s not great for one you’ve not been to either unless two wrongs somehow make a right and you ace the set-up.
“In Japan, they seemed to be a lot happier from the off with the set-up, so maybe they found something there.
“The other thing is that a lot of circuits recently, they’ve not been that strong in straight line speed.
“If they were struggling to get the power down coming out of a corner, that is really going to hurt you during the entire long straight after that.
“So, I think that Mercedes will be apprehensive, they’ve got one out of three set-ups this year bang on and even then they were probably the fourth-fastest team. That’s not great going into a new one.”
As Collins suggests, there are aspects of the Chinese Grand Prix circuit that Mercedes may struggle with even if they nail the set-up of the car.
Hamilton warned that the team’s problems weren’t over yet after the race in Japan and the longer they take to fix, the further they’re being left behind by their rivals.
He will want to finish his final season with Mercedes on a high before moving to Ferrari, but with each passing race that looks less and less likely.
The post ‘That’s not great’: Bernie Collins believes 125-race team will be ‘apprehensive’ heading to Chinese GP appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
