Formula 1 News: 2025 Chinese GP Preview

This year marks the 21st anniversary since Formula 1 raced in the Chinese GP by planting its flag in the Jiading district of Shanghai, where a purpose-built circuit was constructed for the championship.

China first joined Formula 1’s calendar in September 2004, and remained part of the schedule through 2019, prior to a four-season absence due to the pandemic and associated travel restrictions. China finally, and successfully, returned to the schedule in 2024.

Related Article:  Formula 1 News: Verstappen dominates 2024 Chinese GP

F1 Sprint will again feature at the Chinese GP, its first of six planned events across the course of the 2025 season. As per 2024 Sprint Qualifying on Friday will set the grid for Saturday morning’s Sprint Race, before qualifying for the grand prix takes place as usual on Saturday afternoon. There will consequently be just a single one-hour practice session on Friday.

Fact File: Chinese GP

• The Chinese GP returned to the calendar for the first time since 2019 last year, having first appeared on the F1 calendar in 2004.
• That 2019 race was also F1000, the 1000th race since the inception of the sport in 1950.
• The 5.451km layout features 16 turns (nine right, seven left). The racing lap record from the first race in 2004 still stands today, set by Michael Schumacher.
• The circuit has been fully resurfaced ahead of this year’s event.
• In 2024, the Chinese Grand Prix saw more non-DRS-assisted overtakes (25) than any other race on the calendar, with the hairpin at the end of the long back straight a popular overtaking spot.
• In 2005, the circuit hosted the season finale for the one and only time.
• Having originally taken place towards the end of the F1 calendar, the race moved to a more permanent slot in the early stages of the season from 2009.
• The first seven events were all won by different drivers.
• Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver at the track, triumphing six times to date between 2008 and 2019.
• Shanghai will also host the first F1 Sprint weekend of 2025.
• As the circuit is built on swampland, the risk of earth movement below ground is increased, so steps have been taken to grind down and reseal areas of concern on the track to make it less bumpy.

Sprint Weekend Format Change for Chinese GP

F1 Sprint also returns this weekend. What does the team have to contend with this season with the format?

Sprint weekends present a unique challenge because you have to do a lot of learning in the first practice session before going straight into competitive running.

The Sprint regulations have changed this year, with Sprint Shootout now taking place on Friday after Free Practice One, before the Sprint precedes Qualifying on Saturday. From a parc fermé point of view, this season we’re allowed to alter the car setup after the Sprint and before the Qualifying session on Saturday, whereas last year adjustments couldn’t be made for the rest of the weekend after the Shootout.

This means that between Sprint Shootout and Sprint everyone will lean a lot on their simulation tools to see whether they’ve got their understanding of the track and the tires and the setup right. Then there will be a chance to reset before heading into Qualifying if needed, before parc fermé conditions come into force once more.

Weather Forecast

Pirelli Tires for Chinese GP

The 18^th running of the Chinese GP, the second round of the season, immediately throws up some special challenges, not just for the teams and drivers, but also for Pirelli, starting with a completely resurfaced track and just one hour of free practice to see how much it has changed compared to past years. Last summer, a new surface was laid down on the track and the pit lane at the Shanghai International Circuit. It has only been used a few times towards the end of 2024 and should be smoother than before and, as this is the first event of the year to be held at SIC, it’s logical to expect the track to evolve very quickly.

Furthermore, as was the case in 2024, this will also be the first Sprint format event of the year, with just one free practice session on Friday. That means only 60 minutes to find the right car set-up and evaluate the performance of the various compounds over a long run, even if Saturday’s short race is a great test bed to fully assess at least one of them.

The trio of compounds is the same as last year: C2 as Hard, C3 as Medium and C4 as Soft. The last two were in use in Melbourne last weekend, while the first was run extensively in the three day test in Bahrain at the end of February. However, one must remember that all the compounds are different to those from last year. The C2 in particular is softer and therefore closer to the C3 than in the past.

An important factor to consider this weekend will be the temperatures. It’s the first time that Shanghai hosts the Grand Prix in March when average temperatures rarely exceed 18 °C. Although in fact, the forecast for the weekend is to seem them climb above 20 °C as from Friday, reaching a high of 26 °C on Saturday. While this is therefore considerably warmer than usual at this time, it is actually pretty similar to conditions seen last year for example, when the race was held in the third week of April.

In 2024

There were three interruptions last year – one VSC and two Safety Cars – which significantly influenced the outcome of the race, both in terms of the number of stops and the sequence in which the compounds were used. In the case of the former, three of the drivers who finished in the top ten made just one stop, six pitted twice and one even three time. As for the latter, the majority of drivers opted to line up on the grid on the Medium, with the C3 also completing the most stints (46%). However, when it came to the highest mileage, that went to the C2 (57%). The C4 also played its part, with four drivers choosing it for the start, while Fernando Alonso drove his longest stint on this the softest tire.

The track

The Shanghai track is 5.451 kilometers long and its layout is based on the Chinese character “shang” meaning “upwards” or “above”. The circuit features several slow corners, such as the first three, turn 6 and 14 and high speed corners like the combination from 7 to 8. There are two long straights, the one that crosses the start-finish line and another between turns 13 and 14, which is over a kilometer in length. There are two DRS zone, the first now being 75 meters longer than last year.

Keyword: Sprint weekend

While the standard weekend format features two hour-long free practice sessions on Friday and a further hour on Saturday followed by qualifying, the current Sprint format features just one free practice session to start the track action on Friday, followed by a qualifying session later that day. This decides the grid for a 100 kilometer race, approximately one third distance of the normal race, held on Saturday morning, which is followed by qualifying for Sunday’s actual Grand Prix.

Qualifying for the Sprint is split into three segments that are shorter than those for the Grand Prix 12 minutes for SQ1, ten for SQ2 and eight for SQ3. The number of drivers eliminated at the end of each section is the same as in normal qualifying, five at the end of each of the first two sessions. For the first two parts, all drivers must use only the Medium compound, before switching to the Soft for the final session. As for the short race itself, tire choice is free and there is no need to make a pit stop.

There is also a different slick tire allocation per driver compared to a standard weekend: they each still have two sets of Hard, but now they get an extra set of Medium, going from three to four and two fewer sets of Soft, from eight to six, for a total of 12 instead of the usual 13.

Introduced for the first time at Silverstone in 2021 (https://www.pirelli.com/global/en-ww/race/legacy-of-speed-episode-3-158941/) there have been 18 Sprint races to date and Max Verstappen has been the master of this discipline with 11 wins so far. This will be the second year running that Shanghai has hosted an event run to this format and just for a change, the aforementioned Verstappen was the winner. As for the tires in 2024, 19 runners used a set of Mediums with only Russell gambling on the Soft, which paid off as he made up three places from eleventh on the grid to eighth at the flag.

Statistics corner

This race first appeared on the World Championship calendar in 2004, always at this circuit, held every year since then with the exception of three years from 2020 to 2023. The inaugural event was won by Rubens Barrichello driving a Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton heads the list of winners here with six and he also has paid the most visits to the podium with nine. It’s worth noting that only two of the current field, Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen have been first past the flag in China: the Spaniard did it twice (2005 and 2013) the Dutchman last year. Mercedes heads the teams list on six wins, two more than Ferrari, which as the most podium finishes to its name (13), one more than Mercedes

A new Pirelli trophy

A new trophy will make its debut in China, going to whoever takes pole position in Friday afternoon’s Sprint Qualifying. The trophy features an embossed version of the special logo to mark Pirelli’s season-long celebration of reaching its 500th Grand Prix later this year at the Dutch round of the championship, presented on 18 February during Formula 1’s team presentation event at London’s O2 Arena. Furthermore, at the end of all six of this year’s Sprint Qualifying sessions, the trophy will be personalized with a silver plaque bearing the polesitter’s initials as used to identify the drivers on the timing screens.

As was the case last weekend in Melbourne, the top three finishers in Shanghai will wear a special edition of the Podium Cap, part of a collection designed by Denis Dekovic, taking its inspiration from the traditions and culture of 14 countries hosting 14 rounds of this year’s World Championship. The Shanghai Podium Cap will be predominantly red and is already on sale online on Pirelli’s platform Pirelli (https://store.pirelli.com).

Defending World Champion Max Verstappen’s Take

“It is a great racing track in China and has a unique layout, with trickier corners and the long straights presenting lots of opportunities for overtaking.

We are looking forward to China as it is going to present a challenge ahead of us, especially with it being a Sprint weekend.

“As we have not raced at this track since 2019, and with the one practice session, it will be all about ensuring we have set the car up in the best way we can and managing our tires.

“This added element creates more excitement for the fans, which is good, and the Team has been working hard to prepare. It is a great racing track in China and has a unique layout, with trickier corners and the long straights presenting lots of opportunities for overtaking. I have always loved driving at this circuit so we look forward to seeing what this weekend brings.”