Excitement ahead of China F1

• Published date: 19 April 2024
• Publication title: Sports Tab

The weekend will host the first sprint of the season, with only one hour of free practice today to fine-tune the cars and do tyre assessments, and the teams have only simulator data to go on

The last time they raced at the Shanghai International Circuit, the cars had 13-inch tyres and a flat floor instead of the current 18-inch Pirelli rubber and ground-effect aerodynamics.

The track has also seen little use since 2019 and could be bumpier than before.

‘‘It’s going to be quite hectic anyway with the Sprint weekend,’’ said Verstappen after winning in Japan for his third victory in four races.

‘‘So, yeah, only one practice session to really get into it again. So I think it will be quite interesting.’’

The 26-year-old has been critical, with others, of a 100km Saturday sprint in China when there are many unknowns.

‘‘It would have been better to have a normal race weekend there. But on the other hand, it probably spices things up a bit more, and that’s maybe what they would like to see,’’ he said.

‘‘We’ll see what we get there. I mean, I always loved driving there. So yeah, hopefully we can hit the ground running as well as we can, and hopefully we don’t need to fine-tune too many things on the car.’’

Verstappen has won three championships since he last raced in China and such is his domination that another victory on Sunday would mean the Dutch driver has won half of all the F1 races held since Shanghai’s last appearance on the calendar.

It would also be his first win in China, which was Lewis Hamilton territory until the Covid-19 pandemic brought down the shutters.

Mercedes’ seven times world champion has won a record six times in...