After five long years the Formula One returned to China and Shanghai International Circuit where between 2004 and 2019 16 editions were held. Ten of those races were shared between Mercedes -six- and Ferrari -four, one of them included Fernando Alonso behind the wheel – and it is Lewis Hamilton the most successful driver with six victories included in the last visit of the ‘Circus’ in 2019.
With the reunification of the Shanghai circuit, many difficulties will arise in introducing a change in the standard program of the four previous Grands Prix. They will have just one practice session, Free Practice 1, when the Sprint format is introduced, with qualifying on Friday afternoon (Chinese time, 9:30 am in Spain) and Race on Saturday (5:00 am in Spain).
The results obtained by Scuderia Ferrari in the last four Grands Prix make them the second force in the championship after Red Bull, where they are separated by 21 points in the constructors’ championship. Carlos Sainz was the only driver capable of beating Max Verstappen (in Australia) and had it not been for the untimely appendicitis that forced him to undergo emergency surgery while he was at the Saudi Arabia GP, the Madrid native would have easily finished second in championship, just a few points behind.
Frédéric Vasseur, Scuderia Ferrari team manager, checked in the previous statement that “we are back in Shanghai after a few years off and that will undoubtedly be a very difficult weekend for everyone. We have to face the combination of several reasons because it is the first time that the current generation of cars will race on this circuit, but we will only have one free practice session before fighting for grid positions for the Sprint Another big question is related on the state of the track surface, which may have had more potholes since we were last there,” asked the Frenchman
“As always in this weekend format, factory preparation plays an important role and in our case it will also mean an improvement in the way we achieve the warm-up lap in qualifying, a place if where we haven’t been perfect lately,” Vasseur recalled.
“With Carlos and Charles, our goal is to capture the full potential of the car and achieve a solid result, in addition to putting pressure on our competitors,” he added.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
