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After the action packed Bahrain's GP, Formula One, as has been the case for the past decade, once more visits Shanghai for it's Chinese GP.

The circuit is not amongst the fans' favourite tracks but, in all fairness, often provides somewhat good races, with the regulation being the dominant factor of what influences the overall quality of the event.

On it's inaugural race of 2004, a season in which it's races were characterized by boredom and complaints from worldwide viewers due to the lack of fierce battles and overtakings, it has managed to provide an arguably good race, especially for the season's standards. Overall, the GP featured more of the same seen throughout the season but the following video contains rare moments of excitement, for that period:


Wins from pole position : 5, ie, half the time.
Track abrasiveness : Medium. The track is relatively smooth, but the long corners make it demanding on tyres – particularly the front-left
Fuel consumption : Medium. The flowing nature of the racetrack makes fuel less of a strategic factor than in Bahrain, for example
Brakewear: Medium. There are a couple of big stops, particularly into Turn 14, but the brakes have plenty of time to recover
Turbo effect: Low, due to not much acceleration from low speeds
Grid advantage: The left side of the grid holds a slight advantage
Pitlane time: 21s

The 2014 season has established the expected Mercedes works team dominance and the good performance from the cars using the German propeller. Red Bull have demonstrated, once again, to have designed a very good car with the Renault Power Unit being the major aspect holding it back, whereas Ferrari appears to be in for another year of bad results with even it's Technical Director being replaced, this early already.

The status quo is expected to remain the same, at least until the European part of the season begins, and the Shanghai circuit's layout might flatters the Mercedes-powered cars even more

Tyre options: Mediums and Softs

Detailed weather prediction: http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=f1;sess=

Of interesting note, during winter testings, UK's Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz said to have heard from Nico Rosberg that he predicted a top speed of 230mph (368 kmh) in China. Whether that was a misunderstanding from Kravitz or not, the top speed ever recorded at this track was from Giancarlo Fisichella with 342.4kmh in the FP2 of the 2005 GP.

Considering that due to around 80% of the lap is spent cornering, and therefore the high level of downforce ran by the teams, together with an approximate 5% increase in top speed seen fromm last year, so far, the thread opener's humble prediction is for a top speed of 335,7kmh(from Sergio Perez)


If you are looking for streams, vipbox always has some and you can also find alternative ones on the signature of "coltyre"

One of the best parts of this track is seeing the city growing so fast in the background.

Shanghai is not the kind of track I love, but lately it has produced much much more entertaining races when compared to classics tracks like Spa, Suzuka, Monza. I wish it was another way, but then again: boring race at Suzuka is bearable, but at Tilke track it is abysmal. After a great race like in Bahrain, one couldn't care less about the track or surroundings.
So bring it on!

Once again there is a threat of rain for QLF and race = more disappointments for Williams?

Shanghai baby!!!

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lol nice one, you ruined the thread.

it's going to suck

I'd rather see a dry race until they stops with that bulshit of starting behind safety car and red flagging once a front runner spun off

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So I live an hour away from the track and am undecided if I should go and see FP tomorrow. I would be going by myself, don't speak Chinese and would be driving my car, a recipe for disaster haha. Kinda interested to hear the sounds of the car though in flesh as I have been a strong critic of the agricultural sound.

A track that has a nice mix of aerodynamic dependance in the fast corners and the need of a good final speed in the huge straight. I believe Red Bull can close the gap to Mercedes in this track due to the great aerodynamic performance from the car, anyway, I don't believe it will be enough to beat them. Tyres are usually an issue there and it's another interesting fact to pay attention to. About the weather, rain might spicy things up, but I would like to see the cars behaviour in the dry, if I'm not wrong, after Barcelona, Shanghai is the track that demands more from the aerodynamics, rain could prevent us from watching and analyzing that on the cars.

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Are we going to be able to see anything through the smog?

Mercedes will introduce a new ultra short nose this weekend. It should have been on the car already back in Melbourne, but the new nose didn't pass the FIA crash test. They say they have designed the complete car for this new ultra short nose. Curious what it will look like and if it's that special they say

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Another "dolphin" nose...?

Williams apparently changing the colors of the nose a little bit:

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That looks like a fairly normal F1 car nose! Can anyone explain why that nose is OK within the regulations if all the others are so different?

Well not much difference, but the connection between the nose and front wing plate looks poor. I hope it wont fall off at high speed like it did at testings at Jerez.

That looks like an open mouth, it just need the eyes to be drawn.

So does that tiny little bulge in the middle of the nose cone satisfy the FIA's crash test? If so no wonder they had trouble passing the crash test!

They said they're running three different schemes this year. Looks like China is the place for the second.

That's nice! I wish F1 teams could have more freedom to run special liveries during the season or even different liveries for each car of the team, just like BAR tried back in 1999, which ended by the way in one of my favourite liveries, two different liveries in each side of the car, sadly that car never made it to the points.

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no rain

Mattiaci looks like Gil de Ferran

and that hole on RB's nose cone makes it look less beautiful