The Chinese Grand Prix is currently held at the Shanghai International Circuit, designed by Hermann Tilke. The track features one of the trickiest corners combinations on the Formula One calendar, comparable to that of Istanbul Park’s turn 8, also designed by Tilke. Turn 1 and 2 are a very demanding 270 degree, right-handed corner combination that requires a lot of speed whilst entering and it tightens up towards the end.
Chinese Grand Prix, Third round of the 2016 Formula 1 season
Circuit Name: Shanghai International Circuit (Permanent Circuit)
Race Laps: 56
Circuit Length: 5.451 km (3.387 mi)
Race Length: 305.066 km (189.559 mi)
Number of corners: 16 (9 Right, 7 Left)
DRS Zone: Two Zones (Zone 1 Start/Finish Line Between Turn 16 and 1, zone 2 Between turn 13 and 14)
Circuit Direction: Clockwise
Pole Position 2015: Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes 1:35.782
Track Record: Michael Scumacher – Ferrari 2004 (Pole): 1”35.782.
Chinese Grand Prix – Shanghai International Circuit
Pirelli used compounds
Pirelli will bring the following three compounds to the third round of the 2016 Formula One season in China, to be held (15-17 April) at The Shanghai Circuit
P Zero White medium: a low working range compound that is one of the most versatile in the range.
P Zero Yellow soft: a high working range compound with the accent on performance.
P Zero Red super soft: a low working range compound that is rapid but with a limited overall life.
The tires that Pirelli has said must be used at some point in the race:
One set of P Zero White medium
One set of P Zero Yellow soft
Each driver must have both these sets available for the race, and must use at least one of them.
The tires assigned for Q3 in qualifying:
One set of P Zero Red super soft.
Following the regulations, each driver must save for Q3 one set of the softest of the three nominated compounds. This set will be given back to Pirelli after Q3 for those who qualify in the top 10, but the remaining drivers will keep it for the race.
The teams are free to choose the remaining sets; making up 13 sets in total for the weekend.
The new 2016 tire regulations mean that tire nomination for long-haul events have to be made 14 weeks in advance, whereas for European races the deadline is eight weeks in advance.
THE CIRCUIT FROM A TYRE POINT OF VIEW:
Weather conditions are nearly always unpredictable, which have a big effect on tire behavior.
As a result, graining is sometimes an issue when it’s cool: especially in the early sessions.
Around 80% of the lap is spent cornering, meaning that lateral loads are a crucial factor.
The track is front limited, because of all the turns and high-energy corners.
The crucial corners are Turn 1, which is almost a full circle, and Turn 13, which is banked.
Drivers also have to avoid wheelspin out of the corners, in order to minimise rear degradation.
HOW IT WAS A YEAR AGO:
Winner: Hamilton (two stops: started on soft, changed to soft on lap 14, medium on lap 33).
Best-placed alternative strategy: Massa, fifth (also stopping twice, but starting on soft, changing to medium on lap 13, then medium again on lap 34).
Most drivers stopped twice, but a few drivers also tried a three-stopper. The race strategy was affected by a late safety car, which extended tyre life.
PAUL HEMBERY, PIRELLI MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR:
“China is a very different type of circuit to the two that we’ve visited up to now this year, yet the tyre nomination is the same, which underlines the adaptability of our product under a wide range of circumstances. Shanghai is also likely to be quite a cool race, although the nature of the place means that anything is possible, so teams will have to keep an open mind on strategy and carefully correlate the data captured in practice to the eventual race conditions. The three compounds Pirelli tire selected have led to a number of different tactical permutations up to now, and we expect an ample variety of strategies once more in China.”
Drivers / Teams compound choices
|
Team |
Car # |
Driver |
Medium |
Soft |
Super Soft |
|
Mercedes AMG |
44 |
Lewis Hamilton |
4 |
4 |
5 |
|
6 |
Nico Rosberg |
3 |
5 |
5 |
|
|
Scuderia Ferrari |
5 |
Sebastian Vettel |
3 |
4 |
6 |
|
7 |
Kimi Raikkonen |
3 |
4 |
6 |
|
|
Williams-Mercedes |
19 |
Felipe Massa |
1 |
5 |
7 |
|
77 |
Valtteri Bottas |
2 |
4 |
7 |
|
|
Red Bull Racing |
3 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
2 |
5 |
6 |
|
26 |
Daniil Kvyat |
2 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
Force India-Mercedes |
11 |
Sergio Perez |
2 |
5 |
6 |
|
27 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
2 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
Renault |
20 |
Kevin Magnussen |
2 |
5 |
6 |
|
30 |
Jolyon Palmer |
3 |
4 |
6 |
|
|
Toro Rosso-Ferrari |
33 |
Max Verstappen |
3 |
5 |
5 |
|
55 |
Carlos Sainz Jr. |
2 |
6 |
5 |
|
|
Sauber-Ferrari |
9 |
Marcus Ericsson |
5 |
4 |
4 |
|
12 |
Felipe Nasr |
5 |
4 |
4 |
|
|
McLaren-Honda |
14 |
Fernando Alonso |
2 |
4 |
7 |
|
22 |
Jenson Button |
2 |
4 |
7 |
|
|
Manor-Mercedes |
88 |
Rio Haryanto |
4 |
5 |
4 |
|
94 |
Pascal Wehrlein |
4 |
5 |
4 |
|
|
Haas-Ferrari |
8 |
Romain Grosjean |
1 |
5 |
7 |
|
21 |
Esteban Gutierrez |
2 |
4 |
7 |
Australian Grand Prix Winners (By year)
|
Year |
Driver |
Constructor |
|
2015 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
|
2014 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
|
2013 |
Fernando Alonso |
Ferrari |
|
2012 |
Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes |
|
2011 |
Lewis Hamilton |
McLaren-Mercedes |
|
2010 |
Jenson Button |
McLaren-Mercedes |
|
2009 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Red Bull-Renault |
|
2008 |
Lewis Hamilton |
McLaren-Mercedes |
|
2007 |
Kimi Räikkönen |
Ferrari |
|
2006 |
Michael Schumacher |
Ferrari |
|
2005 |
Fernando Alonso |
Renault |
|
2004 |
Rubens Barrichello |
Ferrari |
Multiple Winners (Drivers)
|
# Wins |
Driver |
Years Won |
|
4 |
Lewis Hamilton |
2008, 2011, 2014, 2015 |
|
2 |
Fernando Alonso |
2005, 2013 |
Multiple Winners (Constructors)
|
# Wins |
Constructor |
Years Won |
|
4 |
Ferrari |
2004, 2006, 2007, 2013 |
|
3 |
McLaren |
2008, 2010, 2011 |
|
Mercedes |
2012, 2014, 2015 |
Numbers and Facts
Most wins (driver): 4 – Lewis Hamilton 2008 – 2011 – 2014 – 2015.
Most wins (constructor): 4 – Ferrari 2004 – 2006 – 2007 – 2013.
Wins from pole position: 7 – 2004 – 2005 – 2008 – 2009 – 2012 – 2014 – 2015.
Lowest grid for past winner: 6 – Michael Schumacher – 2006.
Most recent 1-2 finish: 2015 – Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton – Nico Rosberg.
Most emphatic win (here): 20.626 Seconds – 2012 – Nico Rosberg-Jenson Button.
Closest winning margin: 0.714 Second – 2015 – Lewis Hamilton-Nico Rosberg.
Rain-affected races: 4 – 2006 – 2007 – 2009 – 2010.
Safety Car-affected races: 4 – 2005 – 2009 – 2010 – 2015.
Red Flag (and result declared) races: 0.
Fastest race: 2004 – 56 laps @ 1hr 29m 12.420s.
Slowest race (here): 2009 – 56 laps @ 1hr 57m 43.485s.
Most pole positions (driver): 5 – Lewis Hamilton 2007 – 2008 – 2013 – 2014 – 2015.
Most pole positions (constructor): 3 – Red Bull 2009 – 2010 – 2011 and Mercedes 2012 – 2014 – 2015.
What Happened last race here?
Lewis Hamilton was the defending race winner and went into the weekend with a three-point lead in the world championship over Sebastian Vettel, who had surprised the field by taking victory in the previous round at Malaysia. Hamilton took pole position during Saturday’s qualifying, the 41st of his career and the third in a row. He went on to win the race from his team mate Nico Rosberg, and Vettel in 3rd place.
2015 Race Classification
|
Pos. |
Driver |
Constructor |
Time/Retired |
Grid |
|
1 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
1:39:42.008 |
1 |
|
2 |
Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes |
+0.714 |
2 |
|
3 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari |
+2.988 |
3 |
|
4 |
Kimi Räikkönen |
Ferrari |
+3.835 |
6 |
|
5 |
Felipe Massa |
Williams-Mercedes |
+8.544 |
4 |
|
6 |
Valtteri Bottas |
Williams-Mercedes |
+9.885 |
5 |
|
7 |
Romain Grosjean |
Lotus-Mercedes |
+19.008 |
8 |
|
8 |
Felipe Nasr |
Sauber-Ferrari |
+22.625 |
9 |
|
9 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull Racing-Renault |
+32.117 |
7 |
|
10 |
Marcus Ericsson |
Sauber-Ferrari |
+1 Lap |
10 |
|
11 |
Sergio Pérez |
Force India-Mercedes |
+1 Lap |
15 |
|
12 |
Fernando Alonso |
McLaren-Honda |
+1 Lap |
18 |
|
13 |
Carlos Sainz, Jr. |
Toro Rosso-Renault |
+1 Lap |
14 |
|
14 |
Jenson Button |
McLaren-Honda |
+1 Lap |
17 |
|
15 |
Will Stevens |
Marussia-Ferrari |
+2 Laps |
19 |
|
16 |
Roberto Merhi |
Marussia-Ferrari |
+2 Laps |
20 |
|
17 |
Max Verstappen |
Toro Rosso-Renault |
Drivetrain |
13 |
|
Ret |
Pastor Maldonado |
Lotus-Mercedes |
Brakes |
11 |
|
Ret |
Daniil Kvyat |
Red Bull Racing-Renault |
Engine |
12 |
|
Ret |
Nico Hülkenberg |
Force India-Mercedes |
Gearbox |
16 |
Did you know?
DRIVERS
✪ Lewis Hamilton will be looking for his 44th F1 career win aboard of course car ♯44.
✪ Hamilton has set 33 of his 51 pole positions to date on Pirelli tyres. It is 2 more than any other driver in the history of F1 (Vettel next-best 31)
✪ Hamilton is now just 17 pole positions from equalling Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68 F1 GP pole positions. Since he has
been at Mercedes he has taken pole 25 times already. That is over 40% of all races he’s started for the team (25/ 59 = 42.4%)
✪ Hamilton has won (43) 25.4% of all GP he’s started (169) and is in the top 10 drivers races to win ratio of all-time. This is how he compares:-
- Fangio 47.0%, 2. Ascari 40.6%, 3. Clark 34.7%, 4. M.Schumacher 29.7%, 5. Ja.Stewart 27.2% 6. Vettel 26.4% (42/ 159), 7.Prost 25.6%
- Senna 25.5%, 9. Hamilton 25.4%, 10. Moss 24.2%
✪ Hamilton has led just 1 race lap so far in 2016. Last year he led 587 of 1,149 race laps (51%). After 2 GP in 2015 he’d led 66 laps (58%)
✪ If Hamilton leads in China he will then have led 87 F1 GP, 1 more than his idol Ayrton Senna. Only Michael Schumacher has led more (116)
✪ Nico Rosberg has won the past 5 GP. It represents his best run ever in his whole motor racing career to date
✪ A 5th win in a row for Rosberg in Bahrain beat the best runs of current drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button and also that of past
aces, Jochen Rindt, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Damon Hill. The best ever run of wins by a driver is 9 by Sebastian Vettel (BEL – BRA 2013)
✪ Rosberg’s has now won 16 GP. Nobody has won more GP and not won the driver’s title at some point in their F1 career
✪ A 5th F1 GP win in a row for Rosberg equalled the best runs of Jack Brabham, Jim Clark and Nigel Mansell AND the best to date of Hamilton
✪ Rosberg in China will beat Nigel Mansell’s F1 career total of 187 GP starts
✪ Sebastian Vettel in China should equal Johnny Herbert’s F1 career total of 160 GP starts
✪ Vettel in China can beat Ayrton Senna’s 80 F1 GP podiums. His teammate Kimi Raikkonen managed to do so in Bahrain
✪ Romain Grosjean will celebrate his 30th birthday on Sunday, raceday, 17th April
T CONSTRUCTORS’
✪ Mercedes aiming for an 9th pole in a row. The 8th they took in Bahrain represents their second-best run in F1 date. Mercedes’ best-ever run
of pole positions in F1 is 23 (Great Britain 2014 to Italy 2015 inclusive), beaten only by Williams’s run of 24 poles in 1992 – 93
✪ Mercedes won its 47th F1 World Championship race victory in Bahrain. To date Mercedes has won just over one-third of all the F1 GP it has
has competed in (47 wins/ 129 races = 36.4%).
✪ Mercedes is now just 3 wins behind Red Bull’s F1 career total of 50
✪ A win on Sunday would be Mercedes’s 9th win in a row and would represent their best-ever run to date (best to date, 8 equalled in Bahrain)
✪ Mercedes’s next podium will be their 100th in the F1 World Championship while Ferrari need 2 more to reach 700 F1 podiums. What price I
wonder on a Mercedes-Ferrari-Ferrari podium on Sunday?
✪ Mercedes has now finished in points for the last 60 GP in a row. It is the 3rd-best run of all-time. The most is 81 by Ferrari then McLaren 64
✪ Mercedes engines will celebrate 400 F1 World Championship GP on Sunday. To date the manufacturer has won 133 GP (33.3%) and taken
pole position 138 times (34.6%).
In terms of winning percentage this is how Mercedes currently ranks (Percentage [%] of wins /number of wins/ number of GP started/):-
1ST Climax 41.2/ 40 / 97, 2ND TAG-Porsche 36.8/ 25/ 68, 3RD Ford 33.7/ 176/ 523, 4TH Mercedes 33.3/ 133/ 399, 5TH Vanwall 32.1/ 9/ 28,
6TH Renault 30.1/ 168/ 559, 7TH Ferrari 24.7/ 225/ 912, 8TH Repco 24.2/ 8/ 33, 9TH Honda 19.9/ 72/ 361, 10TH Maserati 10.3/ 11/ 107
✪ Ferrari is now just 2 podiums short of their 700th F1 GP race podium (currently 698 – most recent, Kimi Raikkonen, 2nd in Bahrain 2016)
CHINESE GRAND PRIX
✪ Hamilton chasing his third Chinese GP win (from pole position too) in a row. He would become, if he wins the first driver to date to secure a
hat-trick of wins and it would also be his 5th win here (he already holds the record for the most Chinese GP wins (4)
World Drivers’ Championship standings
|
Pos. |
Driver |
Points |
|
1 |
Nico Rosberg |
50 |
|
2 |
Lewis Hamilton |
33 |
|
3 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
24 |
|
4 |
Kimi Räikkönen |
18 |
|
5 |
Sebastian Vettel |
18 |
|
6 |
Romain Grosjean |
18 |
|
7 |
Felipe Massa |
14 |
|
8 |
Max Verstappen |
9 |
|
9 |
Nico Hülkenberg |
6 |
|
10 |
Valtteri Bottas |
6 |
|
11 |
Daniil Kvyat |
6 |
|
12 |
Carlos Sainz, Jr. |
2 |
|
13 |
stoffel Vandoorn |
1 |
|
Jolyon Palmer |
||
|
Kevin Magnussen |
||
|
Sergio Pérez |
||
|
Jenson Button |
||
|
Felipe Nasr |
||
|
Pascal Wehrlein |
||
|
Marcus Ericsson |
||
|
Rio Haryanto |
||
|
Esteban Gutiérrez |
||
|
Fernando Alonso |
World Constructors’ Championship standings
|
Pos. |
Constructor |
Points |
|
1 |
Mercedes |
83 |
|
2 |
Ferrari |
33 |
|
4 |
Red Bull-TAG Heuer |
30 |
|
3 |
Williams-Mercedes |
20 |
|
5 |
Haas-Ferrari |
18 |
|
6 |
Toro Rosso-Ferrari |
11 |
|
7 |
Force India-Mercedes |
6 |
|
8 |
McLaren-Honda |
1 |
|
9 |
Renault |
0 |
|
10 |
Sauber-Ferrari |
0 |
|
11 |
MRT-Mercedes |
0 |
Drivers’ penalty points:
|
Driver |
Penalty points |
|
Max Verstappen |
8 |
|
Marcus Erricson |
4 |
|
Romain Grosjean |
4 |
|
Sebastian Vettel |
3 |
|
Kimi Raikkonen |
3 |
|
Nico Hulkenberg |
2 |
|
Lewis Hamilton |
2 |
|
Valtteri Bottas |
2 |
|
Daniil Kvyat |
2 |
|
Fernando Alonso |
2 |
|
Jenson Button |
2 |
|
Rio Haryanto |
2 |
