Shanghai Preview

in CIRCUITS F1 2010 by admin — April 10, 2010 at 2:24 pm | 1 comment

And on to Shanghai

The Chinese Grand Prix is not the most popular event on the F1 calendar. Local support for the event has never quite lived up to Bernie Ecclestone’s expectations, and there have long been reports of the government bussing in disinterested spectators to fill the grandstands.

Built on reclaimed marshland in 2004, the Shanghai Circuit was another of Hermann Tilke’s temples to the future of motorsport. At the time, the circuit was the most expensive ever built. But as the years have passed, and the shine has diminished with age, complaints about the Chinese event have been on the increase from fans, although drivers enjoy the challenging corners.

Viewed from the air, the circuit takes the shape of the Chinese character ’shang’, meaning above or ascend. But if the mother nature has her way, the track will sink back in to the marshes from which it was dredged. There were reports in 2009 that the circuit was beginning to subside, albeit slowly.

Assuming the circuit stays standing until the end of the 2010 event, this year’s drivers will be in for another challenging weekend. Shanghai’s characteristics are not dissimilar to Sepang’s, but the key difference between the two racetracks is climate. Where Sepang is one of the hottest races on the calendar, Shanghai is far cooler. Both tracks offer challenging corners and long straights, but Shanghai has the additional challenge of finding heat to put in the harder tyre compound.

In 2009, Jenson Button arrived in Shanghai with two victories under his belt and the seemingly unbeatable BGP001 beneath him. But Sebastian Vettel piloted his Red Bull to pole and victory that weekend, and it was the first time we became aware of Button’s difficulties in heating up the tyres on the Brawn – a problem that would dog him throughout the race for the championship.

The 5.451km clockwise circuit is known to be particularly tough on tyres, a fact which could help shake up the racing this weekend. Turns 1 and 2 are notorious for eating rubber – the load on the steering system needed to navigate the car around the near full-circle is the heaviest on the calendar, and left-front tyres grain in the long right-hander.

Nearly three-quarters of the circuit is run with engines at full throttle, meaning that any engine problems not yet ironed out will be brought to the fore in China. The race will be a true test of Ferrari’s confidence in their engine, which has been widely lambasted for three failures in Malaysia.

One of the biggest challenges at Shanghai is in setting up the car. The circuit demands downforce through the high-speed corners, but reduced drag along the two straights, the longest of which is 1.175km. Sepang requires a similar set-up for its combination of high-speed corners and long straights, but the added difficulty of getting heat into the tyres is what makes China so tough.

Bridgestone’s director of motorsport, Hirohide Hamashima, spoke of the challenges before the 2009 event: “Shanghai International Circuit is severe on tyres. There are very high lateral forces and we expect to see graining on the front left tyres, especially caused by the increasing radius turn two and the banked turn thirteen. We could also see graining on the rear tyres here too. The circuit layout means that a medium downforce set-up will be used, as there are two long straights, but a large percentage of the track is also very twisty and technical. For the teams and drivers, finding the correct set-up to make the best use of their tyres will be a big challenge.”

Unusually for a Tilke-dome, Shanghai does offer opportunities for overtaking. Heikki Kovalainen has pointed to turns 4, 10, and 13 as likely spots to see some manoeuvres, whereas Jenson Button highlights the approach to turn 5 and and the end of the back straight as good overtaking zones.

This year’s race promises to be more exciting than usual. Red Bull scored a 1-2 finish at Shanghai in 2009, and the team will be looking to repeat their success this year. Sepang’s 1-2 finish showed that the team can set-up the RB6 for a combination of high-downforce corners and straight-line speeds, and if the bad luck gremlins stay away, Shanghai might be another strong weekend for the Milton Keynes outfit.

The Scuderia will be looking to improve on their Malaysian result, where errors in qualifying led to both drivers starting at the back of the grid. Fernando Alonso suffered an engine failure on the penultimate lap, and will be looking to score enough points to secure a return to the top of the leaderboard.

But there have been concerns over the reliability of the Ferrari engine, and Alonso and teammate Felipe Massa will need to balance the need to harvest points with the need to manage the engine. Even without three engine failures in one weekend, the Ferrari engine was developing a reputation as an over-heater. Running most of the circuit at full throttle will not help heating issues, and will exacerbate any problems that could lead to engine failure.

The weather at Shanghai should never be discounted – the climate is variable at the best of times, but at this time of year there is a good chance of rain in the race. And as has been said too often this season, a wet race is an exciting race. Or, as we learned in Malaysia, wet qualifying leads to a thrilling dry race.

Kate Walker