2011 FORMULA 1 UBS CHINESE GRAND PRIX

Just a week after Malaysia, Formula travels to China this weekend for the 2011 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix in the city of Shanghai. The Shanghai International Circuit plays host to the third round of the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship.









China is one of the world’s largest economies in the world and is rapidly growing as a country, this means that Formula One cannot afford to not have a Grand Prix in China – it is a very lucrative market for the sport. With businesses such as the Bank of China, Sinopec and Aigo all having sponsored F1 teams - teams have greatly benefited from the commercial revenue that Chinese businesses have given to teams. In terms of TV viewership, China is only behind Europe in terms of how many Chinese people watch the races. China is also now the world’s largest passenger car market; it has even surpassed the USA. By 2015, Mercedes-Benz predicts that China will be its biggest market of all. This makes the Chinese GP very important for the automotive group’s involved in F1. In general, the business opportunities and public interest that China has in F1 are key factors in China having a place in the calendar.

The Shanghai International circuit cost a staggering $450 million to build, it is a state of the art facility that can match the standards of the very best circuits on the calendar. The construction of the circuit was funded by regional governments in China to host an F1 Grand Prix. China hosted its first F1 race in 2004. The track has also hosted Moto GP races, a V8 Supercar race, GP2 Asia races and A1GP races – as China opens its doors to international motor racing.

Overtaking opportunities

The Shanghai International Circuit is not only one of the less interesting layouts on the calendar, it has very few passing opportunities in the dry.

Turn 1 is a passing opportunity, especially in the opening laps. Drivers often get turn 16 wrong and run wide, which can lead opponents to go side-by-side along the pit straight and do a dandier move into turn 1 which has a very fast entry to it. Turn 6 is a possible passing opportunity, but unless somebody gets the exit of turn 4 wrong – the straight between both turns is usually not long enough for drivers to slipstream there rivals and pass their rivals in this turn. The circuit really mainly consists of continuous series of twists and turns, which means that passing is hard at this track with limited opportunities for cars to slipstream each other and pass into big braking zones.

Undoubtedly, the best passing opportunity comes at turn 14. The drivers will stay flat out on one of F1’s longest straights and reach over 200 mph before stamping on the brake pedal to just 45 mph. This is a massive braking zone with a wide entry that encourages passing, this is the most significant overtaking opportunity due to the opportunities for slipstreaming along the back straight and driers trying to out-brake each other into turn 14 – a major stop from high speeds. Moves at this corner have been pulled off countless times. This straight is especially important, as the DRS-zone will be on the long straight - expect a lot of slipstreaming here this weekend.

However, all of this is thrown out of the window if rain descends on the circuit. The 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010 Chinese GP’s were all been rain-affected. If this occurs again for this year’s event, then every corner literally becomes a realistic overtaking opportunity – with huge variation in grip levels and each driver’s level of confidence in wet conditions. Not even the sheer downforce levels that F1 cars generate can affect the prospects for unpredictable and thrilling wet Grand’s Prix. And considering Pirelli’s intermediate and wet tyres have never been tested properly, a wet race would be a true journey into the unknown for drivers and teams.

What to watch for

The Shanghai track is very severe on rear tyres. As can be seen on the track guide, the circuit features many continuous tight and twisty corners with few full throttle sections in between. This means that teams run medium to high downforce levels at this track, so the cars have maximum traction when exiting these fiddly corners. Meaning less wheel-spin is caused by cars being more planted to the track, so cars exit corners as fast as possible for competitive lap times. But, in the cars being run in high downforce specifications, this only increases tyre wear because the tyres are digging into the tarmac more aggressively due to higher downforce levels run then at other tracks.

This is particularly an issue for the rear tyres, because the power is transmitted to the rear wheels in F1 cars. So, drivers who are too aggressive and generate too much wheel-spin, especially carrying so much fuel may have to ease off and conserve their rear Pirelli tyres or pit for new tyres.


Car requirements

The Shanghai track requires medium to high downforce levels, but this really depends on the relative downforce of each car. The cars with higher downforce levels may be able to sacrifice downforce, trimming the wings out to gain more speed on the long back straightaway. Because, cars such as the Red Bull machine produce staggering levels of downforce, so even if teams such as RBR do trim their cars out for more top speed, they can still rely on the high downforce levels of their cars to ensure that they are as stable in the tight corners. Teams such as Team Lotus may not have this luxury, because their car does not have high downforce levels compared to the best cars – so ensuring that their car is fast as possible through the tight turns will be of the highest priority for them.

Mechanical grip is very important as well, due to the track’s many slow speed turns. Because the track is so twisty, strain on engines and fuel consumption is very low here – due to the drivers being off throttle for much of the lap when negotiating the circuit’s slow, long and often frustrating corners. So, the thirstier and less reliable engines on the grid will not be under such strain here.

The nature of the circuit is tricky to set up the gear ratios too. Only the long back straightaway between turns 13 and 14 really sees the cars stretch their legs over 200 mph, the rest of the track requires short gear ratio’s for punchy acceleration out of slow corners. But the long straight with the DRS will require a tall seventh gear for good top speed, with added mph from DRS – this will be a challenging area for the engineers to find a compromise that will allow for good acceleration, whilst allowing for high top speeds for defending and overtaking in the Grand Prix. After practice teams will have a better understanding of how to set the ratio’s up.

Tyre selections

Pirelli will bring their Soft and Hard P Zero tyres to Shanghai, as with Malaysia and Australia.

Video footage

Here is an onboard lap of this Shanghai track with Kimi Raikkonen driving in Q1 for the 2007 Chinese GP in his Ferrari F2007:



Weekend schedule in UK time:

Fri 15 April 2011

Friday Practice 1 03:00 – 04:30
Friday Practice 2 07:00 – 08:30

Sat 16 April 2011

Saturday Practice 04:00 – 05:00
Qualifying 07:00 – 08:00

Sun 17 April 2011

Start of Formation Lap 08:00
2011 Chinese Grand Prix Race Start 08:04*

Full weekend schedule in local time

Thursday 14th April:

Formula One Press Conference - Press Room 15:00
Formula One Autograph Session 16:00 – 17:15

Friday 15th April

Formula One Practice 1 10:00 – 11:30
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia First Practice Session 12:00 – 12:30
Formula One Practice 2 14:00 – 15:30
Formula One Press Conference - Press Room 16:00 – 17:00
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Second Practice Session 16:00 – 16:30
Promoters Activity – Public Pit Lane Walk – 3 Day Ticket Holders – 17:00 – 19:10

Saturday 16th April

Formula One Team Pit Stop Practice 16:00 – 17.00
Formula One Practice 3 11:00 – 12.00
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Qualifying Session 12:25 – 12:55
Formula One Qualifying 14:00 – 15.00
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia First Race (12 laps or 30 mins) 15:30 – 16:05

Sunday 17th April

Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Second Race (12 laps or 30 mins)
Track Activity – Charity Laps (30 mins) 12:30 – 13:00
Formula One Drivers Parade 13:30
Formula One Starting Grid Presentation 13:45 – 14:15
Formula One National Anthem 14:46
Start of Formula One Formation Lap 15:00
Start of 2011 Chinese Grand Prix 15:04*

* Based on the time period between the start of formation lap and actual race start in the 2010 Belgian Grand Prix.

Where to watch – UK time

Friday 15th April

First practice: 0255-0435, BBC Red Button/online
Second practice: 0655-0835, BBC Red Button/online

Saturday 16th April

Third practice: 0355-0505, BBC Red Button/BBC Radio 5 live sports extra/online
Qualifying: 0600-0830, BBC One/BBC Radio 5 live/online
Qualifying repeat: 1300-1430, BBC One

Sunday 17th April

Grand Prix live: 0700-1015, BBC One/BBC Radio 5 live/online
F1 forum: 1015-1115, BBC Red Button/online
Grand Prix repeat: 1400-16:00, BBC One
Highlights: 1900-2000 and 0230-0330, BBC Three

As always, live timing and scoring is available for every session at http://www.formula1.com/ Registration is free. If you wish to watch this Grand Prix outside the UK, please check your local listings.

Previous winners of Chinese Grand Prix

2004 – Rubens Barrichello – Ferrari
2005 – Fernando Alonso – Renault
2006 – Michael Schumacher – Ferrari
2007 – Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari
2008 – Lewis Hamilton – McLaren-Mercedes
2009 – Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull-Renault
2010 – Jenson Button – McLaren-Mercedes

Enjoy the Grand Prix!

The FIA have confirmed the area of the track where the adjustable rear wing can be activated:



Very predictable, but its going to be hard to get within one second of a car off the exit of turn 11 due to cars understeering in the turbulent air. It would have been better to have the activation point on the entry of turn 11, as it would be easier to get within one second in the braking area. Plus, the DRS zone doesn't start until a long way down the back straight, which will make it hard to make up ground on a car on the straight, having had the understeer in turn 13 and getting a poor exit of the corner.

Can I just point out, on the previous winners on 2006 it says Schumi in a Renault, did I miss summert then?

Anyway I just hope Renault continue this stunning start tothe season with podiums and get another this weekend, i'm not a fan of this track think its too boring and typical of moden day tracks they all seemingly look the same and its a shame really, hopefully it produces some good close racing (Oh the FIA don't like that do they?)

I thought I'd be extra kind considering you like Renault.

don't forget about the F1 game !!!!!!

Didn't really enjoy that qualifying session, the front runners were much closer in Malaysia and the result wasn't known until the very last car crossed the line.

I don't like Webber much, but he's got a miserable race in store for tomorrow. To not have KERS down that long back straightaway will make it hard for him to pass cars that are slower overall, but have better straight-line speed due to having operational KERS. It seems the cooler the air temperature is, the bigger advantage the Red Bull car has.

Petrov saved Ferrari's car looking worse then it really is.

lt me guess

vettel
hamilton
webber
button

i really haven't looked.

Webber is at the other end of the field, 18th!

Brilliant race to watch, with action happening nearly everywhere. If a 'driver of the race' trophy was awarded, Hamilton and Webber would share the honours for giving it everything, and returning from no-man's land respectively.

I think it's safe to say this race gave the clearest indication of the nature of the Pirelli tyres as they played a role in defining the outcome. A real pendulum effect was on display with some losing considerable ground on the worn rubber and not being able to defend properly in fear of losing what little traction was available, whereas others gained huge chunks of time and in return having more drive and confidence to attack by being on fresh rubber.

i really enjoyed the race.

Hamilton and Webber brilliant drive. its show fresh tires are so important. webber quote was good "lets just forget quali all together"

Vettel drive was good it was just the wrong Strategy

Button moment was good, i found that quite funny. Jaime Alguersuari did the same in 09 in Abu dubai

That was an absolutely thrilling Grand Prix, bloody hell, there was so much overtaking and many battles it was hard to know where to look – it was like a wet race with all the frantic action going on. Full praise to Pirelli, it’s their tyres which are causing these huge differences in speed – thus overtaking. It’s proof that the duller modern circuits don’t hinder overtaking, Shanghai is a boring layout but it produced an amazing GP.

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton, the combination of Mercedes-Benz and Mobil 1 - the world’s leading Synthetic Motor Oil reigned supreme today.

Hamilton made a lot of great moves, but two really stand out to me. Lewis’s pass on Vettel at the start was incredible, it could have gone so wrong, but he kept the throttle wide open even when jerking to the right on the pit straight – I don’t know how many other drivers would have kept the throttle wide open in that situation behind another car so closely. Also, Hamilton’s move on Button showed the sign of a driver who is not only an expert in going fast, but is an expert at overtaking and racing other cars. Lewis got a great exit out of the final turn by forcing Button to take a tight entry into the corner, as Button naturally defended on the inside, and then Lewis got a much better exit out of the corner by taking the normal racing line. He drove so deep into turn 1 to pass Button, Button did a great job to recognise that Lewis was alongside him. There wasn’t much space but he didn’t even consider backing off. The way Hamilton races is the reason I watch motor racing, for balls-out, fearless racing and no holding back.

What I really do love about F1 in 2011, is that much of the importance of qualifying has been eradicated – the focus of the weekend has shifted to Sunday – and quite rightly too. If a team makes the right pit decisions and if a driver is sensible on track, they can still have a brilliant race result if they qualified poorly. Webber started from 18th, but because he had so many fresh tyres available to him, due to exiting qualifying so early, he could overtake a lot of cars and run much faster laptimes. Just a few years ago, that wouldn’t have been possible. Previously F1 had been too much about qualifying, but today all the focus was on the gutsy racing from the likes of Hamilton and Webber. This is only fantastic for the sport with no drawbacks whatsoever.

I’ll be honest; the strategy of three pitstops looked very desperate initially as the time lost in pitlane is very great. But because these tyres degrade so quickly, it appears that doing two stops loses you even more time by trundling around on tyres which have lost the most of their grip.

I loved everything about the race; the furious showdown for the victory with Lewis hunting down Vettel, Webber’s charge through the pack, the different strategies resulting in thrilling overtaking and the great driving by certain drivers.

We will know if it was a good race depending on what Cerca says of it lol.

I missed some bits of it due to work so will catch it on iplayer, Or download it onto my mp3 player and watch it in my hotel room tomorrow night.

Great drive by Webber, You always race better when you have nothing to lose and great drive by Hamilton as well.

Could of done with Vettel not finishing. Apart from the car breaking down(Which may not happen) I can't see him finishing out of the top 5 all season.

Overall a decent race but I feel cheated by Redbull, they threw the race this weekend on purpose. That is a disgrace and the explainations simply do not add up and I feel insulted by their transparent false statements. I cant believe they get away with it. I know its not possible to prove but the media has questions to ask here and they can punish Redbull by exposing the shambles they pulled this weekend. Vettel on Pole finishs 2 seconds ahead webber from 18th because he changed strategy to pass the Mclarens? The same Mclarens he was ahead of after the very first round of stops, and he stopped even earlier than Mclaren of Hamilton and same lap as Vettel. Give me a break, you expect me to believe that. Then at the end when clearly to everyone watching the race Hamilton would catch Vettel they could still brought him in the pits for new tyres and used the same pace webber had (his tyres from lap 40!) to secure the win. In the last 11 laps webber closed 22 seconds (a pitstop) on Vettel while passing traffic and vettel could have been on fresher rubber from even before then.

best race of the year.


maybe Hamilton winning he will now shut up about how poor the tires are lol at the Merc's though not having enough fuel, but Button driving in the Red Bull pit's

Duckman, I guess you could say that Red Bull were being a tad conservative, as the normal school of thought is that track position is king. However as the race developed, it became more apparent that wasn't the case, with Rosberg showing the early indications of what a three-stop strategy could bring.

RBR's strategy for Webber was great, starting him on the hard tyre meant he could run for long in his first stint, then switch to the softer tyres afterwards for each tyre stop which lasted a reasonable amount of time as the track rubbered in more and more. And because he ran so long in his first stint on the hard tyres, he could go flat out on his soft tyres in the final stint.

After Lewis had come out of the pits from his final pitstop, he was 15 seconds behind Vettel. So even if Vettel did move to a three-stopper, he would have finished behind Lewis as the total time of a stop is 22 seconds. And of course, RBR were not going to do anything rash immediately, but unfortunately for them, Lewis immediately started to close the gap to Vettel once on new tyres. Vettel was never going to make up the ground he would have lost by making an extra stop, it was too late by then.

It's simply a new style of racing, and it places a lot of emphasis on tyre performance and grip. You can have a Red Bull, which over a flying lap is at least seven tenths clear of any other car. But unless you have the grip and traction to transmit that performance onto the tarmac, its no good compared to a car with fresher levels of tread depth - Webber especially showed this in spades. It was Hamilton and especially Webber who had the most set's of fresh tyres amongst the front runners, and it played a significant part in the GP.

What won also Hamilton the race, was his pass on Button into turn 1. With Lewis passing Vettel only in the final laps, a few more laps stuck behind Button could have meant a second place instead.

Big-AL wrote:

but Button driving in the Red Bull pit's

Very bizarre, especially considering that he didn't have to pit in the middle of the pitlane, where recognising your team might be difficult - the McLaren garage's were only one down from Red Bull's when entering the pits.

what button did has happened before but usually by request in very narrow pitlanes not by accident


that race was greatly improved by now havign a safety car in it anywhere.

since there no thread for turkey, i'll post it here

man that race was boring.

the gp2 races were awesome but the f1 race was a snoozer