Drivers could be facing a challenging first sprint race of the 2024 season in Shanghai as expected rain could wash away rubber built up on Friday.
The Shanghai International Circuit is hosting the Chinese GP for the first time since 2019 this weekend.The 5.4km circuit was recently resurfaced in many areas and will be the first major international motorsports event held at the venue since work was completed.
The situation is similar to that when the sport returned to Istanbul Park in 2020 for the Turkish Grand Prix after the original calendar was heavily revised due to the pandemic. Istanbul Park was resurfaced just weeks before the event and cold and wet conditions led to extremely low grip levels across the weekend.
Thankfully for drivers and teams, however, conditions are expected to be warmer and drier this weekend in Shanghai. Despite high chance of rain over Friday night and early Saturday morning, current forecasts anticipate that all five track sessions over the first sprint round of the 2024 season should remain dry.
Friday’s practice session should take place in conditions of a comfortable 19 degrees celsius, with the afternoon’s sprint qualifying running in virtually identical conditions. However, the rubber built up on the racing line on Friday could well be affected by the expected rain overnight.
Saturday’s sprint race will very likely be dry, with slightly warmer conditions of 22C expected. It will continue to warm up for Saturday’s grand prix qualifying, which should also be dry, before the grand prix itself takes place in cloudy conditions of around 19 degrees.
If this forecast proves accurate, Sunday’s race will be run in conditions virtually identical to the last Chinese Grand Prix in 2019, just over five years ago.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
For more updates on the track conditions during each session keep an eye on RaceFans Live and the RaceFans Twitter account.
2024 Chinese Grand Prix
- Aston Martin petitions FIA to review Alonso’s penalty for Sainz collision
- “You need to be more on it”: 12 unheard radio exchanges from the Chinese GP
- Ricciardo needs to show “head-turning form” for 2025 chance – Horner
- With fourth format change in as many years, F1 relegated sprint races to a sideshow
- Williams accept ‘harsh but correct’ penalty for Sargeant
MacLeod (@macleod)
18th April 2024, 12:51
Looks sunday dry but very cold (13C) i.c.w. the poor track grip it going to be hard to keep cars on the track.
S
18th April 2024, 12:54
I hope so.
MacLeod (@macleod)
18th April 2024, 12:58
13c is at night So in the middle of the day will be 19C Saterday 21C but probaly rain …..
Nick T.
18th April 2024, 13:28
China has produced multiple amazing wet races, but I doubt they’ll let them run in actual wet conditions. It seems like no falling rain and a track that is 10-12 laps of intermediate running away from a dry tire is the wettest they’ll slow them to run in.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th April 2024, 17:05
Mmm, if the rain comes during the race and not just before, you can get away with some wet racing, such as zandvoort last year.
They only really stopped it when there was heavy rain and zhou went into the barriers, perhaps they’d have let them continue if no one crashed, but that’s basically impossible since people gamble on intermediates even on full wet conditions given the heavy use of SC\red flags nowadays, compared to 20 years ago.
Nick T.
19th April 2024, 9:34
What a great race that was. The best of 2023 likely. It’s odd. They’re so quick to stop or SC/VSC the races for minor things and then they’re so slow sometimes in getting out red flag when it’s actually warranted.