We enter race circuit number five, in Shanghai, China, after a five year absence due to China's covid restrictions, we had some news break that Fernando Alonso has re-signed to stay on with Aston-Martin till 2026! We shall see where he goes when the 2026 new regulations that all the teams are preparing for!
Andretti Racing meanwhile, which is pushing hard to enter F1, has opened a massive home base in Silverstone, England (and one of the more popular tracks on the circuit, and is expected to have a full staff of up to one thousand employees! For perspective, the Haas team has a total amount of employees of 300! Also this is the first race of the 2024 season we will have a "sprint race". What is a sprint race? it is an extra race that is one-third less than the actual Grand Prix. Why I, and others are not a fan of the Sprint Race? It's a shorter preview of the main race, and can show strategies, cause potential crashes that knocks out driver or drivers out of the Grand Prix. Why others like it would be you can see a Grand Prix-like race in a shorter amount of time.
Reminder of what driver is with what team (for now) :
Btw, I'm going to be dropping a LOT of eye candy of one particular driver, as I found a trove of photos of him! :) But before that, here is a photo of Sauber's Zhou Guanyu's racing for the first time in his home country, the first Chinese driver to do so and he has been busy before the race, as China is really hyping him!
Yes, Zhou in his Alfa Romero uniform from last year, now renamed Sauber.
A few notes about this track, there are 16 turns, and top speed has averaged out at 213 MPH, humidity is at 35 percent, and winds about 10 to 15 MPH. Also the track itself is a bit funky, not having been used for a F1 in five years, and I found this excerpt from ESPN F1 writer quite handy in it's description: Built on marshland 25 miles from the center of China's most populous city, the Shanghai International Circuit has always been evolving during its 20-year history. The tendency for land to shift under the circuit has resulted in bumps and lumps on the track surface, which have to be regularly remedied by the circuit owners.
Just over a year ago, asphalt along the entire length of the 3.4-mile track was re-laid in preparation for F1's return, but it was the unusual treatment on top of the track surface that proved a point of conversation, and some confusion, on Thursday.
Also: And another key point for this track: It's true that the track surface looks streaky in color, with darker patches off the racing line and lighter patches on it. However, the darker color is due not to "paint" but to a bitumen treatment, which, as is often the case on highways in Asia, has been used as a sealant to protect the asphalt underneath.
Although no other track on the F1 calendar has been treated with bitumen, its use is not entirely unheard of on racetracks. The streaky appearance is due to different series running on the circuit over the past year, wearing some of the bitumen away and leaving it intact elsewhere.
Whether it has any impact on grip levels will become clear in the single free practice session on Friday morning, which is the only opportunity teams and drivers will have to refine setups before qualifying for Saturday's sprint race on Friday afternoon. Keep those lil nuggets of info in mind as we prepare for Practice One (P1), which thanks to the Sprint, will be the only true practice. Tyre grip will be key on this track, as well as tyre shredding/grinding.
Fist Eye Candy Shot: I've randomly picked RB's Daniel Riccardo to be the speed...err...thirst trap of this Zoom Zoom post cuz, well you'll see. Daniel has been around a long time, has many podiums and some championships, and this Aussie is just downright charming! That smile can light up a city! That long torso of his though...*fans self*
P1 starts, 60 minutes, and almost everyone starting on medium tyres, interesting to note that just before the finish line after the final turn, there is a gravel pit on the right side of the track, where drivers have to avoid oversteering and sliding onto that gravel pit just before the finish line. Well, after 15 minutes, on turn 7, a small grass fire broke out- which is a first in F1. Fire was quickly put out, and the red flag was lifted and we re-start with 40 minutes to go. Note that McLaren (Team Papaya- due to their team colors) still has issues with slow speed corners, and that Aston-Martin and Haas comes into Shanghai with major upgrade to their cars. Nothing major to report form this only practice, no crashes or incidents, cars and drivers okay, but Alpine's Pierre Gasly did say on the radio upon completion of P1 that "he learned absolutely nothing from this session.", a damning statement to his team and crew! Oh, Alex Albon's panda helmet is absolutely adorable! He understood the helmet assignment!
Onto a NEW term: Sprint Qualifying One (SQ1). As I mentioned earlier, Sprint race you can earn points and much shorter (19 laps) than the Grand Prix (56 laps). A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP on Saturday. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position. This also applies to the Sprint Qualis, you will just see me use SQ1 to show the difference. Riccardo Eye Candy #2- Suffered a hand injury on a crash last season- Who volunteers to give him a sponge bath?
SQ1 starts, and it's teasing rain. Drivers will start on the medium tyres, then finish SQ3 on the soft fast tires for best laps. The three qualis are 12, 10 and 8 minutes. Nothing of note really happened, so your SQ1 bottom five are: Sargent/Williams, Tsunoda/RB, Panda Helmet Albon/Williams, Gasly/Alpine and Ocon/Alpine. And right after I posted those results, yet another grass fire breaks out due to sparks from one of the cars! Two in one day, and this has never happened before in F1 racing! Note: Yuki Tsunoda's radio message after finishing 18th not fit for PG-13 content! :)
Onto SQ2, and a theory of why sparks are flying from the cars, which is (Prof Colby moment) when the downforce, which pushes the floor to the ground and cause skids and in this case sparks. Also another note, as the drivers wait to leave the pit stop, their tyres are getting colder, which is not a good thing for speed or a wet track! And the rain has come in, and the price has been paid by the bottom five who came out late on cold tyres. the bottom five is Stroll/Aston-Martin, Riccardo/RB, Hulkenberg/Haas, Magnussen/Haas, and Russell/Mercedes. Russell really paid the price for leaving the pit last, his tyres never got warmed up to track speed. Good news to report is that the crowd at this Shanghai track went wild seeing that home town kid Zhou has placed 9th, and made SQ3! Onto a very wet SQ3 track for the top ten grid and P1 pole position! Almost right out of the pit lane, LaClerc was sent spinning 730 degrees towards the wall, but was able to get back on this very slippery track. Commentator noted this is like a "young Bambi on ice skates!", with all the slippery sliding. And the insanity continues as we count down, with almost all 10 drivers have their lap times deleted due to sliding off the course! We haven't seen this kind of lap deletions in a while! And to put a bonkers ending to this SQ3, Lando Norris had the P1 position, but then had it deleted, only to have it reinstated upon further review a couple of minutes later!
So, for tomorrow's Sprint Race, the top ten is : Norris P1, Hamilton, Alonso, Verstappen, Sainz, Perez, LaClerc, Piastri, Bottas and Zhou. Whew!
It's Sprint Day! No rain for these 20 drivers to complete 19 laps, definitely some wind, tyres are a free choice, meaning either hard, medium, or soft tyres, along with some used tyres of the same type, so tyre strategy already in play. Also just learned no pit stops, unless an emergency. Lando for McLaren on P1 (pole position), and the above paragraph is the grid ranking! And it's LIGHTS OUT for the Sprint racing (the race you fab readers could handle with only 19 laps!)! and on the first lap, Norris spins off, and allows Hamilton to take the lead and not one lap has been completed yet! ( I can tell already this is going to be a wild one!). Lap 8, Verstappen overtakes Alonso, and is now hunting down race leader Hamilton. Hometown kid Zhou (pronounced Joe) is currently in 9th place. Reminder: The top eight get points, bottom twelve, nada. On Lap 10, Verstappen overtakes Hamilton for the lead. Drivers note: seems that Norris and maybe some other drivers are having " no traction" on this track. Commentators are noting that Verstappen is already at turn 10, while Hamilton is just approaching turn 8, that's how much of a lead Max has over Sir Lewis!
We have three laps to go, and the real battle now is for 3rd place, with Alonso, Sainz, Perez and LeClerc bunched up, and Alonso just got overtaken by the other three drivers mentioned! (this is where is wish i had a video clip, it was insane, the shuffling between those four cars!). Replay on that four car scuffle- Sainz DID bump Alonso, which has caused Alonso to pit due to a tyre puncture- DRAMA! Also, a bit after that scuffle, Ferrari teammates Sainz and LeClerc did bump tyres ( Behave!), and Leclerc was not happy about it on the radio.
We finish the first Sprint race of the 2024 season with Verstappen winning by over 10 seconds ( huge lead) over Lewis Hamilton, with Max's Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, taking the third spot on the podium. Both Ferrari drivers finished 4th and 5th, with both McLaren drivers taking 6th and 7th. Russell of Mercedes in 8th. who was the only one who ran the soft tyre, while all other drivers did medium. Hometown boy Zhou took 9th for his RB team, and Kevin Magnussen placed 10th.
Time for more Riccardo eye candy before the the actual Qualifying for the Grand Prix! Probably his reaction to to my Netflix and cuddle! :) And me having seen the SF Giants score on Friday!
Grand Prix Quali time! And we start with a penalty! That scuffle mentioned earlier with Alonso and Sainz, LeClerc, well...besides not DNF (Did not finish) the Sprint, Alonso was hit with a 10 second time penalty to start the GP Quali's! Insult to injury, so to speak.
(Btw, y'all recovered from the Riccardo eye candy? Im not done yet!) My typos may increase, cuz I am mesmerized by the Daniel gif! :) Quali day is very humid, 70 degrees, and 95 degrees on track. Refer to the quali rules from above. Three qualis here as usual in Shanghai....starting with Q1 at 18 minutes, best laps count in the rankings for the Quali's ( so i just repeated myself!)
After an uneventful Q1, except for the drivers i'm going to list who will be in the back of the grid, Sargent/Williams, Tsunoda/RB, Zhou/Sauber, shocker of Hamilton being 18th, and Maggnussen/Haas. The Hamilton/Mercedes one is the shocker.
Q2, 12 minutes....and windy! Btw, all drivers are on soft tyres for this GP quali. after five minutes, we have our first crash when Ferrari's Carlos Sainz spun out and soft crashed into the wall, but was able to drive out, hence a red flag. Holding at 6:44 time left. Carlos is able to drive his car back to the pit- seems like a slo-mo. Caught the gravel with the understeer (you folks who drive cars know that), but front wing ripped. Green flag up, and Russell comes out on his own, as he is in last place in Q2. Russell finishes 6th (nice comeback), while Carlos Sainz pushes his car to 3rd place in Q2! (better comeback!) . Bottom 5 are Stroll/Aston-Martin, our poster boy, Riccardo/ RB, Ocon/Alpine, Albon/Williams, and <sigh> Gasly/ Alpine. Will someone PLEASE purchase the Alpine team ?
Q3 no drama, soft tyres for all drivers, and Verstappen takes P1 pole position, his fifth pole in a row for this season, and the 100th Red Bull position. Teammate Perez takes P2 and Alonso takes P3. There really was not that much to report. Time to rev up for the Chinese Gran Prix tomorrow.
No cute graphic available, but here is your starting grid:
F1 starting grid: 2024 Chinese Grand Prix
1 Max Verstappen, Red Bull2 Sergio Perez, Red Bul l3 Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin4 Lando Norris, McLaren 5 Oscar Piastri, McLaren6 Charles Leclerc, Ferrari 7 Carlos Sainz, Ferrari8 George Russell, Mercedes 9 Nico Hulkenberg, Haas10 Valtteri Bottas, Kick Sauber
11 Lance Stroll, Aston Martin12 Daniel Ricciardo, RB
13 Esteban Ocon, Alpine14 Alexander Albon, Williams
15 Pierre Gasly, Alpine16 Zhou Guanyu, Kick Sauber
17 Kevin Magnussen, Haas18 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
19 Yuki Tsunoda, RB20 Logan Sargeant, Williams
This seems like a good time for another Riccardo pic drop- Wonder who he is texting? :)
It's F1 China Grand Prix Day 2024! Now that we are done with that Sprinting business (actually was more exciting then I expected!), we are ready for the main event. Sold out crowd, mild and dry but a bit humid weather-wise, and 56 laps with 16 turns to race on.
And it's LIGHTS OUT, and on the first turn, Alonso whips around the outside to overtake Perez for 2nd, with Max in the lead. From here on, I'm going to attempt a "bullet points" version of recapping this race via Laps and notables.
Most drivers started on Hard (track grip) or Medium tyres. Only Lewis Hamilton, back in 18th started on soft, and after several laps, he pitted for medium tyres, and said on the radio while on track that those soft tyres "We're the worst I've ever driven on!". Lap 9, Gasly had a truly ghastly (Bada-Bing!) pit stop, as he thought all tyres were secured, but the rear right wasn't, and Pierre inched forward, causing one of the pit crew to be tossed backward (he is okay! but very scary), that pit stop was 15.3 seconds, almost an eternity in F1 racing! Race stewards will be looking at that as a potential penalty.
Both Red Bulls, Verstappen and Perez pitted, allowing Norris to take the lead for a few laps but by Lap 19, Verstappen re-took the lead, overtaking four drivers to do so.
It was also around this time Hamilton was complaining about the car just not performing, which seemed like a bad sign for his race as he was still in the back five. (Oh Lewis, ya spoke too soon!).
And we have our first yellow flag, as Sauber's Valterri Bottas veered off the track on turn 11 on the 21st lap. Engine failed, so a DNF (Did Not Finish). Virtual Safety Car is engaged as drivers have to slow down, and drivers are taking advantage to pit and change tyres.
Professor Colby time! I had to look this up! What is the difference between a Virtual Safety Car and an actual physical safety car? It's all about the bunching:
It's clear that the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) is more accommodating to drivers and doesn't affect the race as much as an actual Safety Car. The idea behind a VSC is that it doesn't bunch drivers up together. Instead, it maintains the same gap between then that they had prior to the VSC being activated. Now the rules folks have upgraded the VSC to the Safety Car, and the commentators are annoyed on how the WHY the safety car upgrade, and I agree!
Yellow flag lifted at Lap 26, and Alonso took the time to switch to the soft (fast, but tire degradation) tyres. All hell broke loose in the middle of the pack on Lap 28, as we had TWO incidents to bring out another Yellow flag and Safety Car! First incident was Kevin Magnussen of Haas, basically knocking Yuki Tsunoda off track, and Yuki is out! Very dirty move by Magnussen, and was assessed a ten second penalty that will be applied to the next Grand Prix in Miami! The second incident that occurred was due to bunching, as Alonso locked up, and the drivers behind him, braked, except for Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, who did not brake, and ended up ramming up Daniel Ricciardo's rear straight up in the air (Behave!). Both drivers were able to join the race after pit stop fixes. This was such a shocker of this type of collision, and I actually found a short video of it so you can see for yourself! May need to view it a couple of times to see just how potentially disastrous this could have been!
UPDATE: And the video has been pulled off of You Tube! You can still see the crash in the recap of the race video at the end of this post.
Green Flag is out on Lap 32, and lets get a Hamilton update: Now in P10, now in the points!
Lap 34, Ricciardo has to retire the car due to the damage caused by Stroll's hard bang into his rear (behave!). Consolation for Daniel, is that Stroll has been hit with a ten second penalty which will also be applied at the next Grand Prix! William's Logan Sargent also hit with a ten second penalty for something I missed! It's like Oprah, "you get a penalty , you get a penalty".
With Verstappen in the lead, and Norris 2nd, Perez overtakes LaClerc for 3rd on lap 39, and a bit later on Lap 41, Hamilton overtakes Hulkenberg for 9th, and hot on Piastri's tail! We learned at about lap 44 that Piastri is driving a car with damage. Alonso switched tyres to medium and was at 12th coming on track in the 46th lap, but ended up 9th! And our final result has Verstappen finishing 13 seconds ahead of Lando Norris, with Perez 3rd, and for the 4th time in a row, LeClerc at 4th, Ferrari teammate in 5th, Mercedes' driver Russell in 6th, McLaren's Piastri, with his damaged car, hangs onto 8th, Hamilton jumped nine positions to finish 9th (dang good race for him and Lando!), Alonso and Aston-Martin, with their questionable tyre choices, 7th, and rounding out the points, Hulkenberg of Haas in 10th! Zhou Guanyu finished 14th and the Shanghai crowd roared for their local boy, and he was emotional, as you can see in the video below- so happy for him!
Norris got the Driver of the Day vote from the fans, and Alonso got fastest lap of the day. Overall, a very compelling race other than the Flying Dutchman snagging another win. Lando had an excellent pace throughout the entire race, but just could not catch up to Max! Your Podium for China GP 2024 :
The tea was hot as Daniel the Honey Badger comes out PISSED in the post- race interview!
And after that, this last eye candy sums up Daniel's day:
Off to Race Six in Miami in two weeks! Go forth with tour penalties and with McLaren and Mercedes (boy, do they need it) upgrades!
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