Formula 1 | A Red Bull-Ferrari duel to liven up the return to China?

(Shanghai) The Formula 1 world championship returns to China this weekend after five years of absence with the hope for certain teams – Ferrari in the lead – to dominate Red Bull and its championship leader Max Verstappen.

The Chinese event returns after four blank seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, the British Lewis Hamilton, “only” five-time F1 world champion, outrageously dominated the championship at the wheel of his Mercedes while the Dutchman Verstappen only had five victories in F1.

But since 2019, things have changed a lot: the first, who became seven-time world champion in 2020, is experiencing one of his worst starts to the season in F1 – the fault of a Mercedes still struggling – while the second is flying over the championship for two years with Red Bull.

Favorite for this fifth meeting of the year, Max Verstappen – in search of his 58^e victory in the Grand Prix – will however have to be wary of the Ferrari, in pole position to make him wobble from his pedestal.

On a circuit which significantly deteriorates the rubber, thus reducing grip, the Italian team showed itself to be the most efficient on this type of surface.

Red Bull logically expects that the Scuderia “will probably be [sa] closest competitor” this weekend, recognized his boss Christian Horner, whose position at the head of the team no longer seems threatened. The Briton was suspected – then cleared – of accusations of “inappropriate behavior” towards an employee at the start of the season, an affair which largely shook his team.

Ferrari, more efficient?

For the moment, “Mad Max” occupies the lead in the championship, thirteen points ahead of his runner-up and teammate, the Mexican Sergio Pérez (77 points against 64). Followed by the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc (59 pts), third, and Carlos Sainz (55 pts), fourth.

If the Austrian team signed another double at the beginning of April in Suzuka (Japan), Sainz, 3^e of the race, showed all the strength of his SF-24 against the overpowering RB20.

“On paper, I think it’s a circuit where we could perform better than at Suzuka,” explained Leclerc, 4^e of the Japanese GP. “But Red Bull will still have the upper hand this weekend.”

For the fifth meeting of the season, four drivers will discover the Shanghai international circuit aboard an F1 – at the forefront of which we find event local Zhou Guanyu.

“I couldn’t be more excited to finally race on home soil,” enthused the Shanghai native, arriving in the elite in 2022. He will be the first Chinese in history to compete in Formula 1 in China.

First sprint of the year

The Chinese GP also marks the return on Saturday of a sprint race which offers additional championship points. But unlike last year, F1 and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) have revised its format.

Thus, the hour of free practice on Friday will be followed by qualifying for the sprint. Saturday will be dedicated to the sprint race, followed later in the day by “classic” qualifying, which will determine the starting grid for Sunday’s GP.

If this change in format was welcomed by the teams – who will now be able to work longer on the single-seaters without being penalized – the choice of the moment of this first sprint race is not unanimous.

The drivers will only have one hour of free practice to acclimatize to this track at the wheel of their “new generation” F1, dating from 2022.

“It’s very smart to do that” in China, Verstappen quipped at the beginning of April, after the Japanese GP which he won.

For Sainz, if it is a “circuit which offers good overtaking possibilities”, going “directly to qualifying after an hour of testing is not a good choice after five years of absence” .