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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where we’re wondering if Daniel Ricciardo should take up basketball if this whole auto racing thing doesn’t work out.
We’re also wondering what else the Shanghai International Circuit has in store this weekend after an interesting Friday of sessions. I’m Patrick, and Luke Smith will be along shortly. Let’s get to it.
I see fire …
We’re coming to you later than we hoped today because we watched sprint race qualifying from China at 4:30 a.m. ET and it all feels like a strange dream where some grass caught fire and the top three sprint qualifiers aren’t named Max Verstappen.
Wait, that wasn’t a dream?
As we’ll note again later, the first practice in Shanghai was pretty important considering F1 hadn’t raced here in five years and it had undergone some repaving. So it was no surprise that the single FP1 hour featured end-to-end lap-logging on all three compounds from all 20 drivers.
This is where we separate the practice review into Things That Matter For The Race and Things That Caught On Fire.
Things That Matter For The Race:
A ho-hum, if busy, session that didn’t tell us a ton about Sunday’s grand prix. In the end, Lance Stroll finished on top of the timing sheet with a 1:36.302s lap. It heralded a jumbled order up front in the sprint qualifying. And Oscar Piastri’s P2 timing could be an early indicator that McLaren might be a surprise podium contender this weekend.
Things That Caught On Fire:
The trackside grass at Turn 7 caught on fire and brought out the red flag, and another small fire broke out at the end of the first sprint qualifying session. The FIA said the likely culprit was “sparks coming from cars igniting the fire in the grass run-off area.”
and I see rain
We had a feeling rain would affect the weekend in Shanghai, but not so much that it’d create the best sprint race qualifying session in recent memory. By the time the third and final qualifying session began, the track was incredibly slick and visibility was plummeting. Drivers were finishing their push laps driving into the wind, struggling to get temperature up in their tires and kept sliding off the track.
“It was incredibly slippery … it was just like driving on ice, ” Verstappen said – he qualified fourth. Yes, even the reigning world champion, famous for his ability to drive in the rain, wasn’t immune on Friday in Shanghai. His last lap was undone when he went off track, creating a wild final minute where the sprint pole changed hands four times: Fernando Alonso took it, then Lewis Hamilton took it, then Lando Norris took it – then Norris’ lap was deleted for exceeding track limits. But he still ended up on pole. What? Let’s throw it to Luke in the paddock to explain.
Inside the Paddock with Luke Smith: Why Norris had his lap reinstated
The chaotic end to sprint qualifying in China left us guessing who would be on pole right until the checkered flag — and, as it turned out, a little bit longer.
Norris initially leaped to P1 with his final SQ3 lap, moving clear of Hamilton, only to have his time deleted for a track limits breach. It meant pole for Saturday’s sprint race, momentarily at least, belonged to Hamilton.
But race control then reinstated Norris’s time of 1:57.940s, giving him P1 again. It’s rare to see a time deleted and then put back. So why was Norris allowed to keep pole?
Norris did put all four wheels outside of the white line at the final corner on the lap before his pole lap when he set a time of 2m00.863s. At some circuits, this would result in the lap after the track limits breach also being deleted. This is always specified in the track limits section of the event notes issued by the race director, Niels Wittich, ahead of the start of each race weekend.
Such a rule was in place in Bahrain this year, as well as in Abu Dhabi, Austin, Las Vegas, Qatar, and Austria. Each time, the event notes stated that such a breach “will result in that lap time and the immediately following lap time being invalidated by the Stewards.” (Italics my own for emphasis!)
In the China race notes, this clause does not exist. It simply says that “each time a driver fails to stay within the track limits, this will result in that lap time being invalidated by the stewards.” Nothing about the next lap. This may have something to do with the newly added gravel trap at the exit of the final corner in Shanghai, which serves as a natural deterrent.
So when race control realized it had accidentally deleted Norris’s lap, it reinstated the time, putting him back on pole position. There was no plea from McLaren to make the change, according to Andrea Stella, who estimated Norris would have lost around three-tenths of a second on the next lap by going so far wide.
Mercedes has no frustration or hard feelings about the decision. Hamilton sounded the most buoyant he has been all year after sprint qualifying. At the same time, Toto Wolff told Sky Sports that Norris going wide “was even slower, so he could probably have gone faster. So I’m OK with that.”
Looking ahead
Thanks, Luke. So, where does this leave us for the rest of the weekend?
The strange Friday sessions leave us in the dark a bit. Too much new and unusual, with a fresh track and sessions plagued by inexplicable brush fires and pouring rain. The data’s jumbled. But while it’s safe to assume the Red Bulls will run away in the races, the solid runs from Mercedes, Aston Martin and McLaren have our ears perked.
It’s already a special weekend for Zhou Guanyu, who became the first Chinese F1 driver to run a session on home soil and qualified P10 to thunderous cheers in the sprint quali.
The weather should make for a fun sprint. Eighty percent chance of rain on Saturday in Shanghai, with wind gusts up to 45 kph (27 mph).
Get to know the Shanghai International Circuit
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and China’s strict lockdown rules, the last Chinese Grand Prix happened in 2019. That sounds recent, but, yeah, that was five years and an entire global pandemic ago. So, odds are a lot of newer F1 fans have never seen a race at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Luckily, The Athletic’s Madeline Coleman has you covered with our latest F1 track breakdown. Read on to find out why drivers love this circuit with the unique first few corners. “It’s a brilliant track to drive with the speed of the corners and flow of the track,” Stroll said.
(Drew Jordan/The Athletic)
Outside the points
Madeline also has a terrific breakdown of how sprint races will work in 2024, including the schedule change that moves sprint quali and the grand prix quali around a bit.
The fact the first sprint race of the season was held this weekend, on a track unfamiliar to so many drivers, already had drivers wary. And that was before the trackside grass caught on fire and rain threw a wet wrench into sprint qualifying.
And, finally, Luke spoke to Williams team principal James Vowles. His team has had a tough start to the season, but Vowles knew that was possible after all the necessary change he’s put Williams through this offseason.
(Lead photo of Lando Norris: Lars Baron/Getty Images)
