Grand Prix 2024 Chinese Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The question of which location is the most soulless on the F1 circuit often arises. under the current contracts. & i know many say abu dhabi. but i would argue that it is the venue next on the calendar, because almost every race we are there because that country / city wants to be in F1 more. I would say that in this case, F1 is more eager to be in China than China is to be in F1, because it represents a vast market for manufacturers with its 1.4 billion population & status as the largest car market.. shown by stats i heard on the 5 live F1 podcast. that back in 2019 only 40% of the tickets were sold. it is sold out this year but is that because of the novelty or is it because of zhou effect. these are some of the damning pictures from bottas pole lap, where what was grandstands turned into advertisement & at the hairpin has half full stands

but it is 5 years since we last went to chinese gp after the global pandemic removed it from 2020 calendar & we never went back until 2024. but alot has changed since 2019 chinese gp

• hulkenberg raced for renault, left F1 & returned in 2023 for Haas
• Riccardio was 3 races into renault deal left in 2021, signed for McLaren was dumped & re-signed halfway through 2023
• Magnussen left F1 & Rejoined F1
• Vettel & Raikkonen Retired
• 2 Drivers have had the appendix removed
• Robert Kubica raced For Williams
• Carlos Sainz Drove For McLaren
• Pierre Gasly was Verstappen teammate at senior Red bull team
• AlphaTauri, Nicolas Latifi Nyck De Vries, Mick Schumacher have come & gone
• Albon scored a point in the junior red bull, called toro rosso
• Giovinazzi has left F1 & won le mans for Ferrari
• Oscar piastri was in renault eurocup (F4 Level)
• Logan Sargeant & Yuki Sargeant just starting out in F3
• & finally Alonso has been embarrassingly bumped from 2019 indy 500, gone back to finish 21st in 2020. won le mans, finished dakar rally, come out of retirement to rejoin & leave alpine

on the weekend it's self its a sprint weekend extremely controversial with the drivers, many are with just 1 practice after such an absence . the format has been rejigged. Last year, Sprint Qualifying was held on a Saturday morning with qualifying for the Grand Prix on a Friday before the Sprint itself on a Saturday afternoon. For 2024, Sprint Qualifying has moved to Friday, following FP1, with the Sprint taking place on Saturday Morning ahead of qualifying for the Grand Prix ih its traditional place of saturday afternoon, The Grand Prix itself will remain on Sunday.

For those in asia they'll be delighted to watch a Sprint weekend live for once. for european fans a nightmare, as i dont see a huge figures for the sprint at 4am

 

[cider_and_toast]

Another race not watched. Had a lovely breakfast out with my daughter.

Really enjoying these early race times.

Best season EVER!!!!

 

[F1Brits_90]

Another race not watched. Had a lovely breakfast out with my daughter.

you certainly the winner that weekend stop being enjoyable at about 4.20am uk time

 

[cider_and_toast]

I never thought the day would come but I'm even through the "zombie" stage now. I simply can't be arsed anymore. I will look at it occasionally but my days of getting up at silly hours or rushing back from somewhere to watch the start are long gone. I can't even be bothered to record the races and watch them "as live" later. It's simply not worth it.

Nothing is going to change.

 

[F1Brits_90]

bring back bernie all is forgiven. his rules might have been silly but at least he did something to stop it & better than this where they just sit back & let this domination continue. i must be mad. watched every race live bar Australia. dont know why. as i feel like im reliving my schumacher nightmare every week from my childhood

dominance only works with 2 good drivers. is this like senna patrese not senna prost in 1988. only once since july 2022 as a non red bull been won in a head to head battle when max saw the chequered flag. brazil 2022

 

[F1Brits_90]

I never thought the day would come but I'm even through the "zombie" stage now. I simply can't be arsed anymore. I will look at it occasionally but my days of getting up at silly hours or rushing back from somewhere to watch the start are long gone. I can't even be bothered to record the races and watch them "as live" later. It's simply not worth it.

Nothing is going to change.

i had that at japan. for the 1st time ever i debated getting up at 6am. this is a person who had birthday partu finish at 1am & got up 5.30 for Japanese gp. i wouldn't mind if it was at least competitive. but god the sprint race was depressing took the lead on lap 10 & won by 14 secs in 9 laps

 

[Il_leone]

The race has got me thinking Norris made a mistake resigning with Mclaren. Perez took an age to get past Alonso but then the race was over
Verstappen is driving 70%

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Verstappen is driving 70%

That’s the luxury he’s got when he has Sergio Perez as teammate.

 

[Il_leone]

That’s the luxury he’s got when he has Sergio Perez as teammate.

My thoughts exactly he does not need to extend himself

Although the comments from Horner about Mercedes poaching Verstappen are interesting

 

[F1Brits_90]

Although the comments from Horner about Mercedes poaching Verstappen are interesting

on point earlier if bernie was in charge Verstappen would be going to mercedes to give people a light at end of the tunnel

 

[Il_leone]

on point earlier if bernie was in charge Verstappen would be going to mercedes to give people a light at end of the tunnel

It says more that Horner has no real control at Red Bull. To me it would be ironic that in kissing Max's backside all these years he has been eventually smeared with in the end.

 

[Speshal]

I never thought the day would come but I'm even through the "zombie" stage now. I simply can't be arsed anymore. I will look at it occasionally but my days of getting up at silly hours or rushing back from somewhere to watch the start are long gone. I can't even be bothered to record the races and watch them "as live" later. It's simply not worth it.

Nothing is going to change.

This, exactly this.

If it wasn't for here, I wouldn't have known the GP was on, don't even look at the highlights unless one of you says "best race ever!" non sarcastically.

It's down to being priced out by Sky, Liberty media's idea of a "show" and the end of 2021.

I simply can't be arsed anymore.

 

[The Artist.....]

This, exactly this.

If it wasn't for here, I wouldn't have known the GP was on, don't even look at the highlights unless one of you says "best race ever!" non sarcastically.

It's down to being priced out by Sky, Liberty media's idea of a "show" and the end of 2021.

I simply can't be arsed anymore.

For me, my apathy is almost entirely driven by Sky. I paid Now TV for the first month of the season (and forgot to cancel for the second month). I object having to pay for kick the ball, bounce the ball, throw the oddly shaped ball, punch the man, etc just to be able to watch F1.

Almost every other country in the world can buy F1 direct on F1TV. We can't in the UK, and we have an (unfair) monopoly foist upon us by Bernie and the BBC. (I still blame the BBC back in 2012 for creating the "shared rights" with Sky, that basically sent the sport onto Sky Sports)...

BBC says F1 coverage faced axe unless it shared races with Sky

The BBC says it had no option but to share races with Sky as it could not afford to keep the sole rights for the sport

www.theguardian.com

At the time, the £50 million per year rights were extremely good value, as across 20 races, this was approximately 200 hours of television, whereas the kick-the-ball highlights rights (for a similar price) amounted to about 60 hours of tv.

 

[F1Brits_90]

I don’t think this is entirely fair. I was in Shanghai at the same time as the 2019 race (and saw Lewis Hamilton in a hotel) - everywhere you went in the city, you were reminded about the F1 race.

The circuit is in an out of town location (just next to the airport and high speed rail hub), but this is still a better location than Paul Ricard, Magny Cours, or even (say it quietly) Silverstone.

thats good to hear that it was around town, because i remember brundle saying in istanbul that you wouldnt know a grand prix was going off. so it might be bit harsh & i love the circuit.

but it was influenced by what you read & what you see, i remember 5 live discussing shanghai. how its 60mins from shanghai, in the 1st few years they were getting 160,000 fans. then later on ticket sales are sluggish. Grandstands turning into advertising, with just those at the hairpin & start straight remaining & dropping to appartantly 40% in 2019 for 1000th race. this year it was a sell out but since the last sell out the capacity had been reduced from 160,000 to 60,000

In recent years, it has been said that F1 only remains in China primarily because manufacturers do not want to miss out on a huge market opportunity. not because China would like to be in F1 for whatever purposes that motivates like abu dhabi, qatar or singapore be it tourism or prestige

 

[F1Brits_90]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1782021534720360795