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That said, if the Shanghai Sprint demonstrated anything, it’s that one-lap pace and starting position isn’t necessarily going to be decisive in the Chinese Grand Prix. This recently-resurfaced circuit is lightening quick but a destroyer of tyres. There’s graining, there’s high degradation, there’s only tenths between the teams – but it’s going to be night and day between right and wrong tyre choices so strategy will be all important.
What happened last year?
Last year’s Chinese Grand Prix – also run with a Sprint Weekend tyre allocation – was something of an odd-ball. A long, mid-race Safety Car period obscured everyone’s true intent, but even before Valtteri Bottas ground to a halt on Lap 19 and triggered a Virtual Safety Car followed by back-to-back full Safety Cars, it was clear multiple strategies were in play.
Everyone was geared up for multiple stops, with either an extra set of hards or an extra set of medium compound tyres in their garage – but not everyone necessarily planned to use them.
The early stoppers most likely did. Max Verstappen won with a medium>hard>hard strategy, pitting on Lap 13 and then again during the Safety Car on Lap 23. Team-mate Sergio Perez, finishing third, took the same approach – but the cars around them did not.
Lando Norris, finishing second, ran medium>hard, making his sole stop on Lap 22 during the initial VSC. Charles Leclerc, fourth, did the same but Carlos Sainz, who finished fifth, was a little more ambiguous in his one-stop strategy, pitting before the VSC, on Lap 17.
