Shanghai to be warmer than expected

2015 Chinese Grand Prix weather

Posted on

| Written by

Hot temperatures played a pivotal role in deciding the outcome of the last race in Malaysia, where in sweltering temperatures Ferrari seized the initiative from Mercedes because they were able to take better care of their tyres.

But while it is expected that a return to cooler conditions in Shanghai will play into Mercedes’ hands, the weather this weekend is not going to be quite as cold as originally expected.

Shanghai typically sees fairly cool conditions compared to the other races on the calendar. Air temperatures have struggled to get above 15C since the teams arrived at the track.

However the weekend forecast has been steadily improving. All week long models have indicated a progressive increase in temperatures between now and Sunday, and the race day high is now expected to exceed 20C.

But that’s still considerably less than at Malaysia, where air temperatures frequently surpassed 30C. Unlike Malaysia, however, as yet there is no indication rain is likely to affect proceedings, though a light shower may arrive as teams are packing up on Sunday evening.

For more updates on the track conditions during each session keep an eye on F1 Fanatic Live and the F1 Fanatic Twitter account.

Location of Shanghai International Circuit

See the location of every race on the 2015 F1 calendar here:

2015 Chinese Grand Prix

Browse all 2015 Chinese Grand Prix articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

11 comments on “Shanghai to be warmer than expected”

  1. So even St Peter is a Ferrari fan!

    1. @mike-dee only lucifer is going to be able to bring the heat that Ferrari need ;)

      1. :))))))))
        Come on Lucifer! Shall I do a Faustian deal with you? :)

        1. Lucifer is the 6 between Seb’s 5 and Kimi’s 7.

          1. HAHAHA Best comment!

  2. I wonder what explanation McLaren will use then.

    1. lol at this point i believe their car has .5 degree of optimum operating temp. lol

      1. @ijip – “Yes that little breeze near the back of the track really cost us 1.5s every lap.”

  3. These temperatures is few yet for me.

  4. They are using tyre compounds that are 1 step softer than Malaysia, so although the actual temperature will be lower, the temperature relative to the performance of the tyres may be similar.
    Could be an interesting weekend tyre/strategy wise, we all know, that even during his RedBull years Seb was always able to look after these Pirelli’s, where as Mercedes have a history of being hard on the current generation of degrading tyres, only last season were they better, but they seemed to struggle in Malaysia in a similar fashion to the 4 seasons prior to 2014.

  5. One thing I would like to point out is that in spite of the temperatures looking perfect for tyre performance the tyres are as usual a step softer than Malaysia’s. Considering that these 2 tracks are almost identical this usually means that often tyres are more of a worry than in Malaysia although for different reasons as temperature isn’t the killer in Shanghai.

Comments are closed.