Paddock Diary: Chinese Grand Prix day one

Formula 1 has been visiting Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix for 15 years, so why is obtaining a visa for the race still so difficult?

@DieterRencken is armed with many more questions as he arrives at the Shanghai International Circuit for the 1000th points-paying round.

Thursday 8:30am

Wake up to daylight peeking through under curtains – I’m in Jiading, outside Shanghai, a 20-minute taxi ride from the grand prix circuit. Over the previous 40 hours I had slept around eight hours spread over three slumbers and flown from Brussels to Shanghai via Dubai. Oh, the perceived glamour of F1 – but as we always say, it sure beats working.

Breakfast called a ‘full English’. All the ingredients are there, but that’s about all I’ll say about the meal.

10am

Order a cab – 35 yuan (seven quid) gets me to the main gate, and from there it’s a brisk mile walk to and through the simply gi-normous, but strangely soulless, paddock. Preparations for the 1000th round of the world drivers championship are in full swing, with many legendary Formula 1 cars already lined up in the paddock, and displays of drivers’ racing gear being assembled.

I can’t help but chuckle as I walk past a certain black and gold Lotus, which reminds me of a tale of paddock intrigue I shared here earlier this year, which was recently confirmed by then-Lotus boss Eric Boullier.

I confess, though, to being totally baffled by a F1 car painted pink, camouflage style, in deference to a fashion sponsor. Exactly what that has to do with the upcoming festivities was beyond the ken of those I asked.

After my walk-through it’s up to the media centre, situated on the ninth floor of the ‘wing’ before the start/finish line, offers panoramic views across virtually the entire circuit. I grab a seat close to the window.

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11am

Everyone I speak to seems to have had some woe getting to China – visa hassles, interrupted travels or both. In my case it was touch and go whether I’d make it despite jumping through all the bureaucratic hoops in good time. For the third straight year some documents went astray at the other end, and the visa was issued only after payment of an emergency fee to the visa service centre. Once is unfortunate, twice is suspicious, thrice reeks of some scam.

Noon

Having had a late-ish breakfast I skip lunch I grab a few smoked-chicken filled pitta rolls in the media catering area, and smile at the 1,000th birthday cake with its alloy wheel cookies and ‘Do not eat’ signage.

A couple of teams schedule interviews before the day’s official press conference. The Williams duo is first up – the pair putting brave faces on a dire situation – followed by Haas.

At the FIA conference I post a left-field question to the three fathers present: Kimi Raikkonen, Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean. As parents, did they believe that the sponsorship of McLaren in Bahrain by a vaping brand sets the right sort of example, particularly for their children?

Grosjean responds thoughtfully. “I don’t know much about e-cigarettes to be fair,” he admits. “But if it’s better for health reasons, if it’s less smelly as well – we just came up the stairs and it smelled of cigarettes like hell, same when you leave an airport, first thing you do when you go out of an airport, everyone is smoking his first cigarette and it stinks – if this year it can be better somehow then great.

Raikkonen, resplendent in the red of Alfa Romeo where once he carried West and Marlboro sponsorship, stated that branding on cars hadn’t influenced his choices, nor does he expect his son to be influenced. Unfortunately the conference is brought to a close before I’m able to ask whether his present sponsors share a similar indifference to the value of their marketing millions.

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3pm

After the press conference it gets hectic, made all the more so by the massive paddock complex and the fact that the teams have two hospitality ‘houses’, but not situated in close proximity to each other. I draw Daniil Kvyat, Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris and the two Red Bull drivers.

Max Verstappen and I enjoy some banter as we discuss his contractual situation, while Pierre Gasly does well in disguising the obvious pressure he is under after a difficult start to his career with the team.

5pm

Interviews over, it’s time to transmit the recordings to base, a task that takes almost two hours so slow is the internet at peak times.

Thereafter I head for the main gate in the hope of taxi. I’m fortunate in hailing a driver who has just dropped a fare, and by 8pm I’m in my room.

Dinner will be some form of McDonalds, simply as jet lag-induced tiredness has by now hit me with a vengeance.

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