Shanghai International Circuit, 2017

Dry race weekend expected in Shanghai

2019 Chinese Grand Prix weather

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The weather caught out F1 teams in Bahrain last week as a lack of intermediate and wet tyres stopped them from running when a rare shower fell during the post-race test in Bahrain.

However for this weekend’s 1,000th championship round the conditions are likely to be stable and settled. Three days of consistent temperatures with no significant threat of rain are expected at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Although a sunny start to Friday is expected, that will change around the time first practice begins. A band of cloud will settle over the area and it is expected to persist for the rest of the weekend.

Ambient temperatures will struggle to get above 20C throughout the weekend, meaning track temperatures are likely to be similar. That will change if the sun breaks through – during last year’s race the overcast conditions lifted and track temperatures rose to more than 30C, significantly hotter than they had been in practice.

The Chinese Grand Prix has seen some challenging conditions in the past, notably 10 years ago when Red Bull scored their first ever race victory in soaking conditions. Two years ago much of Friday practice was cancelled due to visibility problems which prevented the medical helicopter from being able to fly to a nearby hospital.

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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...

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6 comments on “Dry race weekend expected in Shanghai”

  1. Would have liked to see a wet race similar to German GP last year with rain shower adding to mix of unpredictability rather than a boring straight forward race.

    1. Jonathan Parkin
      11th April 2019, 12:45

      An even better race would be dry-wet-dry-wet with the winner starting in the bottom quarter of the grid

  2. The colder temperatures are interesting. Am I right in thinking Red Bull struggled to get heat into the soft tyre in Bahrain?

  3. Does anyone know why the Chinese GP was moved to April back in 2009? I’ve always wondered this, but have never really managed to find an answer to it. The Chinese GP originally was a late-season race with the inaugural event taking place in late-September and the following four in October before the shift to April ten years ago, and a few times since then the temperatures during the Chinese GP weekend have been relatively low to F1’s liking, similar to what they usually are during pre-season testing in Spain, while both September and October are warmer than April, so temperature-wise the late-season phase was better.

    1. @jerejj I don’t know the reason but I don’t think the autumn slot was especially weather reliable. in 2006 they had a fair amount of rain and I recall drivers struggling to get tyres warmed up after pitstops (kind of how schumacher won, if I recall). I don’t mind the odd cold race, we need some variation throughout the year (especially now the circuits are all so similar). it would be an extra element of dullness if we had consistent track temperatures for every race.

  4. Accuweather calling a 50% chance of rain on Sunday morning at the track. Other sources saying rain possible on Saturday. Maybe not such a straightforward weekend in store for the drivers?

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