Five years since its last visit, a very different-looking F1 prepares to race in China

Back in 2019, if I had told you that there wouldn’t be a Formula 1 race in China for five years, you might not have been totally surprised. F1’s always been a sport that will pick up and drop races if required based on demand and who is willing to pay the most, and races have come and gone, although rarely in such a short window as that.

But the reason for the lack of a race in Shanghai is one that hardly anyone realistically saw coming when watching the last event to be held there – the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world nine months later.

As the epicenter of the outbreak China was the first race of the 2020 season to be canceled before the shambolic handling of the Australian Grand Prix eventually led to that year’s racing being paused until July.

It has taken a full five years for the next edition of the Chinese Grand Prix to come around, and with it a Sprint weekend that means teams get just one practice session on a track they haven’t visited in half a decade. And in that time, the sport has changed massively.

Liberty Media had only taken over Formula 1 two years earlier and the sport was going through a major period of transition back in 2019, with so many opportunities being identified but some being more successful than others.

There had been fragrances(!), a new logo, and a bunch of extra cameras and microphones in the paddock that led to Drive to Survive hitting the screens for the very first time just a few weeks before the last Chinese Grand Prix.

That year’s calendar had races in Germany, France and Russia that have since fallen off the schedule, and the year started with Charlie Whiting still holding the position of race director prior to his untimely death in Melbourne. The sport was still coming to terms with that loss by the third round, with Michael Masi having taken over the position and many of Whiting’s responsibilities.

When Formula 1 arrived in China in 2019 it was still coming to grips with the loss of longtime race director Charlie Whiting (above, left), who died during the Australian GP weekend. Michael Masi (above, right) took over most of Whiting’s responsibilities. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images

China was celebrated as the 1000th race in the world championship (main image), and the gap has been so big (and calendar expansion so large) that the paddock returns to Shanghai for what will be the 1106th this time around. A lot has happened in between.

The last Chinese Grand Prix weekend kicked off with a pair of 90-minute practice sessions on the Friday (each since cut down to 60) and ended up being won by Lewis Hamilton, with what was his 75th victory. He’s gone on to add 28 more to that tally – that number alone would be good enough for ninth on the all-time list – but his current total of 103 hasn’t been added to in more than two years.

While Hamilton was taking win number 75 five years ago, Verstappen had just five to his name and was limited to fourth place on his last visit to Shanghai. Fifty-two more have followed since then, moving him behind only Hamilton and Michael Schumacher – who, incidentally, took his 91st and final grand prix victory in China – in the all-time standings.

Meanwhile, that 2019 race was just the third start for the likes of George Russell, Lando Norris and Alex Albon, while the grid also featured since-retired-or-replaced Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Robert Kubica, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and Antonio Giovinazzi.