Lapping Shanghai with Zhou Guanyu

Formula 1 has raced in China since 2004, but since the interruption caused by COVID, there have only been two races held since the 2019 edition. The returning race in 2024 produced some incredibly emotional scenes as Zhou Guanyu became the first Chinese F1 driver to compete in his home event, so who better than the Cadillac reserve driver to talk us around a lap of the Shanghai International Circuit?

Zhou has a new perspective this year as reserve drivers with the new Cadillac team. Sam Bloxham/Getty Images

It's a beautiful track, I really enjoy it. What's so exciting about this track, the whole circuit layout, it's in Chinese, it's similar to the word in Shang, so that's just something very special. I don't think any other places have that.

I only started driving here in 2024, but I really love the whole track. All the corners around this circuit – you have a good overtaking spot on the back straight, and then it's massive long straight. There's a lot of braking zones – you can choose the lines for defending and overtaking.

And then on the other side, Turn 1 is super chaotic for tires, super difficult to find the right collaboration between pedals, and I don't feel like there's any other corner like that. It's so long.

Long straight leads into a long Turn 1. Pauline Ballet/Formula 1 via Getty Images

I would say the first sector and Turn 1 is where you can gain so much, because it's a corner that you need to continuously turn through before it feeds into Turn 2 and Turn 3, so it is really affecting your first sector. And if you nail that Sector 1, from Sector 2 with the cars, it's almost like 70% full throttle, so there's a lot of benefit and you can gain a lot of time in Sector 1 and then the braking after the back straight.

The main setup challenge now is to have full deployment for the lap. Honestly, this is the main thing, like Melbourne. Whatever you do on the throttle, the percentage you use for the lap, the speed you carry, it changes so much about your power deployment, so that's very effective, but also challenging for the teams to understand that.

I think that's where the lap time will come this year with this car, because obviously if you have a better car in the corners – high speed, better downforce – you’re quicker, but the power is so demanding. There's a few long straights, so you need to balance right where you're giving the power deployment, where you have to restore the energy – I think that's very important to understand.

Braking stability is very difficult at the end of the back straight, and also in Turn 6; these two are the biggest two braking points. They’re very narrow corners, the angle of the corner, and you're going down to second gear – and maybe even first after the back straight – with this year's car.

Zhou compares the demands of Shanghai's circuit as being similar to Mexico City's. Dom Gibbons/Getty Images

Downforce-wise it has got a bit more clear, because with this year's car, you want to run quite on the high side, with the grip you have from that, and also you want to get the best out of recharging the battery. And Straight Mode makes it easier to do that, when you get to lose some of that downforce. That means what rear wing level you use is not so important anymore this year. It's about what you can get from the deployment in the best areas.

I think this track, it's a little bit similar to when we race in Mexico. I think here and Mexico, it requires a very different technique you need to have, because the surfaces are rough, but then you have to be quite smooth on the entries of corners, and then also aggressive on the braking. So it’s a challenge that you need to drive a little bit different, and it could definitely suit some drivers more than others.