The colossal Shanghai International Circuit is Formula 1 supersized: a huge paddock, towering grandstands, and straights that disappear over the horizon: the circuit has certainly has never lost its wow factor.

Built on marshland in 2003, the track sits on more than 40,000 stabilising concrete pillars, and its infrastructure is bigger and bolder than at any other circuit on the Formula 1 calendar. It’s absence from the calendar between 2020 and 2023, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, was keenly felt.

Located around 40km from the centre of the world’s most populous city, the Shanghai International Circuit is packed full of interesting features. The long pit straight and the even longer back straight dominate the first and final sectors and, with slow corners before and after, ensure the Chinese Grand Prix is never short of overtaking opportunities. However, the race isn’t a simple, low-drag slipstreaming exercise.

The two ‘snail’ sections – corner complexes that go beyond 180° – and a tight hairpin put a premium on good traction and, combined with the high-speed turns of the middle sector, demand some concessions to downforce. There are also several heavy braking zones. While not a problem for the brakes themselves, the unevenness of the braking zones (a legacy of building on marshland) tends to test out a car’s damping capabilities and force driver errors. The tarmac is also very abrasive with the life of tyres – particularly the softest compounds – sometimes measured in corners rather than laps.

We have three Chinese Grand Prix victories to our name. After several near misses, Lewis Hamilton claimed our first victory at the Shanghai International Circuit in the penultimate race of 2008 on his way to his first F1 World Championship. Jenson Button followed this up with our second win in a wet/dry race in 2010, and Hamilton won the race again in 2011.