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Max Verstappen believes the painted track surface at the unused Shanghai circuit has many unknown factors ahead of the 2024 Chinese GP (April 19-21).
With the Chinese race returning to the calendar after five years, there has been close to no track activity on the track. The promoters and organizers are said to have painted the circuit instead of resurfacing it, which might pose its own set of challenges.
Outlining his expectations from the weekend, Verstappen felt that he was clueless about the painted tarmac’s effect on tyre group and wear and tear. Ideally, abrasive tarmac can lead to severe tyre graining, where the rubber starts to wear off profusely.
Due to the abrasive asphalt, the Chinese GP race could end up being similar to Australia, where the Red Bull could struggle with its front-end limited characteristics. The Shanghai circuit has been known to swing from the front end limited to the rear end over the years.
Max Verstappen believes that the Albert Park layout was different, which could lead to a different outcome. Given the factors, including track surface and the sprint format, many variables could come into play in terms of car performance.
Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, the Dutchman shared his expectations from the sprint format weekend and the returning venue.
"Yeah, I think with the new cars, of course, that will be a little bit of an unknown," Verstappen said. "On the trackside, it looks like they’ve painted it, not resurface. So, I dont know what that does to the grip of the track. So that is something we have to get on top of."
"Of course, it's the same for everyone but we just to have a good FP1. And hopefully we dont have to fine tune too much on the car. That will, I think, really help our weekend if we hit the ground running and we could win," he added.
Asked if the front-end limitation would make the car struggle as it did in Australia, the three-time world champion said:
"I think Australia, the Friday wasn't ideal, maybe the Saturday morning wasn't. But I think we've made some changes to my car that I felt better with. But unfortunately I couldn’t show that, so I don’t think Australia is the same."
"Australia had a lot more faster corners than here, It's a little more low speed. So it's a little bit more different. We’ll just have to wait and see really," he added.
Max Verstappen feels track sprint format could hinder understanding of the car in China
Given the unfamiliarity with the circuit in new generation F1 cars, Max Verstappen believes a single practice session in the sprint weekend could pose challenges.
The fact that many of the drivers have never driven in Shanghai makes it a tricky circuit to host the first sprint weekend of the calendar. Most cars can now change setups in parc ferme between sessions, but the single practice session gives little room to understand the car and its performance around the circuit.
On whether a single practice session made it difficult to understand the circuit, Max Verstappen said:
"The problem might be a little different to tracks where we have a sprint weekend where we’ve driven on in the last two years. In FP1, it’s obviously about trying to maximize the time that you have and really understand the car as well as you can."
Asked if he hadn’t seen a painted track surface before in other series or tracks, the 26-year-old said:
"Not in F1. I’ve seen it in go karting where they have painted the track. It normally gives you more grip but I dont know what it does here."
Although Max Verstappen leads the championship, the margin is only 13 points over Sergio Perez. With many points to play for at the sprint weekend, victory in the sprint and main race could help the reigning champion increase his lead.
Red Bull Racing are currently leading the points tally with a small margin of 21 points, followed by Ferrari. Therefore, they will need both drivers in top form to continue their momentum.
