2016 Chinese Grand Prix team-by-team preview

2016 Chinese Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton’s penalty means Nico Rosberg has a strong chance of winning his sixth race in a row. But the weather forecast is good news for Red Bull.

Here’s how the teams are looking ahead of the third race weekend of the year.

Chinese Grand Prix team-by-team preview

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton has an enviable qualifying record in China with five pole positions to his name including the last three in a row. But he’s unlikely to extend that run this weekend as he arrives carrying a five-place grid penalty for an expected gearbox change.

That will hand the initiate to his team mate Nico Rosberg who arrives looking for his sixth win in a row – something only three drivers have achieved in F1 history. More importantly, Rosberg could increase his 17-point championship lead – especially if Hamilton makes another poor start.

Ferrari

The SF16-H is quick but has come up short so far in terms of reliability. Ferrari have two wins and two no-scores from the first two races.

“The two failures we had, with Kimi [Raikkonen] in Australia and with myself in Bahrain, are related to two completely different reasons,” explained Sebastian Vettel. “In the case of my car, we have understood that a small electronic bug caused a big problem. So we had to change the engine for this race, but I am not overly concerned, since we have found the reason for the failure.”

Red Bull

Kvyat has struggled in qualifying
Although Red Bull took their first grand prix victory at this track seven years ago, throughout their subsequent years of dominance they never managed to repeat that success. But the weather forecast will have them rubbing their hands together in anticipation for this weekend.

The RB12 is great over a race stint but not as potent in qualifying. Saturday’s forecast rain should alleviate that, playing to their consistent strength: downforce. And with one of the Mercedes already compromised they could put themselves in a very strong position for the race.

Daniil Kvyat must raise his game on Saturday, however: He’s qualified ten places lower than Daniel Ricciardo on average so far this year (see below). Perhaps the move away from the elimination format will reinvigorate him.

Williams

Invited to comment on China’s contribution to the world championship during today’s press conference Valtteri Bottas struggled to identify anything special about the Shanghai race.

“Well it’s a good track to drive,” he said. “It’s pretty high speed corners and good for racing so yeah, it’s a nice race overall but no special attachments really, from my side.”

Force India

Bahrain was a “missed opportunity” for Force India according to team co-owner Vijay Mallya. “It feels as though we’ve yet to unleash our true potential this season,” he said.

“Both the races so far have been heavily compromised, either by our own mistakes or outside circumstances, so I’d like to see what we can achieve with a clean, trouble-free race to the flag. When things go to plan, we know we can compete well inside the top ten and I expect everyone in the team to be pushing hard to reverse our recent fortunes.”

Renault

Renault finished the first two races one place outside of the points. But Jolyon Palmer’s hopes of breaking into the top ten in Bahrain died before the race began.

“The warm-up lap all went to plan,” he explained, “I was getting the tyres where I wanted them, then suddenly in the second to last corner I realised the hydraulic problem as the brakes, then the steering and then the gears went.”

Toro Rosso

Max Verstappen was on course for a solid points finish at this race 12 months ago until his power unit failed. It was a disappointing end to a race which featured some excellent passes.

One of the most memorable was a dive from long range down the inside of Felipe Nasr at turn four. “I prepared myself well down the long straight each time and in the end managed to get by from very far,” he remembered.

Sauber

It’s been a miserable start to the season so far for Nasr, who remains concerned with his car’s handling.

“I hope the team was able to sort out the issues I had with the C35,” he said after the Bahrain Grand Prix. However he is optimistic about racing in Shanghai where the team had both cars in the top ten in qualifying and the race last year. “The track characteristics should suit our car,” he added.

McLaren

McLaren will be back to full strength with Fernando Alonso returning to the cockpit – providing he gets the green light to drive in the race, of course.

But Jenson Button is wary about how McLaren will perform in Shanghai. “This won’t be an easy race for us,” he said. “The conditions will be very different to Australia and Bahrain but it’ll be good for us to test the characteristics of the MP4-31 there, and understand as much as we can about how it behaves on this sort of track and with the cooler temperatures.”

Manor

During the Bahrain Grand Prix Renault were heard discussing how difficult Kevin Magnussen was finding it to pass Pascal Wehrlein’s Mercedes-engined Manor, describing it as a “rocket” on the straights.

“It was funny to hear about those comments from Kev during the race,” said Wehrlein. “It was true though; the car was really quick on the straights and there are a couple of good ones here at Shanghai. What we know from Bahrain though is that there’s some more work to do to get the best from the car throughout the lap. There is still a lot we can do to continue improving the set-up and here we need a good compromise from straights to turns.”

Haas

Romain Grosjean has posted two points finishes for Haas so far but Esteban Gutierrez has had two troubled and point-less weekends. However Gutierrez believes “good times are just around the corner for us” and he’ll soon be “scoring points consistently”.

“We’ve had a good pace and a good car at two different tracks. I’m just going to keep preparing, keep pushing and keep fighting the same way because soon, the results will be there.”

2016 driver form

DriverGrid averageRace averageRace bestRace worstClassified
Lewis Hamilton1.002.50232/2
Nico Rosberg2.001.00112/2
Sebastian Vettel3.003.00331/1
Kimi Raikkonen4.002.00221/2
Felipe Massa6.506.50582/2
Valtteri Bottas11.008.50892/2
Daniel Ricciardo6.504.00442/2
Daniil Kvyat16.507.00771/2
Nico Hulkenberg9.0011.007152/2
Sergio Perez13.5014.5013162/2
Kevin Magnussen18.0011.5011122/2
Jolyon Palmer16.0011.0011111/1
Max Verstappen7.508.006102/2
Carlos Sainz Jnr9.009.00991/2
Marcus Ericsson16.0012.0012121/2
Felipe Nasr19.0014.5014152/2
Fernando Alonso11.000/1
Jenson Button13.0014.0014141/2
Pascal Wehrlein18.5014.5013162/2
Rio Haryanto21.0017.0017171/2
Romain Grosjean14.005.50562/2
Esteban Gutierrez16.500/2
Stoffel Vandoorne12.0010.0010101/1

Are you going to the Chinese Grand Prix?

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Over to you

Who do you think will be the team to beat in the Chinese Grand Prix? Have your say below.

And don’t forget to enter your predictions for this weekend’s race. You can edit your predictions until the start of qualifying:

2016 Chinese Grand Prix

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Author information

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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5 comments on “2016 Chinese Grand Prix team-by-team preview”

  1. “Ferrari have two wins and two no-scores from the first two races.”

    I think Ferrari would love if that was the case. I believe you mean, podium not wins.

  2. Grosjean : Grid average 14, race average 5,5… Impressive.

  3. Interesting. “McLaren back to full strength”. Not too sure on that one. And obviously about a thousand Alonso fans are going to scream at me now. :)

    1. A Mclaren at full strength is equal to the pace of a Renault (hopefully), regardless if they have Alonso, Vandoorne or Button in that seat

  4. @keithcollantine should read Ferrari podiums not wins. No?

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