We've had quite a few good races at Shanghai now and I was wondering if I was alone in quite liking the circuit. It doesn't stand out as a classic but when you think about it it has produced some very good races of late.
Since I've started taking a core fan level of interest in f1 (as in spending several hours a week on forums) I have loved the China track, its brilliant.
I think it's pretty poor, went for average in the poll because there are some on the calendar that are atrocious. Last two races there have been spiced up by the tyres, more specifically teams using different strategies, both races would've been terrible if they'd been held three races from the end of the season. Yesterday was a completely turgid affair until the last stint. I hope they get a new track, the current one is virtually the same as Malaysia (Malaysia's a bit better though) and there's been talk of having a race in Beijing.
The straight is too long, the corners don't really have any overtaking opportunities, and it's taking place in a country that has no real interest in F1 as can be seen by the virtually empty grandstands. However, it does provide a good race pretty much year on year, so it's not like we can complain.
It's okay. It's produced some great races, but also some forgettable ones. I hate driving it on F1 2011.
It's interesting and has some unusual features and usually gives us a race that's either similarly interesting or really brilliant. Sunday's race was the latter - a fascinating chess game, with drivers positioning themselves and shuffling up, waiting for the moment that came with eight laps to go when someone smashed his fist onto the board and the pieces were scattered everywhere. A fantastic race for tyres, too, with some able to generate speed at the end of the race while others got close to the cliff and a couple went over it. Much of the reason for that will be track-related, too.
[h=2]"Is Shanghai a good circuit?" Yes! [/h]It is purpose built and is one of the widest Grand Prix tracks in the world (perhaps the widest of all but I've never measured them). People tend to be quick to criticize Tilke; unsurprising when we remember he was also responsible for our venue next week, which is amongst the worst ever. But Tilke's Chinese 'snails' were a stroke of genius. There should be no doubt: Shanghai is amongst the best circuits of the present era.
Its definitely equal best of the Tilke tracks, with Sepang and Istanbul, but that goes to show how awful his tracks are. The Korean track should be good, but you can only really get overtaking in the first 30 seconds of the lap. Singapore and Abu Dhabi are just horrible, no flow what-so-ever and, at best, 3 overtaking opportunities. In terms of driving, Bahrain isnt that bad, but there is very little overtaking, even if they arent using the longer track this year. Even with KERS in 2009, it was boring, and despite there being a lot of chances for DRS, as ever, I can see it not working, as the DRS never does. Valencia has to be one of the worst race tracks in the world. Again, no flow to it, and walls move around the straights, meaning theres not much chance for anyone to pull a move on someone, until they are at the braking zone. Theres a video on youtube where Tilke talks about what makes a great track, and he lists all of the things that his tracks don't have. He really needs to be sacked, and the man behind the new layout at Silverstone needs his job
me too, I especially like to attack the first series of bends, most online drivers pootle around it, and there's generally some sort of accident there because of it, but onlie racing and F1 spectating are different things entirely, as one of my favourite tracks online is Valencia. That said there was plenty of overtaking outside of the DRS zone, the only thing that spoiled it was the state of the track off-line caused by the 'marbles' from the tyres.
