F1 Chinese GP 2024: Updated schedule & timings

Following a five-year absence the F1 Chinese Grand Prix is back on the schedule.

Formula 1 heads from Suzuka to Shanghai (Chinese GP) for the fifth round of the season. The recent Japanese GP was a clear win for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman took his third win at Suzuka, leading his teammate, Sergio Perez, by 11 seconds.

However, it wasn’t a great weekend for Mercedes. George Russell finished a distant P7, two places ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Even after having a promising start in the qualifying, it was very evident that the team did not display a similar performance in the final race. 

With all the teams outperforming their potential limits, the Mercedes W15 seems to be disappointing its own drivers. After the race, Lewis Hamilton said, “The car is never what I hoped it would be. It’s never what we hoped it would be.”

April 14, 2019… Shanghai hosted our 1,000th Grand Prix! ✨ Next week, we return to China 🤩#F1 #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/DyUmIxfuVj

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 14, 2024

Tensions about the track’s unfamiliarity and the sprint weekend

Following a five-year absence since 2019, the F1 Chinese Grand Prix is back on the schedule.

Since then there has been no action on the circuit which in turn is stirring up the F1 industry. Above all of this, the decision to host the sprint race in China after the prolonged break has raised several questions from the drivers.

Max Verstappen expressed his concern by saying “I think it’s not great, let’s say like that, to do that.

“Because when you have been away from a track for quite a while, I think you never know what you’re going to experience, right?

However, Ferrari’s  Carlos Sainz had some contradicting opinions on this. According to him it “makes sense” to host a sprint race in China considering that it is a “great racing track that offers a good possibility to overtake”. 

But he also added: “At the same time, it’s what we said in the drivers’ briefing, we say to FIA and Formula 1, with these kind of cars to go to a track with one hour of practice and straight into qualifying, with the regulations that they put us, with the plank wear and things like this, and how tricky one bump could make the car, I think it’s not a good choice to choose to put the Sprint after four or five years absence.

Chinese GrP 2024: Updated Schedule and Timing

The event at Shanghai will be following the sprint format consisting of sprint qualifying and the sprint race in place of FP2 and FP3. The final race will take place on 21 April 2024.

19 April, 2024

• Free Practice 1: 9:00 am- 10:00 am IST
• Sprint Qualifying: 1:00 pm- 2:00 pm IST

20 April, 2024

• Sprint Race: 8:30 am- 9:30 am IST
• Qualifying: 12:30 pm- 1:30 pm IST

21 April, 2024

• Race: 12:30 pm- 2:30 pm IST

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