F1 2026 - Round 2 - China - Shanghai 🇨🇳

rameire · 09-03-2026 09:37AM #1

Friday 13th
Practice 1 - 3.30 - 4.30
Sprint Qualifying - 7.30 - 8.14

Saturday 14th
Sprint Race - 3.00 - 4.00
Qualifying - 7.00 - 8.00

Sunday 15th
Race - 7.00

The timings above are Morning Irish Time. Add 8 hours for Shanghai Time.
This weekend coming will see the start of the Academy Racing, there are no F2 or F3 races.

Team Standings

Andrew76 · 09-03-2026 01:12PM

So…. that back straight is over 1 km long. How are the teams going to manage that battery wise? Crawl around the rest of the lap so the battery lasts or will that super clipping rubbish kick in half way down the straight?

X0PHER · 09-03-2026 01:23PM

Hard to know how this race is going to go but I don't see Aston Martin getting any better.

flazio · 09-03-2026 04:04PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124298125#Comment_124298125

They could run on the Formula E layout 😛

Andrew76 · 09-03-2026 04:14PM

That gave me laugh thanks! 😂😂

sekond · 10-03-2026 05:55PM

Well, there goes my Mother's Day lie-in. Might at least get a cup of tea provided to me before lights out.

Frank Bullitt · 10-03-2026 10:21PM

I suspect this track will show the real issues with these rules. The FIA already looking into some changes tells us that they know they can't leave this unaddressed.

bren2001 · 11-03-2026 08:26AM

Looking forward to this one as I am heading along. First time to ever attend an F1 event!

eviltimeban · 11-03-2026 01:42PM

Running order probably gonna be the same. Merc on top with a Ferrari and Red Bull in the mix.

Same mid field.

Aston double DNF.

Widdensushi · 11-03-2026 01:45PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124304001#Comment_124304001

Sums it up,,I don't think I will bother watching this season,, there should be one engine manufacturer same as the tyres,try to narrow the gaps between teams.

sk8board · 11-03-2026 02:13PM

Red bull & McLaren will improve no doubt, so it’ll be interesting to see if Ferrari and Mercedes are still the top 4.

The best of the rest is going to be a great battle this year - not many had BER, BOR and LIN leading F1.5 last Sunday

recyclebin · 11-03-2026 02:53PM

McLaren and the rest of the Mercedes customers should improve now that the cat is out of the bag as to the information about the latest spec engines that Mercedes had been withholding. The customer teams didn't even have the latest spec for preseason testing so needed data from Australia to see the disparity.

sk8board · 11-03-2026 03:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124304192#Comment_124304192

Pretty much yep.

I heard it described best as by law the engines are all identical to everyone, and what’s different is that the factory team can ask how to extract the best from the engine, while the customer teams figure it out themselves.

Mitch Connor · 11-03-2026 03:44PM

will be interesting to see if Ferrari run the trick wing. Its reported they are bringing it, but are they bringing the option to go either direction? Or with only the one practice session and then only having Sprint Qualy, Sprint, Qualifying and Race, do they have to make their pick in Practice one and stick with it? I know they can change the car between the Sprint and Qualifying (out of parc ferme) but without being able to properly test the difference between the two in practice do they just have to pick a direction and stick to it?

Could they decide to go different options for the two cars?

Andrew76 · 11-03-2026 04:35PM

Will be cool to see the wing in action again if they do run it. So it seems China won't be as bad as last week for battery harvesting - it has enough braking zones and medium-high speed corners to charge the battery enough for the cars to actually drive at proper speeds. Except for the end of the straight, so expect a lack of onboards for that section at least and maybe a continuation of hardly any driver radio broadcasts.

More here:

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-2026-track-energy-rankings-chinese-gp-will-be-different/

rameire · 13-03-2026 12:07AM

8ish hours until Sprint quali tomorrow at 7.30am.

Andrew76 · 13-03-2026 08:13AM

Morning folks. Five min recap of FP1 below. Merc still with a healthy gap to the next best car.

https://youtu.be/fNEGWXFmZcU?is=WAy2-PRuiac1i6NF

PsychoPete · 13-03-2026 08:36AM

Ferraris looking like a right handful

rameire · 13-03-2026 08:38AM

Perez not running due to fuel issue.

Andrew76 · 13-03-2026 08:45AM

Both Red Bulls a mile back.

Jacovs · 13-03-2026 08:45AM

Both Williams and both Astons out in Q1. Together with Bottas slowest and Perez not even taking part.

Andrew76 · 13-03-2026 08:57AM

Leclerc showing some pace but yeah, Russell can phone this one in.

PsychoPete · 13-03-2026 09:02AM

Nobody is beating Russell this weekend

Widdensushi · 13-03-2026 09:15AM

The gap is ridiculous

pjohnson · 13-03-2026 09:27AM

This is like 2009 all over again. The big season-defining question now is when/if the others can catch up to Mercedes to make things competitive.

Mitch Connor · 13-03-2026 10:21AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124308620#Comment_124308620

and you would imagine that will only really matter for individual races. I think Merc will have the titles in hand before they are getting properly challanged, if it happens at all.

Mitch Connor · 13-03-2026 10:37AM

smarter people than me… what does this suggest?

Have seen other oics showing the merc and full throttle at 325kph and 325kph on breaks - I assume the above is from that point as well.

Is it normal for the cars to main the speed so solidly as above? if they are able to keep the engine at a pace, while breaking… how is that happening and what could it mean for regen etc? Or can it only be a bug in the data, for both drivers?

Schorpio · 13-03-2026 10:41AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124308620#Comment_124308620

It's not. That was an aero advantage that the other teams could replicate.

This is more like 2014. It's fundamentally an engine advantage, with the other teams stymied by engine development regulations.

This has all of the early hallmarks of being a dominant and quite boring season.

Andrew76 · 13-03-2026 10:43AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124308759#Comment_124308759

Is that the super clipping at the end of the main straight (not sure what the x-axis is)? So they still have the accelerator planted but the engine is locking the speed to a lower max to regen the battery? For sure it would not be a bug in the data.