Williams driver Carlos Sainz has given his first assessment of the newly resurfaced Shanghai International Circuit ahead of the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix. He’s optimistic about the changes, but is yet to discuss this in detail with the Grove team.
After cycling around the track, he gave his initial thoughts.
“I haven’t talked about it yet because I arrived only an hour ago, but I can tell you I did some lap cycling yesterday just to see it and train. And it looks good, looks high grip.”
The Spaniard was quick to temper expectations, however, as he compared it to the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix where the track became unbelievably slippery. A last-minute resurfacing, matched with poor weather conditions, saw the track become an ice rink for the drivers. At the time, Sainz described it as “the strangest Friday I’ve done in my life.”
The newly laid asphalt still contained oils that rose to the surface, adding a lubricity to the tarmac. This was only made worse by the accompanying rain and low temperatures, leaving the drivers struggling at even low speeds.
“Turkey also looked high grip,” Sainz continued in discussion with the media, including Motorsport.com. “And then there was a thing on the surface creating low grip, but I can tell you it looks high grip, it looks well resurfaced, it looks smooth, so yeah, very common with all the new resurfacing that has been done all around the world.”
Complicating the weekend for Sainz is the fact the Chinese Grand Prix features a sprint race. This means that he and the other 19 drivers will have only 60 minutes of practice before heading straight into sprint qualifying. In April of 2024, Sainz was less than happy with this format of weekend after a five-year hiatus from the Shanghai track.
Track views of the start
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“Maybe for you guys at home, it’s exciting, but for engineers and drivers, it’s something that for me, in my opinion, we shouldn’t take the risk and have a normal weekend,” he said. This year, it’s the six rookies that will find this difficult with barely any time to practice.
This could well be another unpredictable race, especially if the track doesn’t yield the levels of grip Sainz is expecting after the resurfacing. So far, this season has been chaos.
