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Formula 1 returns to the Shanghai International Circuit for the first time since 2019.
It is the fifth race of the season and the first sprint race weekend of the year.
` F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your questions ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.
Which cars are best for China?
The Red Bull – it is the best car. Point. However, China should give Ferrari another realistic chance to get close to Red Bull, as was the case in Australia.
Shanghai is a so-called front-limited track – meaning the grip at the front of the car is crucial for the lap time – because the long corners put a lot of strain on the front tires.
As a result, you can also expect the front tires to become grainy, causing the surface to tear and grip to decrease.
Ferrari has proven strong on heavily grained tracks of late – think Las Vegas late last year and Australia this year. They seem to suffer less from this than Red Bull.
That should bring the two leading cars closer together. Whether it is enough for Ferrari to beat Red Bull in a direct fight is another question.
As for the other top teams, McLaren is worried about China because their car doesn't work well in corners with long entrances where the car brakes and turns for a long time. Therefore, they may be relatively less competitive.
Why don't F1 teams select young drivers? Why choose experience over enthusiasm? Max Verstappen has proven that youth and patience work.
F1 teams are interested in one thing above all else from their drivers: speed. That's why Fernando Alonso is still in demand. Yes, he will be 45 when his new contract with Aston Martin expires, but he is still performing at a level that surpasses all but very few other drivers in Formula 1.
Why would you choose youth over Alonso's pace and experience in this situation? It wouldn't make any sense.
Furthermore, it's simply not true to say that teams don't select young drivers – Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lando Norris and, as the questioner points out, Verstappen all arrived young and were quick straight away. Just like it was the case with Alonso and Lewis Hamilton some time ago.
They just don't pick young drivers – they try to pick the right ones. And only if they think they are a better option than the existing ones.
Oliver Bearman is likely to get an F1 seat next year, most likely at Haas, after his stint as Carlos Sainz's replacement at Ferrari in Saudi Arabia. And Mercedes looks increasingly likely to promote its 17-year-old protégé Andrea Kimi Antonelli if Hamilton moves to Ferrari.
Given the form of some drivers, do you expect there to be any driver changes mid-season?
This can happen any season in Formula 1 and the people most at risk at the moment are Daniel Ricciardo at RB and Logan Sargeant at Williams.
Ricciardo has had a difficult start to the season and Red Bull is notoriously unforgiving towards its drivers. Since returning to Formula 1 in the middle of last year, the Australian has no longer been discussed as a potential replacement for Sergio Perez in the senior team, but is apparently in danger of being abandoned in favor of reserve driver Liam Lawson in the junior team.
If Ricciardo's performance doesn't improve soon, the already high pressure on him will only increase. It wouldn't surprise anyone if Lawson were in the car sooner or later in this scenario.
image source, Getty Images
image description, Liam Lawson (right) drove five F1 races last season after Daniel Ricciardo broke his hand at the Dutch Grand Prix
Williams has had a difficult start to the season in many respects and Sargeant's performances compared to teammate Alex Albon are far from their main concern. But they are cause for concern.
That being said, there doesn't seem to be any desire to change things mid-season, so Sargeant will likely survive until the end of the year, where he'll likely be dropped if he hasn't improved his game.
Is Alex Albon wasted at Williams? And would a move back to Red Bull be a good move for him after what happened last time?
The driver market is currently changing, even after Fernando Alonso's decision to choose Aston Martin. There are places available at Red Bull and Mercedes as well as most teams in the second half of the grid.
It's hard to predict how things will turn out. “Wasted” is a subjective assessment. What you're basically saying is that Albon should be in a better car given his talent?
Would he win races in a winning car? Yes. Is he better than the drivers already on the top five teams, to the extent that those teams would consider him an option? That's what they have to say, and his name doesn't seem to get thrown around that much.
Would it be a good move for him to return to Red Bull? If Max Verstappen stays, probably not – it didn't work out well last time, although Albon would undoubtedly say he would be better equipped to handle the second race now that he has more experience.
Mercedes is the other top team with a vacancy, but I don't hear Albon's name mentioned there. After that, he might feel like staying at Williams, where team boss James Vowles holds him in high esteem, and that growing with the team would be a good option.
Audi/Sauber appear to be the better choice on paper, but they appear to be targeting Carlos Sainz and Nico Hülkenberg primarily, with Valtteri Bottas also an option.
What options does Felipe Drugovich have after Alonso signs a new contract with Aston Martin?
Drugovich, the 2022 Formula 2 champion, is also Aston Martin's reserve driver this year. The Brazilian has no hope of going there – Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will stay there in 2025.
His options are to look elsewhere in the bottom half of the starting lineup and convince a team owner to take a chance. But he's not a name that's discussed that much. There seems to be little interest in him in Formula 1. He might be better off pursuing a racing career elsewhere, such as in IndyCar, Formula E or endurance racing.
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