Sprint in China, drivers warn FIA: concerns over manholes and penalties for damaged floors. Formula 1 will return to China to tackle the first Sprint weekend of 2024.

Returning to Shanghai after five years
When the last Chinese Grand Prix was held in 2019, Max Verstappen had just 5 career victories, and Charles Leclerc was yet to win one. Covid has kept the Shanghai circuit off the calendar for many years, and in two weeks, Formula 1 will return to China to tackle the first Sprint weekend of the 2024 Formula 1 championship.

In a recent press conference, Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen voiced their concerns about having only one free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix on a track where the current ground-effect cars have never raced. Sergio Perez pointed out the hope that there won’t be issues with manholes, as has already happened in Las Vegas and Bahrain during the winter tests of 2024. The current cars passing over curbs and manholes generate such a powerful suction that manholes have collapsed, causing severe damage to the affected vehicles, both on city circuits and permanent tracks.

Additionally, according to racefans.net, during the drivers’ meeting, they also highlighted another concern related to the Sprint format scheduled in China: the risk of new disqualifications for excessive wear or damage on the floor, as happened to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the end of last season’s United States Grand Prix. In that instance, the Sprint format allowed for only one free practice session before the Parc Fermé rules applied, and the undulations of the COTA circuit excessively wore down the floors of the Mercedes and Ferrari, leading to their exclusion from the race results after routine checks. However, compared to the 2023 regulations, the Parc Fermé will come into effect before the Qualifying, which has been moved to Saturday afternoon, and it will be possible to work on the cars after the Sprint Shootout and the Sprint.

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