Chinese Grand Prix 2016: 5 Key Talking Points Ahead of Shanghai Race
McLaren will take three race-ready drivers to Formula One's 2016 Chinese Grand Prix amid continuing uncertainty over Fernando Alonso's fitness to drive.
Stoffel Vandoorne was drafted in as a last-minute replacement to partner Jenson Button at the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 3. The Belgian will travel to Shanghai with the team, ready to step in again, but Alonso will be hoping to put the youngster's F1 career on hold until 2017 when he undergoes medical tests on Thursday.
Elsewhere in the world of F1, politics and finances have reigned supreme in recent weeks. The 11 teams got together in a rare show of unity to force Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt to back down in the row over qualifying, but format changes could still be made in time for 2017.
By then, at least one of the teams could have disappeared from the grid—or perhaps acquired a new name.
Read on for more on that and the other big talking points ahead of the Chinese race.
Will the Master or the Apprentice Partner Jenson Button at McLaren?
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Fernando Alonso was forced to miss the Bahrain Grand Prix due to injuries sustained in his heavy crash with Esteban Gutierrez in Australia. The Spaniard expected to be driving and had arrived at the circuit as normal, but the FIA doctors had other ideas.
Scans on the Thursday before the race revealed the rib fractures Alonso suffered had not fully healed. He was willing to take the risk and race, but the FIA refused to give him medical clearance.
Stoffel Vandoorne was whisked overnight from Super Formula testing in Japan and took Alonso's place for the weekend. The 24-year-old performed admirably on his debut, outqualifying Jenson Button and finishing 10th to take the final world championship point.
Whether the Belgian's second grand prix start is in 2016 or 2017 rests on the test results that will be performed on Thursday.
Alonso is back in training and clearly wants to get back in the car as soon as possible, but the FIA doctor is likely to err on the side of caution.
Having Alonso back on the grid would give McLaren the best-possible chance of a good result, and as fans we always want to see the top drivers competing.
But Vandoorne is surely one of the future stars. If Alonso does have to miss out, the Belgian should once again prove to be a more than adequate replacement.
The Battle for Power Continues
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In the world of F1, Bernie Ecclestone holds more power and control than any other individual. So when he decided, before the season began, qualifying needed changing, qualifying duly got changed.
Sadly, it was changed into an absurd, poorly thought-out elimination format that no one loved. After a woeful session in Australia, the teams wanted to change it back to the 2015 system, but Ecclestone and his temporary ally, FIA president Jean Todt, did not.
It therefore remained in place for Bahrain as discussions on an alternative system continued. The teams, drivers, fans, analysts and commentators knew what the solution was—a return to the 2015 format—but Ecclestone and Todt wouldn't budge.
They couldn't possibly admit they'd been wrong, and they could not allow their authority to be challenged. So instead of doing the sensible thing, they proposed yet another unwanted, half-baked new system, in which aggregate times would be used to decide the grid.
The teams were supposed to be voting on this idea on Thursday, and it looked like we were set for another rejection and more elimination qualifying for China.
Then something incredible happened. The teams normally struggle to agree on which day of the week it is; put them all in a white room and they'd spend the whole day arguing about whether it really was white and then meet again two weeks later to present 11 differing viewpoints on the shade.
But this time, as Ian Parkes of Autosport reported, they found a single voice and informed Ecclestone and Todt they would not accept anything other than a return to 2015-style qualifying. Faced with the one thing more powerful than Ecclestone—the 11 teams united as one—the only option was to back down.
Of course, this isn't the end—as journalist Will Buxton's excellent analysis states, the battle for control of the sport is set to run and run. The qualifying mess was just a small skirmish in a far wider conflict.
Will any shots be fired in China?
Sauber's Future Remains in Doubt
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The financial difficulties Sauber is currently experiencing have flown somewhat under the radar in recent weeks due to the more wide-ranging issues relating to qualifying and the sport's governance.
Money is tight for the smaller teams that do not receive bonus payments from the commercial-rights holder; Sauber are teetering close to the brink.
The team was late in paying staff salaries in February, and Autosport's Lawrence Barretto reported they were only able to pay employees for March due to an advance payment from Marcus Ericsson's backers.
They will arrive and compete as normal in China, but a fresh injection of funds from somewhere will be needed to keep them going throughout the rest of the season—and there are rumours this could come from Ferrari.
Journalist Joe Saward recently mentioned Ferrari and Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne was "apparently trying to buy Sauber," and GrandPrix247 suggests the Scuderia's intention is to rebrand the Swiss outfit as Alfa Romeo—another of Fiat's stable of brands.
We should hear more about this story during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.
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Can Anyone Stop Nico Rosberg's Charge?
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Nico Rosberg is on quite a roll. Since the infamous "gust of wind" that cost him victory at the 2015 United States Grand Prix, the German has won five successive races.
Only three drivers in the sport's history have bettered this streak—Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. Rosberg heads into the Chinese Grand Prix with a 17-point lead in the drivers' championship, and the momentum looks very much on his side.
But will the pendulum swing in China?
Lewis Hamilton looks the most likely man to end Rosberg's run, and after finishing third in Bahrain, the three-time world champion indicated he wasn't worried about his team-mate's form. The Brit, who has started on pole for both races so far in 2016, was quoted by Sky Sports saying:
"I couldn't care less if Nico won the last five—it's the last two.
There's only been two in the season. It doesn't count. You win consecutively in a season—that's something. Five over two seasons, for me that doesn't psychologically mean anything to me.
I feel really positive even though we have lost the first two races because of the foundation building work that my engineers and I have done. Considering I've been here four years, our communication is better than ever, and the strength which we have is stronger than ever so I know we're going to come good.
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Hamilton effectively lost the two races so far due to poor starts; had he got even average getaways, there's every chance he, not Rosberg, would have taken the chequered flag.
Overtaking an identical car can be tough in China due to the punishment the front tyres take, so whoever reaches Turn 1 in the lead is highly likely to stay there. The first few hundred metres of Sunday's race will be crucial.
How Will Haas Fare on a Different Kind of Circuit?
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The new Haas team has made a dream start to its life as an F1 constructor. Romain Grosjean's sixth place in Australia was as much down to luck as car performance, but his fifth-place finish in Bahrain was more or less achieved on merit.
Strategy (particularly tyre selection) played its part, but the Haas team looked like it belonged where it finished, fighting with Williams and Toro Rosso for the honour of being the fourth-quickest car.
But can it perform well on all types of circuit?
Though they both came from the pen of track architect Hermann Tilke, Bahrain and Shanghai are very different circuits, and a car that performs on one will not necessarily perform on the other.
In race preview quotes published on the official F1 website, Grosjean said, "It’ll be a good test for us to see, on a very different track layout, if we’re as good as we were in Bahrain.”
Team-mate Esteban Gutierrez added, "We still need to manage our expectations because our car at the moment has reacted pretty well in Melbourne and in Bahrain, but we need to learn how it will react now in China. I think China will give us a good indication of how the season will be."
Toro Rosso should be more competitive around the long, quick corners in Shanghai, Williams will be there or thereabouts and there may be a challenge from Force India. McLaren could also be a factor.
If Haas can score another big result, we'll know they have a car for all circuits—and that they can compete all season long.
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