International motor racing came to China (i.e. the People’s Republic of China) first in the mid nineties with races of the BPR Series, a sports car championship. They staged races on a temporary street circuit in down- town Zhouhai south of Hong Kong. In 1996, the race moved to a new track outside the city and the organisers hoped for a Formula One Grand Prix in China already at that time, however, the track didn’t match the requirements of the FIA.
The Shanghai International Circuit is located in the countryside to the Northeast of Anting Town, Jiading District, Shanghai City. The whole site covers an area of 2.5 square kilometres with the grandstands offering seats for about 200,000 spectators. More than 2 million cubic meters of earth material were filled into the area of the auto racetrack and nearly 40,000 batches of pile foundation were laid into the racetrack area for consolidating ground foundation. The steel used in the top of the primary stand reached over 5,000 tons of a total 12,000 tons used for the entire project. The track which has the shape of the Chinese symbol ‘Shang’, which translates as ‘high’ or ‘above’ was completed within 18 months.
The Shanghai International Circuit is the biggest race track in Asia with a grand stand capacity for about 200,000 spectators. It cost 240 million US dollars and matches the latest standards. The track was designed by the leading architect Hermann Tike.
Two years ago, McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton started from pole position, posted the fastest race lap and won – an important step towards his World Championship title which he clinched two weeks later in Brazil.
Track Records:
- Lap Record – Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) 1m32.28sec (2004)
- Fastest Lap 2009 – Rubens Barrichello (Brawn Mercedes) 1m52.592sec
- Pole Position 2009 – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Renault) 1m36.184sec
To learn more about the Chinese Grand Prix, the Shanghai International Circuit, and a variety of other interesting F1 information, we invite you to view the full gallery packed with digital racefacts below (don’t forget you can click the images in the gallery to make them easier to read).
