Crimson Bull continues to be the dominant group in 2024, however its race efficiency was much less convincing in final month’s Australian Grand Prix, during which Ferrari seemed to edge forward.
The Melbourne race was marked by heavy entrance graining, which is believed to be a think about why Ferrari was so sturdy relative to Crimson Bull.
Max Verstappen’s early retirement meant it was a lot more durable to make comparisons, however team-mate Sergio Perez completed a distant fifth as Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc secured a 1-2 end for the Scuderia.
Shanghai could possibly be one other venue the place Crimson Bull would possibly wrestle extra to point out the RB20’s full potential, with decrease temperatures and uncertainty over the state of the tarmac all components that might see the tyre graining phenomenon return.
As the primary dash weekend of 2024, groups will solely have one follow session to get a deal with on their set-ups and will not have time to check out all tyre compounds, so their understanding shall be restricted.
However Perez believes the expertise from Melbourne means the Milton Keynes group is in a greater place to mitigate the problem, which makes floor rubber shear off and follow the tread, inflicting a lack of grip.
“There are such a lot of uncertainties with the tarmac, it has been 5 years since one thing has been right here,” Perez mentioned when requested about whether or not or not graining may return to be an impediment for Crimson Bull.
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“So, it is going to be an fascinating FP1 and we’ll see from there. Clearly, it appears like a front-limited circuit, the place probably we are able to wrestle a bit of bit extra.
“We have realized rather a lot from Melbourne, we have now some understanding of issues we did over there, so we simply have to stay optimistic.
“If we have been to be in the identical boat, hopefully with the issues we have realized we are able to have a a lot better resilience to the graining.”
Crew-mate Verstappen mentioned Crimson Bull had made set-up adjustments earlier than Melbourne qualifying that made his automotive really feel higher in race trim, however his retirement on Lap 3 meant he was unable to point out it.
However, he identified that Shanghai’s technical format is completely different sufficient from Albert Park to enter the weekend with too many preconceptions about Crimson Bull’s type.
“I feel Australia, the Friday wasn’t superb. Possibly the Saturday morning wasn’t both, however we made some adjustments to my automotive that I felt higher with. Sadly, I couldn’t present that,” he mentioned.
“I don’t assume that Australia is similar as right here. Australia had much more sooner corners. Right here there’s a bit of bit extra low velocity, so it’s a bit of bit completely different. We simply have to attend and see, actually.”