Red Bull has been doing well in 2024, but in the Australian Grand Prix last month, they didn’t perform as well as usual. Ferrari seemed to do better.
In the Melbourne race, the tires on the front of the cars wore out quickly, which might be why Ferrari did better than Red Bull.
Max Verstappen had to stop racing early, so it was hard to see how Red Bull compared. Sergio Perez finished fifth, while Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc took first and second place.
In Shanghai, Red Bull might face similar problems with tire wear. The weather is cooler there, and the track conditions are uncertain, which could cause tire graining again.
Teams only have one practice session before the race, so they won’t have much time to test different tires and setups.
Perez thinks they learned from the Melbourne race and can handle tire wear better this time.
He said, “The track conditions in Shanghai are uncertain because it’s been five years since we raced here. It might be tough on the front tires, but we’ve learned from Melbourne. Hopefully, we can deal with tire wear better this time.”
Verstappen said they made changes to his car before the Melbourne race, but he couldn’t show how well it worked because he had to stop early.
He said, “I think Shanghai is different from Melbourne, so we can’t predict how we’ll do here. We’ll have to wait and see.”
