After a four-year gap, the Chinese Grand Prix will return to the F1 calendar. The Chinese GP is the fifth race on the calendar and will take place from April 18 to April 21. This is good news for Chinese fans as well as for Lewis Hamilton, who has won this race the most number of times (6). However, for others, it’s just a ‘soulless’ race, according to F1 expert Kym Illman. Although there are several reasons why Illman does not enjoy the race in Shanghai, he does believe that 24-year-old Zhou Guanyu has the potential to make the race enjoyable for the locals.
The renowned photojournalist in his recent YouTube video explained how he dislikes the long paddock area. He believes that this makes the race unwelcoming and ‘soulless’.
“The teams say there’s no soul, there’s no atmosphere in there because you’ve got the hospitality suites which are located in a garden area, you’ve got this area of nothing pretty much”, he explained. Following this, Illman shared how the Chinese GP needs local boy Guanyu‘s support to change the narrative.
On this, he stated, “Maybe Zhou Guanyu will be the stimulus for a big rise in ticket sales this year, and on the topic of tickets this will surely be the cheapest race that we have this year.” The ticket cost for the 2024 race weekend is $67 for the three-day admission.
However, according to Illman, there is a good reason why the tickets are so cheap. This is because despite having tickets cost fairly low, the 2019 Chinese GP didn’t see a grand footfall. Illman revealed that the race only had a 40% occupancy over the three days.
Illman claims the Chinese GP is also in a poor location
The upcoming race in China is set to take place at the Shanghai International Circuit, which is about an hour away from the main city. The place isn’t in an industrial area and lacks the bustling crowd that Kym Illman would have liked. This makes the environment a bit dull and the location also does not suit the photographers because of the gray sky.
Formula 1 did not have any races in China in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. They arguably had the strictest restrictions of any country. China was the most affected country during the pandemic and due to this, the Chinese government and the FIA stayed away from hosting the race in this country.
Nonetheless, the Chinese GP returns with a lot of hope among the local fans. They are more than willing to see how their own star, Zhou Guanyu, performs at his home race.
On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton, who has been the king of this track, also returns with Mercedes, but for the last time. The seven-time world champion won the Chinese GP with Mercedes on four occasions in six races from 2014 to 2019.
