Pink Bull continues to be the dominant crew in 2024, however its race efficiency was much less convincing in final month’s Australian Grand Prix, by which Ferrari seemed to edge forward.
The Melbourne race was marked by heavy entrance graining, which is believed to be a consider why Ferrari was so sturdy relative to Pink Bull.
Max Verstappen’s early retirement meant it was a lot tougher 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 might be one other venue the place Pink Bull would possibly battle extra to point out the RB20’s full potential, with decrease temperatures and uncertainty over the state of the tarmac all elements that would see the tyre graining phenomenon return.
As the primary dash weekend of 2024, groups will solely have one observe 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 crew is in a greater place to mitigate the problem, which makes floor rubber shear off and persist with 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 stated when requested about whether or not or not graining might return to be an impediment for Pink Bull.
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“So, it will likely be an attention-grabbing FP1 and we’ll see from there. Clearly, it seems to be like a front-limited circuit, the place probably we will battle just a little bit extra.
“We have discovered so much from Melbourne, we’ve got some understanding of issues we did over there, so we simply have to stay optimistic.
“If we had been to be in the identical boat, hopefully with the issues we have discovered we will have a significantly better resilience to the graining.”
Crew-mate Verstappen stated Pink 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 totally different sufficient from Albert Park to enter the weekend with too many preconceptions about Pink Bull’s type.
“I believe Australia, the Friday wasn’t very best. Perhaps 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 stated.
“I don’t suppose that Australia is similar as right here. Australia had much more sooner corners. Right here there’s just a little bit extra low velocity, so it’s just a little bit totally different. We simply have to attend and see, actually.”