Shanghai International Circuit

Motorsport track in China

Shanghai, Drawn From a Character

Built on former rice paddies in Jiading, Shanghai's circuit traces the first character of its city's name and was the first in China built for Formula 1.

The Shanghai International Circuit was conceived as the city's introduction to the world. Officials chose 5.3 square kilometers in the Jiading District, northwest of the center and close to major car parts factories, and a government backed company raised 2.6 billion yuan to pay for it. The land was swamp that had once grown rice, so the first engineering task was simply persuading the ground to stay put, and for 18 months roughly 3,000 people worked on the site every day. The result was China's first circuit built for Formula 1.

Hermann Tilke designed both track and buildings, and he took the outline from shang, the opening character of the city's name, which means above or ascend. Wing shaped grandstands bridge the track at each end of the main straight, and the team buildings in the paddock stand like pavilions on a lake, an echo of the city's old Yu Garden. The lap begins with a long right hander that keeps tightening and turns blind before a hairpin, the first of two snail shaped sections. Turns 7 and 8 make a fast left right where the cars bear heavy cornering loads, and after the long right of turn 13 comes a back straight of about 1.2 km, among the longest of the season and an open invitation to pass, ending at a tight hairpin. Few calligraphers have asked so much of a brake pedal.

The Chinese Grand Prix ran every year from 2004 to 2019, paused, and returned in 2024, and the circuit was resurfaced before the 2025 race. Shanghai has now held 19 championship rounds from 2004 to 2026. Rubens Barrichello won the first for Ferrari, and Lewis Hamilton has won six, far more than anyone else. The track also has a habit of firsts: Nico Rosberg's maiden Formula 1 victory came here in 2012, and in 2026 Kimi Antonelli opened his own account for Mercedes, a fitting place to rise on a circuit drawn from a word that means ascend.

Every Grand Prix here

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