Circuit Shanghai International Circuit
Date 16th October 2005
Start time (local/GMT) 14:00 hrs / 06:00 hrs
Lap/Race distance 5.451 km/305.066 km (56 laps)
Winner 2004 Rubens Barrichello (Scuderia Ferrari)
Pole 2004 Rubens Barrichello (Scuderia Ferrari) 1:33.542 min
Lap record Michael Schumacher (Scuderia Ferrari) 1:32.238 min (2004)
F1 statistics:
BMW WilliamsF1 Team 103 starts, 10 wins, 17 poles
WilliamsF1 pre-2000 356 starts, 103 wins, 108 poles
BMW pre-2000 97 starts, 9 wins, 15 poles
History and Background:
The Shanghai International Circuit, which opened in 2004, was built within a
period of 18 months on 5.3 square kilometres of marshland. Concrete piles,
40 to 80 metres deep, were driven into the ground and covered with metre
thick layers of polystyrene and soil.
The circuit was designed by German architect, Hermann Tilke, who was also
responsible for the tracks in Bahrain, Istanbul and Sepang.
The track comprises seven right and seven left hand corners. The longest
straight is not the start/finish straight, as one might expect, but the one which
leads from turn 13 to turn 14. This full throttle section measures over 1.3 kilometres.
The layout is based on the Chinese character "Shang", which translates as
"high" or "above". The futuristic pits and grandstands emulate traditional
Chinese design features. The circuit seats up to 200,000 spectators.
Shanghai, a port city and free trade zone on the east coast of the country
and near the Yangtze Delta, is China's boom town with a population of
approximately 15 million.
For the BMW brand, China is one of the fastest growing markets worldwide.
Sales grew by 25 percent (up to 20,000 cars) within the first eight months
of 2005. BMW appears to be one of the most popular brands in China and both
the BMW 3 Series and the 5 Series were voted winners in their class in a
recent opinion poll in one of the country's car magazines.
The final rounds of the Formula BMW Asia Championship will be held next
weekend as part of the F1 support package. BMW's international series is a
proving ground for young talent in which drivers compete at speeds of up to
230 km/h in single seater cars with 140 bhp engines. This year's title is
still
to be decided between Salman Al Khalifa and Hamed Al Fardan from
Bahrain, Michael Patrizi from Australia and Charlie-Ro Charlez from
Malaysia. |
