f1 chinese grand prix 2026 🏁

[hyojungss]

shanghai international circuit • march 13-15
twitter thread

PLANNING

around spring of last year, kaia and i decided on shanghai for our 2026 gp, tacking on taiwan similar to how we handled sydney/melbourne last year for a 1.5 week trip. a good value trip for how much we got out of it, still not cheap though!! i will talk about the rest of the trip in another post... someday

this was my first time going to china and there is definitely a lot to research for a trip there - visa, setting up alipay/wechat pay/e-sim, buying race tickets/hotels etc in chinese. i would not have done this alone! kaia hard carried (can speak some chinese) and handled the ticketing via juss sports ~dec 2025. we went with gs a high because we've never sat on the main straight before, but it was definitely better than i imagined because you could see so much of the track from those seats, maybe 60% of the track. the pictures do not tell the full story of how good these seats were! tops cota turn 12 (which also has great views but these were better, and those were uncovered bleacher seats). wow... permanent tracks are the best

Grandstand A High, Section 17D, Row 2 16 & 17
CNY 6560 for 2 = $490 USD each

view looking left (turns 1-4)

during the race weekend, we stayed a few stops away on the metro (~15 min) which made it a convenient commute with options for eating dinner (or getting molly tea before the race lol)

CIRCUIT

charles' car

circuit was a little confusing w/r/t which lines to get into to enter, i have an amex which is supposed to get you priority entry but they didn't enforce it very well lol. other than it taking a while to get out at the end of the day for understandable reasons i think the crowds were well managed. they use facial recognition which err not sure why they NEED to do that but it worked fine for the most part.

very cute "must be the water" reference. tbh i don't remember needing a water refill it was quite cold by f1 standards and i stayed comfortably dehydrated

these were probably our first permanent grandstands (as opposed to seasonal built metal grandstands, this is a concrete structure with bathrooms) and it was really nice to have the roof so we never had to worry about rain or sun exposure. temps during the weekend were approx 50F which was almost perfect for me, kaia got pretty cold. gs a is also very close to the driver engagement and the food and freebies.

practice starts

i don't think the circuit or its sponsors had too many freebies to offer compared to the other races i've been to - lego tent was some kind of digital activity - amex had the radios and some cute metal charms - but there were a TON of chinese fans trading (or giving away) cute merch that they'd made or commissioned. kaia got a ton of of mileage out of this with the wechat fan groups especially having brought her own (oscar) merch!

very cute charles/alex wedding day fanart

Team Leclerc CN ad I was lucky we saw by accident - nanjing road

driver engagements were quite packed by the time they happened but we got decent spots both days without waking up at 4am or anything. like we ran but even with my lack of stamina didn't get THAT overtaken... honestly the closest we've been in a few years but the q&a was rather boring q___q not even compelled by my photos...

ollie & guanyu driver engagements

we tried a bunch of food at the circuit, the options near the gs that we got were like freezer meals (reheated rice + meat dishes) which were just OK for the most part, though i liked the popcorn chicken, and the better stuff was in the food court outside of the gates. sometimes it was stressful to buy food with the poor cell service since you had to use alipay or wechat pay #___# (cell service might have been an e-sim thing since it was spotty the whole trip)

lol i'm reading my australia log again and just like then i also bought vacuum sealed quail eggs and bakkwa for sustenance. the other thing we got at every convenience store was FLAVORED SUGAR-FREE MINTS. i really love the doublemint fruit flavored ones... now i have like 10 containers of mints on my coffee table

food court menu from outside track

i love skewers!!!! shengjianbao, xinjiang buns

RACE

"please do not stand while watching"

i loved this sign lol people taking photos sometimes didn't have manners and ruined MY photos by standing in the stairway instead of behind a handrail but it is what it is. i walked around for photos during practice. but it's just funny compared to western audiences who will all stand during the first few laps of a race

see lance stroll's car in the background?

the race itself was enjoyable, you kinda knew ferrari weren't keeping merc behind but it's the illusion of hope. it was still fun even though i was terrified charles and lewis were gonna crash each other out. tbh don't remember anything about the sprint anymore... this is back when i could still cheer for kimi winning LOOOOL. kimi first win and lewis first ferrari podium were #special to witness.

f1 academy was also there and we watched some of the sessions, was disappointed to see alba larsen struggle in one of the races

kimi & lewis post-race interviews

PACKING LIST

same as usual tbh but some notes

• sneakers for engagement days / boots for race day lol
• wearing a baseball cap irritates my skin and we had the roof so I didn't bring it the 2nd and 3rd day -- I later learned attending an indycar gp that this policy does not work anywhere else lol
• i didn't bring a power bank on this trip due to the china ccc laws (allegedly should have been fine since we weren't taking any domestic flights, but didn't want to risk it). wish i'd just bought a power bank from the beginning instead of me hesitating waiting for a "good deal" because just ended up wasting mental energy conserving battery or getting power bank rentals, but we got a 20k from miniso which i now really appreciate having
• bought a cute red bow shoulder bag from kohls the month before the gp.... i thought at first this would be a bad investment but it was actually v convenient in size for this trip. i learned on a different trip that it bleeds red (dye when it gets wet).... just like me... (just like all of us...) (because everybody's a ferrari fan, even if they're not...)

SCHEDULE

there was an f1 event by the bund but nothing crazy there, i did buy my jellycat dupe tire plushie!!

F 3/13 ~7:30 Leave

F 3/13 8:00 Gates Open
(went straight to engagement)
F 3/13 9:20 - 10:00 Engagement
9:20 haas
9:30 alpine/merc
9:40 red bull
9:50 ferrari

F 3/13 11:30 - 12:30 Practice 1

F 3/13 14:10 - 14:40 F1 Academy Qualifying

F 3/13 15:30 - 16:14 Sprint Qualifying
F 3/13 ~17:00 dinner

S 3/14 ~6:30 Leave
(waited for gates open and went straight to engagement)
S 3/14 8:00 Gates Open
S 3/14 8:30 - 9:40 Engagement
8:30 cadillac
8:40 racing bulls
9:00 audi/aston martin
9:10 zhou guanyu
9:20 mclaren
9:30 williams
S 3/14 11:00 - 12:00 Sprint
S 3/14 ~13:00 eat lunch at food court outside track
S 3/14 13:45 - 14:20 F1 Academy Race 1
S 3/14 15:00 - 16:00 Qualifying
S 3/14 ~19:00 dinner

Su 3/15 8:30 Gates Open
10:00 molly tea run
Su 3/15 10:40 - 11:15 F1 Academy Race 2
Su 3/15 13:00 - 13:30 Driver’s Parade
Su 3/15 15:00 Race
S 3/14 ~21:00 dinner this was harrowing actually we had to move hotels which prevented us from getting peking duck again but we got shengjianbao and soup instead. healing!

shanghai auto festival stamp-it-yourself postcards - from anting metro mall