It is easy to see why McLaren’s signature look of Carbon-Fibre and chrome is beautiful to the eye. But Carbon-Fibre is not just a pretty face. It’s part of McLaren’s legacy in Formula 1 and has given us winning cars with its extraordinary scientific properties. 

1. The first Carbon-Fibre chassis in Formula 1 belonged to McLaren’s MP4/1 in 1981. That year it won at the British Grand Prix with John Watson behind the wheel.

2. Carbon-Fibre is twice as strong as and five times lighter than steel. This combination on a Formula 1 race car is winning – literally.

3. The introduction of Carbon-Fibre into Formula 1 is owed to the work of John Barnard. In the six years that John was McLaren’s Technical Director, his cars won 31 Grands Prix for the team.

4. At the time of its design, McLaren didn’t have the materials or the knowledge to create the finished product. As a result the self-supporting chassis was made by an American company called Hercules Aerospace who built rocket parts for NASA. They were so delighted to be part of the development of Carbon-Fibre technology that they did the work for free! 

5. Before being coated in resin to make it hard, Carbon-Fibre is woven into cloth. There are different types of weave patterns used, the most common two being plain weave and twill weave. The weave used depends on the properties required of the component but generally, McLaren uses the twill weave.

6. In order to create the car parts, Carbon-Fibre sheets are laid into moulds in the desired amount of layers depending on how strong that section needs to be. The mould is then vacuum packed and cooked under pressure in a large oven called an autoclave.

7. Each layer of Carbon-Fibre sheet is only about 0.2mm thick, some are even thinner!

8. After McLaren paved the way, the majority of the chassis on all modern day Formula 1 cars is made up of Carbon-Fibre. This includes the wings, suspension, monocoque and engine cover. The monocoque which is made up of the driver’s cockpit and survival shell has up to 60 layers of Carbon-Fibre in some places.

9. McLaren’s F1 was the world’s first road car to take Carbon-Fibre away from the race track and onto the roads with its complete Carbon-Fibre reinforced plastic monocoque chassis structure. Released on 31st March 1998 it also holds the record for the world’s fastest production car.

10. It was on lap 19 at the 1981 Italian Grand Prix at Monza that McLaren’s Carbon-Fibre technology was really put to the test. Watson smashed into the barriers at high speed, lost his engine and started a small fire. People didn’t believe in the strength of the new material; one sceptic even said that in a crash it would “turn into a cloud of black dust”. Watson walked away from the accident with nothing more than a stiff shoulder!

As you read these words, the Formula 1 ‘circus’ will have settled in the teeming metropolis of Shanghai, the largest city in China, whose population is now widely estimated at around 25 million inhabitants.

The Chinese Grand Prix has been an annual event since 2004, held at the Shanghai International Circuit, which is not actually in Shanghai but rather in Jiading, 12 miles (20km) north-west of downtown Shanghai.

The circuit cost £300 million to construct, and is a truly spectacular development, whose facilities are state-of-the-art. My Formula 1 career came to an end in 2001, of course, so I have not actually raced there. But it is a very impressive place, as I say, and – like Sepang (Malaysia), Sakhir (Bahrain), Istanbul (Turkey), Yas Marina (Abu Dhabi), Mokpo (South Korea) and New Delhi (India) – is typical of the new generation of racetracks designed by Hermann Tilke.

The first such circuit was Sepang, and it is the only one on the above list on which I have raced a Formula 1 car. Sepang first appeared on the Formula 1 calendar in 1999, you see, the year of my second and final World Championship, and I remember that as a truly gruelling Grand Prix. I qualified fourth and finished third, thwarted throughout by a masterful Michael Schumacher, who drove a very canny race to second place in support of his Ferrari team-mate Eddie Irvine, who won the race. Fortunately, I was able to clinch the World Championship, ahead of both Michael and Eddie, two weeks later, at Suzuka (Japan).

In 2000 I finished fourth at Sepang, having led the race early on, but in 2001 I could manage only sixth. So Malaysia has never been a very happy hunting ground for me, although I guess I can console myself slightly with the fact that I notched up the fastest lap in both the 2000 event and the 2001 event.

But, even so, in 1999, immediately, I recognised in Sepang, literally, the shape of things to come. Not only was it the first Tilke circuit, as I say, but also it contained Hermann’s trademark feature: a long straight followed by a tight corner. In fact, Sepang contains two long straights, each of them followed by a tight corner. It is also made up of wide smooth asphalt, laid out into long sweeping bends, which are also Tilke trademarks.

As such, in 1999, Sepang was a departure from what we had been used to. We had been used to older, narrower, bumpier circuits, the vast majority of them in Europe. I am thinking of classic racetracks such as Silverstone (UK), Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) and Monza (Italy), which reek of history yet still stage Grands Prix to this day, but also of often-forgotten throwbacks such as Estoril (Portugal), Imola (Italy) and Magny-Cours (France).

So, following the lead taken by Sepang, Shanghai is an example of the way the Formula 1 calendar is going: Tilke-designed, Asia-located, stunning in terms of facilities and architecture, wide and smooth, with a long straight followed by a tight corner. I think Formula 1 needs both old- and new-style events, and I am glad to say that that is exactly what it currently has. Both kinds are important; both kinds are valuable; ‘in with the new’ is a great concept, but not if it is combined always with ‘out with the old’.

I have never raced a Formula 1 car in Shanghai, as I say, because the first Chinese Grand Prix took place in 2004, which was three years after my Formula 1 career had come to an end. But I first visited Shanghai in 1998, with West, McLaren-Mercedes’ title sponsor at that time.

It had been a truly nail-biting season, and, as we prepared for the 16th and final Grand Prix of the year, the Japanese event at Suzuka, only Michael and I could win the World Championship; I had scored 90 points, Michael 86 (in those days a win was worth only 10 points, not 25 as it is today, remember).

In order to get myself used to the Far Eastern time zone, and in order to do some promotional work for my team’s title sponsor at the same time, I spent three or four days in Shanghai before flying on to Suzuka.

In those days Shanghai was very different from what it is like today.

For a start, there were not that many cars about – whereas now it is one of the most congested cities in the world. No, in 1998, the vast majority of local citizens used to get about on rickety old push-bikes.

Equally, the huge emporia on whose glistening walls are today emblazoned the giant logos of some of the biggest and poshest European and American fashion brands were still a twinkle in some then-unknown Chinese industrialist’s eye; instead, in 1998 it appeared that everyone in Shanghai seemed to wear rather drab grey garb. I stood out a mile, not least because of my comparatively colourful clothing and my blond hair!

Anyway, West reported that our visit had been a great promotional success, which was important, and it clearly did me no harm in terms of preparation for the title-decider either. I won at Suzuka and, with that victory, secured my first World Championship and helped my McLaren-Mercedes team become Constructors’ World Champions into the bargain.

These days I visit China quite frequently, mostly in connection with AMG, the Mercedes-affiliated supercar manufacturer for whom I remain a brand ambassador. And, although I have never raced a Formula 1 car on the Shanghai International Circuit, I have in fact raced in China.

In fact I made my debut in Sports Car racing when, as recently as November 2011, Team AMG China entered a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG for me in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Six Hours of Zhuhai. Unfortunately, our car retired after just two hours. However, two years later, in October 2013, I drove a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG 300 in two of the GT Asia series races, both of them again held at Zhuhai. And I won one of them, clinching victory in the first race after starting from P6 on the grid.

The GT Asia rules then dictated that, having won the first race, a 15-second handicap would be imposed during the mandatory pitstop in my second race, so I finished only fourth in that one.

Even so, I can say I have won in China, can’t I?!

Shanghai International Circuit snapshot

Fernando Alonso

“Like Sepang, Shanghai’s got a real mix of corners and some interesting fast stuff around the back of the circuit. Despite those similarities, however, I don’t think our car package will be as well suited here as it was in Malaysia, especially if the weather is as cold and windy as it usually is in early springtime in Shanghai.”

Jenson Button

“China’s two long straights – each preceded by slow- to medium-speed corners – will place extra emphasis on the power-unit. And there is a feeling that the expected cooler weather will make it hard to generate tyre temperature – which could mean that any progress we make doesn’t necessarily translate to a laptime benefit.”

Circuit lowdown

The Shanghai International Circuit has been a regular fixture in Formula One since 2004. The track was designed and built by Hermann Tilke, whose company has been involved in the creation of nine circuits on this year’s calendar.

Before construction could begin, Tilke was forced to insert 40,000 concrete pillars into the marshland selected as the location for the 5.451km/3.387-mile circuit. What was created thereafter was one of the most impressive venues the sport has ever seen, with two 140-metre structures dominating the start-finish straight and seating for 50,000 spectators. 

The track layout has several challenging features. Its two 270-degree right-hand corners place enormous stress on the front-left tyre and the 1.1km back straight is the longest of the entire season, along which straight-line speed is at a premium.

Following track temperatures of 62 degrees at Sepang two weeks ago, the teams can expect much cooler conditions in China. The ambient and track temperatures are usually around 20 degrees and, as was the case last year, Pirelli are taking their Medium (Prime) and Soft (Option) compounds to the race to deal with the challenges.

Shanghai International Circuit facts & stats

It’s all about: the race

It’s all about: the track

It’s all about: the car

Technical words of wisdom

Matt Morris, director of engineering

“Shanghai is a front-limited circuit, which means the front axle is the one that’s stressed the most. As a result of the low track temperatures, one of the keys to success is getting the tyres up to temperature quickly to ensure they’re working effectively through some of the long, high-speed corners. If you don’t get the tyres working properly, which is something we struggled with last year, you tend to suffer from graining and very high tyre wear. That’s something you need to avoid, and that’s the main challenge of China.”

McLaren at the Chinese Grand Prix

Our most memorable Chinese Grand Prix: 2008

“Lewis Hamilton’s emphatic victory in this, the penultimate race of the 2008 season, set up the epic finale in Brazil two weeks later that resulted in him winning his first world championship. He was untouchable all weekend in China: he took pole position by 0.342s and was never headed in the race, streaking ahead of Kimi Raikkonen at the start and winning the race by 15s. “There were very, very few mistakes today, by me or the team,” he said. “The car was phenomenal.”

#14 Fernando Alonso

“I have lots of positive memories of racing in China – I’ve won there twice, and I really enjoy the track. Like Sepang, it’s got a real mix of corners and some interesting fast stuff around the back of the circuit. Despite those similarities, however, I don’t think our car package will be as well suited here as it was in Malaysia, especially if the weather is as cold and windy as it usually is in early springtime in Shanghai.

“Nonetheless, the steps we took between Australia and Malaysia were extremely impressive: it was a great feeling to be able to mix it with other cars and drivers, and I hope we can do more of the same in China this weekend.

“That sort of progress really gives the whole team belief and confidence in the path we’re taking, so I hope we can keep moving forwards every time we take to the track.”

#22 Jenson Button

“It’s a pity we didn’t finish the race in Malaysia. We’d made solid progress up until that point in the weekend, and it would have been a fantastic boost to get a car home in amongst some of the cars in the midfield pack. Still, it’s a target to aim for in China, and I hope we can build upon our pace and performance in Malaysia.

“However, China’s two long straights – each preceded by slow- to medium-speed corners – will place extra emphasis on the power-unit. And there is a feeling that the expected cooler weather will make it harder to generate tyre temperature – which could mean that any progress we make doesn’t necessarily translate to a laptime benefit.

“But there is definitely progress being made, and it’s great to be able to play a role in helping move the whole team forwards. It’ll be fascinating to see how much change we can effect over the forthcoming races.”

Eric Boullier – Racing director, McLaren-Honda

“We came away from the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend feeling optimistic about our state of development and the improvements we’d made relative to our closest rivals. However, we don’t take anything for granted, and are fully aware that the next two races probably won’t show quite the same rate of improvement as we witnessed at Sepang.

“That’s a natural consequence of the fact that, first, the performance gains we’re finding aren’t linear in fashion – some will be for performance, some for efficiency, and others for reliability; and, second, because the different tracks subtly colour and shade pace in ways that can be hard to read, particularly from the outside looking in.

“Nonetheless, we’re pushing hard on every front to improve our competitiveness, and our aim is to bring continuous developments to both chassis and power unit to every race, at a rate that enables us to catch and pass the teams ahead of us.”

Yasuhisa Arai – Chief Officer of Motorsport, Honda R&D Co Ltd

“We felt positive heading into last month’s Malaysian Grand Prix, as we’d managed to introduce a successful update to the power unit in the weeks between the first and second rounds of the championship.

“It was therefore disappointing to see both cars retire at Sepang – Fernando with an ERS cooling issue, and Jenson with a turbo problem.

“In the next two races we’ll face Shanghai’s two long, full-throttle straights and the high fuel consumption of Bahrain – both will be new challenges for our power unit.

“At Honda, we’ll work to balance both good energy management and positive reliability in an aim to be more competitive in these upcoming races.”