What F1 tells us about President Xi Jinping’s plans for China to become a sporting superpower

As Formula One returns to China after a five-year absence, Kieran Jackson examines why it has become so important for President Xi Jinping to see the country re-establish itself in a sporting arena which is dominated by Saudi Arabia and its Middle Eastern neighbours

F1 returns to the Shanghai International Circuit this weekend for the first time in five years (Getty)

A lot has happened since Formula One last visited China. Back in April 2019, the sport was celebrating its 1,000th race as Lewis Hamilton won for a sixth time at the Shanghai International Circuit at the start of a season that would see him win a sixth world championship. Mercedes’s Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel were the other drivers on the podium.

Yet such is the cycle of competitive sport, the beat moves on. Hamilton has not won in over two years and will join Ferrari next year, Bottas left Mercedes in 2021 and is now a backmarker with Sauber, while four-time world champion Vettel retired 18 months ago. Now, Max Verstappen is the man at the front, in an era of utter Red Bull dominance. They will be the unequivocal favourites again this weekend, though Ferrari will fancy their chances after a strong start to the 2024 season.

But in China itself – a country with a billion-plus population which, before now, has had no national source to root for in motorsport’s premier series – the last five years have represented a topsy-turvy period for sport in the country. The Covid pandemic, triggered by a virus first identified in Wuhan in the east, saw a strict lockdown and national uprisings. Such was China’s hard-nosed attitude to containing the virus, the Chinese Grand Prix has been the last of the pre-Covid races to return, following four straight years of cancellations.