Chinese Grand Prix 2004 Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Macau has long been associated with Grand Prix racing in China, but has never hosted a Formula One race. The 51st Macau Formula Three Grand Prix was held in 2004. China made an unsuccessful attempt to create a Formula One circuit during the late 1990s near the city of Zhuhai in Southern China, so Shanghai was the first ever true Chinese Formula One venue.

Answer: The Shanghai Grand Prix circuit is built in the shape of the Chinese character 'shang'.

The Shanghai circuit was designed by the German architect, Herman Tilke, in the shape of the Chinese character 'shang', which means 'higher' or 'above'. It was built on marshland, which required thousands of concrete piles to be placed, some as deep as 80 metres. Cheng Congfu was the first Chinese born racing driver to drive a Formula One car.

This was in Brno in the Czech Republic where he test drove a McLaren just two weeks before the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix. Tung Ho-Pin, an ethnic Chinese driver who was born in Holland, test drove for Williams in 2003.

Answer: The Chinese state owned oil company, Sinopec

Sinopec was the major sponsor of the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix, the others being team sponsors. Petronas was also the main sponsor for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Sinopec Vice President, Li Chunguang, signed the sponsorship agreement in March 2004 in London, England. In 2004 Sinopec was the largest oil company in Asia, and sixth largest in the world.

Answer: False

Although it was the sixteenth race of a total of eighteen, it was only the second of the three Asian Formula One races held in 2004. The first was the Malaysian Grand Prix which was held in March, and the last was the Japanese Grand Prix which was held two weeks after the Chinese event.

Answer: False

China was a signatory to the "World Health Organisation Convention on Tobacco Control", hence fixed tobacco adverts were not allowed during the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix. Cars, pit teams and drivers were however allowed to carry the logos of tobacco sponsors in order to meet their sponsorship agreements.

Answer: Olivier Panis, driving for Toyota

Olivier Panis competed in both the Italian and the Chinese 2004 Grand Prix races, although he retired from the Italian race during the first lap after a collision with Pizzonia. He did better in the Chinese race, coming in fourteenth. Pantano was replaced by Timo Glock, and Trulli was replaced by Jacques Villeneuve who was making his 2004 season debut at Shanghai. Ralf Schumacher replaced Antonio Pizzonia who had stood in for him since his back injury in the USA Grand Prix in June.

Answer: Forty dry weather tyres, and twenty-eight wet weather tyres.

This rule was introduced for the 2003 season, and carried on in the 2004 season. All tyres had to carry a FIA bar-code which enabled race officials to check that the allowable number of tyres was not exceeded. In the event of a change of driver during the event, only those tyres allocated to the original driver could be used by the incoming driver.

Answer: Michael Shumacher suffered his first race injury since 1999 during the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix.

Michael Schumacher was not injured during the Chinese Grand Prix, and had not suffered a serious race injury since breaking his leg in the 1999 British Grand Prix. He started from the pit lane, after being penalised for making an engine change after qualifying. Apart from spinning his car during qualifying and in the race, he collided with the Austrian driver Christian Klien forcing Klien's retirement.

In addition to these mishaps, he suffered a rear tyre failure during the race and had to make an unscheduled pit stop.

Answer: False

Prior to the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix Michael Schumacher had won driver's points in most, but not all, of his Formula One races. As well as the Shanghai race in which he came in twelfth, he failed to win any points in the 1998 Monaco Grand Prix (10th place) and the 1999 Australian Grand Prix (8th place).

He retired from the 2001 German Grand Prix due to mechanical failure, and from the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix after crashing. Schumacher has also been disqualified several times, most notably in 1994 when he was disqualified in both the Belgian and British Grand Prix races.

In the final race of 1997, Schumacher was disqualified from the drivers' championship following a dangerous collision with Jacques Villeneuve. This disqualification did not though affect his race victories record, nor his career points record.

Answer: Jacques Villeneuve

Following a disappointing 2003 season in which he had eight retirements driving for BAR, Villeneuve returned to Formula One in the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix driving for Renault. Despite being out for nearly a year, he still managed to achieve a fairly respectable 11th place at Shanghai. Ricardo Zonta made his F1 debut in 1999 driving for BAR. Timo Glock and Gianmaria Bruni both made their F1 debuts in 2004, Glock in Canada, and Bruni in Australia.

Answer: Germany

Unusually for the 2004 season, there were no German drivers in the top ten finishers in the Chinese Grand Prix. The highest finish position achieved by a German was Michael Schumacher who came in twelfth. The other competing Germans were Nick Heidfeld (13th), Timo Glock (15th) and Ralf Schumacher who retired after thirty seven laps.

Answer: Michael Schumacher

Despite having an 'unlucky' race week-end, with a pitlane start, tyre failure, collision with Christian Klien's Jaguar, and two spins, Michael Schumacher still managed to set the fastest lap time of the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix at 1:32.238 minutes. This time was achieved in lap 55 at an average speed of 212.749 kilometres per hour.

Answer: Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen

Jenson Button came in less than half a second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen to take second place in the Chinese Grand Prix. Webber and Alonso were tenth and fourth respectively, and Montoya and Coulthard finished in fifth and ninth positions. Takuma Sato took sixth place, and Ralf Schumacher failed to finish and was ranked eighteenth.

Answer: BAR-Honda

With Jenson Button taking second place and Takuma Sato coming in sixth, BAR-Honda won a total of eleven constructor points. With Michael Schumacher coming in only twelfth Ferrari gained only ten Constructor points from Barrichello. McLaren and Renault gained six and five points respectively.

Answer: False

Rubens had also won the previous Formula One race, which was the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. He'd never before won two Formula One races in succession, and had also taken pole position for both of these races. The Chinese Grand Prix gave him his ninth Formula One victory overall, and his second in 2004.