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”,...
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