Five years is an awful long time in Formula 1 and it feels even longer given the global pandemic that interrupted F1's visits to Shanghai.
The last time F1 travelled to China, Max Verstappen had only won five races and RB was still racing as Toro Rosso rather than its previous name AlphaTauri.
In the meantime, as the Shanghai International Circuit hosted a makeshift COVID-19 hospital in 2022 rather than any major motor racing, F1 went through wide-ranging regulation changes and Pirelli introduced different tyres mounted on larger rims.
Pirelli cautioned that teams are therefore effectively "starting from scratch" on Friday. While the layout itself hasn't changed, the lack of action of any kind over the last few years means the circuit surface may well have undergone significant ageing.
In the run-up to the event, several bumps were smoothened out to accommodate the more sensitive ground-effect machinery.
Picking China of all places to host the first sprint format of the year has raised some eyebrows, with Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz both questioning whether it was really the right move for this year.
It gives teams just 60 minutes of free practice to validate their set-ups, with an even bigger emphasis on simulation work.
Source: Autosport