It's race week and Formula 1 is returning to China for the first time in half a decade.
Due to COVID-19, the series has not been able to hold an event at the Shanghai International Circuit since Mercedes took a commanding one-two there, with Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari in third, back in 2019.
The venue held consecutive annual F1 races from the inaugural grand prix there in 2004 until the disrupted 2020 season, and it holds a contract with F1 until next year - a deal that was extended in November 2021, in the midst of its COVID-induced sabbatical from the calendar.
It is not the first time a circuit has returned to F1 after a period away, nor will it be the last.
The Austrian Grand Prix has twice fallen from the calendar only to return. The infamous Österreichring was last raced by F1 in 1987, but would come back much changed as the A1 Ring a decade later. After falling from rotation again after the 2003 edition of the race, the Red Bull Ring - as it is now known - has been an ever-present since the start of the turbo-hybrid era, in 2014.
It is a similar story with F1 and the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico, which returned in 2015 after a 23 year absence. Likewise, the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa has been linked a comeback to the calendar, with F1 having last raced there in 1993.
With F1's growth in popularity coinciding with the Netflix series Drive to Survive, which debuted in 2019, for many fans, this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix will be the first they have experienced live, which begs the question: should the Chinese Grand Prix have a spot on the F1 calendar?
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