Safety car start considered in China

The Chinese Grand Prix will start behind the safety car unless the track surface dries up considerably in the next hour

That is the view of several Formula One drivers, who got a close look at the wet Shanghai circuit during this morning's drivers' parade.

With rain having returned this morning, and a huge downpour having brought an early end to the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia race, the continued light drizzle makes it certain the race will start on a wet track.

And many drivers believe that the conditions, plus standing water at several parts of the track, will mean the safety car has to be brought into action.

Honda's Rubens Barrichello, who starts from third on the grid, is convinced the race will have a rolling start.

"I think right now it is probably a safety car situation," he told autosport.com. "Although it doesn't look like a lot of water, there is standing water in so many places.

"And I guess people will not take the extreme wet tyre because it might dry off quite quickly. So it is going to be extremely dangerous in the early part."

David Coulthard, who claimed that conditions experienced in qualifying were exactly the kind that would require the safety car, backed up Barrichello.

"The standing water is going to make it quite tricky, but right now I guess you would start on inters behind the safety car," he said, with just one hour to go before the start.

"The weather forecast we had an hour ago was that there was no big showers like we have just had but there will be local showers."

Jarno Trulli added to autosport.com: "At the moment it is on the limit between whether we go with the safety car or not.

"The weather forecast is so difficult to predict, but definitely it is not going to be nice at the beginning because there will be a lot of standing water.

"We have seen before and this morning (in the Porsche race) there can be a lot of aquaplaning. Plus the other issue is the spray from the cars."

Coulthard was sure that FIA race director Charlie Whiting would make the correct call when it comes to deciding how the race starts.