Mercedes technical chief Paddy Lowe says drivers could pit as early as the fifth lap in China following Pirelli's decision to bring the super-soft to Shanghai.
Pirelli's new tyre regulations have opened up strategic opportunities this season, with three compounds now brought to races instead of two. This weekend's race will see the medium, soft and super-soft, with the latter getting its first ever run at the Shanghai circuit.
With the super-soft tyre, which will be the quickest over one lap, likely to suffer high levels of degradation in a short time frame Lowe thinks there is a lot of analysis to be conducted by the teams ahead of the grand prix.
"The Shanghai circuit places an entirely different duty on tyres relative to Melbourne and Bahrain," Lowe said. "However, we have the same three compounds available, so it will be interesting to see how the competitive order plays out.
"It's the first time we'll see the super-soft compound used at this track, thanks to the new regulations, and that will likely create a more extreme example of what we saw in Bahrain, where the best qualifying tyre is unlikely to be a great race tyre. Every team is bound to want to qualify on the super-soft - but if it grains in the race, we could see cars stopping in the first five laps.
"There will be plenty of analysis to do on Friday and we could see some interesting calls on qualifying and race strategy."
Lowe says the erratic conditions in Shanghai also causes a headache for strategists on the pit wall.
"What makes this all the more difficult for the teams is the unpredictability of the conditions. It can be quite warm in Shanghai -- but it can also be as cool as Belgium. That variability can make life tricky in terms of both setup and strategy work, so it's always a challenging weekend."