AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX PREVIEW
Formula One roars back into action this weekend for the start
of the 2008 FIA World Championship at Melbourne’s picturesque
Albert Park circuit in Victoria, Australia. The AT&T Williams
team will return to the race track with Nico Rosberg, who
will be entering his third season as a race driver having
agreed a long term contract with the team over the winter.
Kazuki Nakajima will line up alongside Rosberg and will be
making his Formula One season debut following promotion from
his role as the team’s 2007 test driver and a successful
campaign in GP2 last year.
The new driver line-up will be piloting AT&T Williams’
2008 championship contender, the FW30. Spring-boarding off
the FW29’s engineering principles, the FW30 is a clear
progression of a thoroughly tested platform and has proved
to be consistent over 30 car days and 10,435 kilometres of
testing over the winter. Its true test, however, will only
come once the flag drops for Sunday’s race.
Nico Rosberg
I travelled out to Australia early for a driver day in Sydney
with RBS; it’s now an annual event and is always one
of the best sponsor trips. Looking ahead to the race, I’m
looking forward to getting to Melbourne and getting the season
underway, and there’s a good chance that we will be
stronger at Albert Park this year than we were last year.
Saturday’s qualifying results will provide the moment
of truth for all of the teams and will reveal testing bluffs
and low fuel runs. I believe that we will have a solid race
this weekend and will look to bring home some points. Reliability-wise,
it will be challenging to achieve our target of 100% this
season, but we’re in good shape.
Kazuki Nakajima
It’s amazing that the first race of the season is finally
here and I’m obviously really excited to get my debut
year in Formula One underway. We’ve been working hard
over winter testing and done a lot of good preparation work
so the team is looking forward to racing again. Because Melbourne
is a street circuit, it will be quite slippery when we do
our initial runs, but it should have settled down by Saturday.
The track is a good combination of slow and medium speed corners,
with some fast ones thrown in as well. It’s also looking
like it will be a hot race, which will suit the car. I feel
like I’ve been testing for quite a long time now, so
it’ll be good to actually race!
Sam Michael, Technical Director, Williams F1
Heading off to the first race of the year is always an exciting
time for everyone. There is a great buzz among the teams before
the racing starts again because it allows us to see where
our performance lies relative to each other. From the last
race in 2007 to the first race in 2008 testing provides some
indication, but not the solid reference point that racing
offers.
With regards to the track, Melbourne is a low grip street
circuit so special attention is required when it comes to
the mechanical set-up of the car to get the best out of the
Bridgestone tyres. Nico and Kazuki are both well prepared
going into the season ahead, as is the car, which has covered
thousands of kilometres on the test track over the winter
to ensure strong race reliability
Albert Park, Melbourne
The 5.303km Albert Park track is one of the few street circuits
on the calendar and therefore used by everyday road traffic
when Formula One isn’t in town. As a result, drivers
are faced with minimal grip levels during the race weekend’s
opening sessions, combined with the recent ban on traction
control, the circuit’s limited run-off areas may claim
some unprecedented victims over the weekend before grip levels
improve as the cars lay rubber.
On track, Albert Park blends a testing mix of short straights
(on which the drivers will reach speeds in excess of 300km/h
and spend 70% of the lap at full throttle), interspersed with
16 slow and medium speed corners, which will demand nearly
3,500 gear changes during the race.
Torque to power the cars out of the corners, a balanced set-up,
a robust gearbox and stability under braking are therefore
all essential components to achieve a successful lap during
qualifying and a strong result at the Australian Grand Prix.
STATS & FACTS
KEY RACE DATA
RACE DISTANCE/LAPS 5.303kms/3.295 miles. 58 laps = 307.574kms/191.110
miles
RACE START TIME Local: 15.30, GMT: 04.30
2007 FASTEST LAP K Raikkonen, Ferrari: 1:25.235
2007 POLE SITTER K Raikkonen, Ferrari: 1:26.072
2007 RACE WINNER K Raikkonen, Ferrari
PIT-STOP SCHEDULE
1 stop: Laps 29 - 34
2 stops: Laps 21 – 25, 35 - 43
3 stops: Laps 15 – 18, 29 – 33, 42 - 47
WILLIAMS IN AUSTRALIA (ADELAIDE ’85–’95
AND MELBOURNE ’96–‘07)
23 RACES
5 WINS
6 POLES
6 FASTEST LAPS
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