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Australian Grand Prix Preview

MELBOURNE, Australia- As it has done or the last few seasons,
Australia will once again host the first race of this year’s Formula One World
Championship and it has been at this location in the middle of Albert Park with
a huge lake since the end of the 1990’s, when it was originally first held in
the South Australian town of Adelaide. Even after the last few year’s when
protesters from environmental groups wanted to close the track for this event,
the circuit still will remain for this opening race, with a contract that will remain
for another three years.

Albert Park is one circuit on the formula one calendar
that does not have a hairpin turn on any part of its course. The start of the
course features a huge straight, followed by a tricky right hand bend at the
end that can cause havoc as both former racers Martin Brundle in 1998 and Ralf
Schumacher a few years afterwards, found out. Cars can scatter all over the
place and following this sorting out on the track, comes a fierce right hand
bend afterwards that finally gives you some room to accelerate the car at around
60 miles per hour into a right/left flick that has to be taken at the correct
entry. As the car continues on, the racer finds himself out onto the back part
of the track, where turns 11 and 12 are the fastest sections of being wide open
on the throttle, at around 210 miles per hour, before finishing off braking
heavily at turns 13 and 14, with even more of an emphasis on turns 15 and 16,
which are a series of chicanes which put you back out to the long straightaway again
and to the approach of the start/ finish line. The track itself takes a total
of just over 3.5 miles to drive on one lap and has a total of 53 laps to run on
race day.

Albert Park is similar to one circuit on the calendar,
and this is Canada. Although the Canadian race has one major hairpin at Casino,
there are not many areas for run off, and this is similar at Albert Park. This
race also has one advantage: It is the beginning of the season and as well the
opening race, so everyone who has tested this past winter now have a chance to
see exactly what their car can do, and since it is a what the experts call a “fly
away “race, not many parts are with them, because the factories are many miles
away in Europe. So if there is a problem, it has to wait until the fourth race
in Bahrain where parts can finally be close enough to get to. If there is an
emergency, then the part could take days if it is not at the track, and this
could have no effect because race weekends are only three days.

Two Australians will be home at this circuit; one is
Daniel Riccardo of Toro Rosso, and the other has had placed in this race even
the first time out. This is Mark Webber, who at 36 is the oldest driver on the
F1 scene. Webber’s first race here was in 2001 with Minardi where he placed in
fifth. If Webber could win here with his Infiniti Red Bull entry, it would
certainly start off his season to a good beginning.

However, this first race could give anyone a chance
to pull off a victory because in the first race of the season, nobody has any
idea what their entries can do.

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