The Track 
So then, the first of Formula One's brand spanking new circuits for the 2008 season is a much-vaunted Valencia Street Circuit, a sort-of temporary track designed around the streets of Spain's third largest city. The original idea may have been to channel the spirit of the Monaco experience, but predictably, with safety and TV angles able to play more of a part in the first principles design, the circuit seems to have ended up somewhere between Albert Park in Melbourne and the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Not necessarily "a bad thing", but perhaps not quite the track it could have been had Hermann Tilke and co decided to say "To hell with fundamental driver and fan safety, let's go crazy!".
There are a few points of interest in the final design though. Lengthy runoffs and some relatively wide areas lend credence to the belief that, unlike Monaco, there will at least be a snifter of a forlorn hope of some overtaking, while the drivers will doubtless be kept busy by some 25 corners which make up the 5.4km track. The most spectacular section is likely to be the sight of the cars passing over a swing bridge(!) across the Valencia marina entrance, before blasting along the fast, curved waterfront into a heavy braking zone for the approaching chicane. Yes, it's a Tilke track with a long straight and a massive braking zone. So sue him.
The track itself was christened with a ramshackle Spanish GT event a couple of weeks ago, a race which attracted a host of GP2 drivers in guest drive roles as they attempted to slightly cheat their way to a bit of an advantage. The general consensus afterwards was that the track is a hottie, and will allow for some overtaking, though in GP2 as in F1, this will probably translate as a lot of clunky accidents and safety cars. On that point, the potential for carnage around Valencia will again ensure that F1's current mess of a safety car rulebook will come under scrutiny again, with the potential for more than one driver to have their race won or lost by the timing of any SC periods looking pretty high.
If you want any more details, then tough. Frankly I'm not clever enough to hypothesise any further. But the Valencia circuit organisers do offer a neat breakdown of the track layout (http://tinyurl.com/57wrwf), along with a slightly dodgy rendered video of the lap from onboard an F1 car. So enjoy that.
Talking Points
With the summer break also covering testing as well as race weekends, in theory we should enter the Valencia weekend in the same position as we left the last one, i.e. massively confused. Lewis Hamilton remains the championship leader from the Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, and seems to still have a car advantage over the Italian marque. Or does he? Massa's race leading performance in Hungary was more comfortable than simply jumping into the lead and then using the Hungaroring's naff layout to keep Hamilton behind him, and may indicate that Ferrari are once again clawing back some of the advantage in the relentless intractable battle at the front of the field.
The most logical conclusion is that the two front running teams will remain pretty even for the rest of the year, with either one enjoying an advantage depending on the track characteristics. In that sense, Valencia would seem to favour McLaren, who had the edge on pace at Melbourne, Montreal and Monaco, albeit not by much, and at all three Ferrari (usually Raikkonen more so than Massa) managed to challenge Hamilton's winning hopes. Expect more of the same here. Realistically, with the top two teams clear of the pack and the championship standings as close as they are, little will get decided here, but Ferrari are beginning to reach the point in their season when they need to back a particular horse against McLaren's Hamilton-centric efforts, so a poor result here for Massa especially could leave him being handed Barrichello's old overalls for the rest of the season.
The other major issue set to be decided over the final few races of the season is the all-important, and yet not really important at all, fight for 4th place in the constructors championship. After a season of ebbs and flows in the clutter of F1's midfield, three pretenders to the throne have emerged in Toyota, Renault and Red Bull, though the latter of those three have slipped to outsiders in recent weeks, having failed to successfully fluke their way to a podium since Canada. With Mark Webber returning to his earlier broken car excuses, the two manufacturers look likely to do battle to try and become the third best losers in F1. Much will depend on the continued upward trend of the formerly useless drivers at the teams, Nelson Piquet Jr for Renault and Timo Glock for Toyota, and also as to whether or not Fernando Alonso can really be bothered anymore.
Elsewhere, Force India might make a few gains, with their swanky new seamless shift gearbox making it's debut here, and they will be looking to try and mix it with the likes of Williams and Honda, who have completely given up on 2008 by all accounts.
Modern Classic
1999
The inherent madness of a wet qualifying session precipitated carnage in the European Grand Prix back in this year. Right from the start, with a pile up in the midfield and the slightly worrisome sight of Pedro Diniz's Sauber barrel rolling over the grass, with his rollbar offering all the secure protection of a soggy stack of bog roll, there was the sense that all would not be well for the F1 pack that day. From there, more rain came and people flew off left, right and centre, as the race became the one that nobody wanted to win. Title rivals Mika Hakkinen and Eddie Irvine took themselves out of contention with botched strategies, Hakkinen switching to wet tyres too early, and Irvine pitting before the Ferrari mechanics had counted the tyres they had available, losing almost a minute on the jacks as they pottered around in search of a fourth tyre.
Firstly, pole sitter (and early race leader) Heinz Harald Frentzen retired, all-but knackering his slim title hopes in the process. David Coulthard then spun out from the lead and destroyed his own title hopes, and then Giancarlo Fisichella also spun out having inherited the lead for Benetton. Ralf Schumacher took over in the lead in his Williams-Supertec, but suffered a puncture which dropped him back, all of which elevated Johnny Herbert to the front and to the unlikeliest of wins for Stewart-Ford, in what would be their only F1 victory. Jarno Trulli managed second for Prost, while Boobens took third to make it a double podium for Stewart.
Elsewhere, perennial useless backmarkers Minardi looked set to benefit from the mayhem, but Luca Badoer suffered gearbox failure some 13 laps to go, losing 4th place in the process. Marc Gene though, did hang on for 6th place, to give Minardi 2.6% of their total points scored in their 345 race lifetime. Wonderful.
One Year Ago
Hmm. Technically, though there was no Valencia race last year, there was a European GP, as some dodgy licensing issue meant that the German event at the Nurburgring had to officially be run as a European GP rather than a German one. But we've already sort of included that in our German preview. So, erm, oops.
The ITV Checklist
Instead, here's a limited edition, cut out and keep checklist for those privy to ITV's "unique" angle on F1 throughout the race coverage on Sunday. Most of this will (probably) happen, so keep your eyes peeled.
- The Moby theme fades to Steve Rider smarming an opening line about Lewis Hamilton being "streetwise" following his earlier victory at Monaco.
- Pre-race track guide involves inexplicable decision to use footage of Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell pottering around the circuit on Segways, "This is a lot faster than some of the cars what I drove," mirths Blundell.
- Brief tactical analysis involves Ted Kravitz standing next to a massive pile of Bridgestone tyres inventing excuses for Hamilton's inability to control wear issues on longer stints.
- Bereft of drivers on his gridwalk, Martin Brundle collars Naomi Campbell for a brief, stilted interview. "Spot of community service from Naomi there," Martin guffaws as he wanders away.
- Lengthy holding shot of Raikkonen sucking on an energy drink bottle while staring ahead with vague, expressionless eyes. "They don't call him the Iceman for nothing," James Allen non sequiturs.
- Massive, car wrecking pile-up on lap 4 completely missed by Allen due to him reading a pre-prepared script about the white stripe on the option tyre from his clipboard.
- "Fantastic new camera angles being pioneered here," Allen exclaims, over blurred, bumpy shot from camera looking inwards from a Renault's front tyre.
- Slow motion shot of Toyota bouncing across the kerbs utilised to kill time during interminable mid-race lull. "He'll have felt that," Brundle sagely notes.
- "They've painted the town red this afternoon," Rider sighs over footage of 35 jubilant-but-gormless Ferrari mechanics creating an inappropriate moshpit next to the fenced off podium area.
- Rider takes time out from Blundell's post-race analysis of Hamilton's pit stops to plug upcoming pointless boxing bout/dreary UEFA Cup football qualifier on ITV4.
Facts and Guesses
Number of Laps : 57
Lap Record : n/a
2007 Pole : n/a
2007 Winner : n/a
Free Practice 1 & 2 : 10:00 & 14.00 (Local Time) / 09.00 & 13.00 (BST) - Friday 22nd August
Free Practice 3 : 11:00 (Local Time) / 10.00 (BST) - Saturday 23rd August
Qualifying Start : 14.00 (Local Time) / 13.00 (BST) - Saturday 23rd August
Race Start : 14.00 (Local Time) / 13.00 (BST) - Sunday 24th August
On Patronise
To celebrate the return of F1 after the summer recess, Patronise will be hitting the European Grand Prix weekend harder than usual, as we endeavour to cover Friday's practice action as it happens, along with all the usual qualifying and race stuff. Huzzah for us!
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