The Hindu : Sport : Perfect setting for a riveting race

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 01, 2006
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Perfect setting for a riveting race

The track layout in Shanghai is a demanding mix of straights, turns and hairpins, writes Narain Karthikeyan

It's been a very hectic last couple of weeks for me. I spent a few days testing the interim Williams's chassis with the Toyota engine at Silverstone. I'm also very happy and proud that my contract with Williams F1 has been extended for one more year, which indicates their faith in my abilities to be a significant contributor to the team's efforts as we embark upon a new partnership with Toyota, who will supply Williams F1 with engines from 2007 onwards.

Being a test driver for a top Formula 1 team like Williams F1 can be of great benefit to a driver's career, as has been proven in the cases of Pedro de la Rosa and Alex Wurz.

After years of testing for McLaren and one year at Williams, Alex will get his chance to race for Williams next year. Similarly for Pedro, he has been testing for McLaren for a couple of years before being given his chance behind the wheel for races this season.

F-1 back in Asia

Coming to this weekend's race, Formula One is back in Asia — China this weekend and Japan the next. This will be only the third year a race will be held in China at the amazing Shanghai International Circuit.

The track layout in Shanghai is a demanding mix of straights, turns and hairpins. Over the 5.4km lap, the drivers will negotiate seven left, and seven right hand turns. With so many slow and medium speed corners over one lap, the car must have perfect balance, achieved through an efficient aero package. Although dominated by corners, Shanghai has two long straights, the longest being between turns 13 and 14 which is over a kilometre long, which will see drivers reach speeds in excess of 320kmph and raise the average lap speed to over 200kmph.

The track also offers ample room for overtaking manoeuvres and the setting is perfect for a riveting race on Sunday afternoon.

Tough on tyres

Shanghai is a tough circuit for the tyres. Turn 13 here deserves a special mention, where the front left tyre is heavily loaded through this 270 degrees corner, all the while accelerating and putting high lateral and longitudinal loads through the rear tyres. It is a difficult challenge to find the optimum solution in terms of tyre choice for this circuit.

The engineers will have to pay attention to the cars' relative straight-line speed during practice in order to choose the optimum aero level for qualifying and the race.

Qualifying was under wet weather conditions, but the conditions seemed to suit the Michelin runners, as they could run on intermediate tyres as compared with the Bridgestone runners who had to use full wet weather tyres.

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