Ok, Ladies and Gentlemen, hold on to your hats because its the big one. The race that we've all been waiting for. Yes, its that time of of year when the F1 circus goes to Valencia for a series of demonstration laps in front of the world's press.
This year could be different of course with the lack of re-fuelling, the rise of the F-duct and the increased problem of overtaking back markers giving the drivers plenty to think about.
Another major factor that could affect the racing here is the fact that most teams are planning a second batch of aero upgrades. Trying to predict who will be fastest this weekend could prove extremely difficult. In an interview with Autosport, Button predicts that McLaren will struggle to be as quick as they were in Canada and that it will be a lot closer at the front. Obviously, Alonso, being on home ground and coming off the back of an impressive turn around in performance in Canada will be looking to capitalise on this. Could we see the strongest performance by the Italian squad since the season opener in Bahrain?
Further down the field, Williams are hoping that their F-duct work will enable them to race with the Force India's and halt their slide towards the back of the field. Another driver to watch out for this weekend will be Vitaly Petrov who lives in the Valencia region and knows the track really well. Petrov has shown signs of real pace this season and with a bit more knowledge of the track than he has had at other venues so far this year he could be giving his team mate a run for his money.
The Virgin cars will be looking to turn around their fortunes given that this will potentially be the first weekend when they get to run their cars in full spec'. Hopefully they can now put the disastrous start to the season behind them. HRT and Lotus continue to steadily improve but the big question for these teams will be have their improvements increased their pace or just maintained the gap to the next group of cars in front.
With the level of dust and rubbish on the track its going to be well into the weekend until we get a true idea of the respective paces of the cars. So the question is, are we going to see a turn around in Valencia's reputation or are we set for the continuation of the annual snoozefest of Bernie's folly??
This year could be different of course with the lack of re-fuelling, the rise of the F-duct and the increased problem of overtaking back markers giving the drivers plenty to think about.
Another major factor that could affect the racing here is the fact that most teams are planning a second batch of aero upgrades. Trying to predict who will be fastest this weekend could prove extremely difficult. In an interview with Autosport, Button predicts that McLaren will struggle to be as quick as they were in Canada and that it will be a lot closer at the front. Obviously, Alonso, being on home ground and coming off the back of an impressive turn around in performance in Canada will be looking to capitalise on this. Could we see the strongest performance by the Italian squad since the season opener in Bahrain?
Further down the field, Williams are hoping that their F-duct work will enable them to race with the Force India's and halt their slide towards the back of the field. Another driver to watch out for this weekend will be Vitaly Petrov who lives in the Valencia region and knows the track really well. Petrov has shown signs of real pace this season and with a bit more knowledge of the track than he has had at other venues so far this year he could be giving his team mate a run for his money.
The Virgin cars will be looking to turn around their fortunes given that this will potentially be the first weekend when they get to run their cars in full spec'. Hopefully they can now put the disastrous start to the season behind them. HRT and Lotus continue to steadily improve but the big question for these teams will be have their improvements increased their pace or just maintained the gap to the next group of cars in front.
With the level of dust and rubbish on the track its going to be well into the weekend until we get a true idea of the respective paces of the cars. So the question is, are we going to see a turn around in Valencia's reputation or are we set for the continuation of the annual snoozefest of Bernie's folly??
