Alonso: Friday practice will be vital in Valencia

FERNANDO ALONSO

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Monday 11th August 2008

Fernando Alonso concedes a solid performance in Friday's practice at Valencia is vital if he hopes to get a good result when F1 pays it's first visit to the Spanish port.

Valencia is the first of two new circuits that the F1 drivers will have to learn this season and given how new the venue is it means the teams have yet to put together a simulation of a lap of the track.

Alonso, though, has seen what it looks like thanks to a friend's in-car video as well as watching a recent Formula 3 race on TV. However, it won't be until Friday's first practice that the double World Champion will really get a feel for the circuit.

"We don't have any simulator with that kind of possibility (for learning a circuit)," he told SpeedTV.

"In my case it's only the videos, some pictures. I had a friend at that race (the recent F3 and GT meeting) who did one lap with a normal road car, with a video camera in the front, just to know the circuit."

This means it will be vital for himself and his rivals to put in as much mileage as possible during Friday's two one-and-a-half hour practice sessions.

"For sure until you run with an F1 car there it's not very useful, anything you do, because you will change completely your opinion and your feelings.

"We will need to maximise the Friday practice when we arrive there, because it will be the only way to improve.

"The circuit seems very, very well prepared. There's obviously some work to do before F1 arrives, but it's not like a normal street track.

"It's something more, it seems wide, it seems like an American type of street circuit.

"I think it will be a nice and interesting grand prix. Not only the race, but also the atmosphere will be quite different.

"For sure I'm looking forward to the grand prix."

David Coulthard is another driver eagerly awaiting the August 24th grand prix. "I've seen some in-car footage of the track and it looks very open for a street course - there's some run-off in some corners, it's quite flowing in places and it's mostly fairly wide," he told ITV.

"Aesthetically it looks more like an American-style street circuit than Monaco or Macau because of the use of concrete walls rather than Armco.

"But it's only really when you touch it, feel it and scratch it as you walk round on the Thursday and then drive it for the first time in Friday practice that you get a true idea of what a new circuit is like.

"Sony PlayStation doesn't really cut it; you have to get out there and lay some rubber down."