It’s a fantastic track for me - Fisichella
Next weekend, the 2009 Formula One World Championship season will finally get started with the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. Force India F1 Team driver Giancarlo Fisichella is already looking forward to travel to Melbourne.
Giancarlo Fisichella: "Australia is a good place for me personally. I won the race in 2005 and started in second place in 2006 and with a car that was not as competitive as we would have liked, I finished in fifth in 2007. For these reasons, it’s a fantastic track for me, but it’s also a great track to drive.
"With a combination of short straights, second and third gear chicanes, this 16 turn track requires medium to high downforce and good traction is essential, particularly early on in the weekend when the track is ‘green’. It is very slippery on the Friday as it doesn’t get used very much over the year, and then conditions just get better and better for the race.
"There are a few chicanes in third gear so you need to have a good car under braking, but don’t brake too much so you can still get into the chicane with a good speed. Turns 11 and 12 are quite quick and it’s quite hard for the brakes, and the last corner is quite interesting. It’s important to be quick but there is always a lot of understeer and the car slides on four wheels.
"This year the race will start a bit later at 17:00, so it may be a bit darker at the end of the race, but I don’t think this will change a lot for the drivers. In Singapore we raced under the lights and it didn’t seem to make a lot of difference from our perspective."
