Australia favourite place for Heidfeld

This weekend BMW Sauber F1 Team driver, Nick Heidfeld, will enter the Australian Grand Prix, held in Melbourne, for the seventh time. But the race down under will be a little different in many ways this year.

"This season's Australian Grand Prix will certainly have a rather different feel about it," says Nick Heidfeld. "The race has been put back due to the Commonwealth Games, so there won't be that extra buzz you get when it's the first race of the season." And postponing the race has brought another important change with it, Nick explains. "Because it's later in the year, it won't be as hot as usual either - the race is a month later than normal and Melbourne will be getting really quite autumnal."

Despite the unusual Grand Prix conditions, the most important feature remains unchanged, the actual F1 race track. When the red lights go off on Sunday at 14:00hrs local time, the Australian GP will race around Melbourne's Albert Park once more. "The Albert Park circuit is nice to drive, but also a demanding one for the drivers," adds Nick. Drivers will be forced to get used to one major difference in comparison to the Bahrain and Malaysian Grand Prix, as Nick explains: "Because it isn't a permanent race track, there isn't much grip at the start of the weekend. The situation improves with each lap as the cars lay down extra rubber."

The 28-year-old is, however, not only looking forward to the World Championship race in Australia. According to Nick, the country is always worth a visit. "Australia is my favourite place on the Formula One calendar to travel to and I tend to fly out to Melbourne a few days early to get used to the time difference."