A lap around Albert Park with Alonso and Hamilton

With less than a week to go before the Formula One engines will start to roar at the street circuit in Melbourne, the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team race drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, take us for a lap around the Albert Park circuit.

"Albert Park is a very long circuit with a lap that averages around one and a half minutes and covers 16 corners; most of which are stop and go. There are a large number of chicanes and as a result braking is very important, consequently the circuit is very hard on the brakes, and we run hard brake materials here, similar to Bahrain and Monza. It is also pretty hard on the rear tyres as there is a lot of acceleration coming out in second gear from the chicanes. It is a medium to high downforce circuit for us. For me the most difficult corner of the whole lap is Turn 11 and 12, which is a real high-speed chicane, a left-right corner taken in fifth gear. There is quite a long straight afterwards so you have to keep the momentum going to get the maximum speed as you come out of Turn 12. The last sector is very important because even though it is made up of mainly second and third gear corners there is a lot of lap time involved. As it is a pretty long lap it is important to use the kerbs as well because the chicanes have pretty slow speeds and you can always go over the first inside kerb. So the braking, traction and the ability to ride the kerbs are the most important factors for a good lap around Albert Park."

"I haven't been to Australia before, but I have driven the track on the simulator at the McLaren Technology Centre as well as on various computer games with my brother and it seems to be quite a good track. I am really into street circuits and even though Albert Park is much longer than Monaco it has many of the features typical to this track. I have heard that the track is quite tight and you are always coming up against walls. We will be driving right on the edge of the track, a bit like when you come up to the barriers in Monaco and it is very, very fast so this makes the prospect of getting to race here even more exciting. I have normally been very good on street circuits and I really enjoy driving them. As I say I haven't ever driven at Albert Park, but what seems to be interesting when you are watching the race is the twisty nature of the circuit and the first couple of sectors seem quite tricky, especially as the grip levels are low. The part when you get to Turns 11 and 12 looks like a demanding part of the circuit because of the speed as you take this in something like fifth or sixth gear. However this will also be the most exciting part of the track and I can't wait to experience it."