FIA Preview: European GP

The Valencia Street Circuit will host the eighth round of the 2012 Formula One World Championship. Valencia has been home to the European Grand Prix since 2008. Following rounds in Monaco and Montreal, it is the third race in a row to be held on a ‘street’ circuit.

This track features four long straights and also boasts more corners than any other current F1 venue, ten of which are taken in low gears. It requires teams to strike a difficult balance between high straight-line speed on the four 300kph-plus sections, and excellent low-speed grip and traction. It’s a circuit that rewards a good all-round car: every year the winning team in Valencia has gone on to lift the Constructors’ Championship.

As is often the case for street circuits, qualifying position will be at a premium: three times from the four races here the man qualifying in pole position has gone on to win the race. Pitstops have a role to play also. Pirelli are bringing Medium and Soft compound tyres, the same combination that featured last year.

Unlike in Canada, where a one-stop strategy provided two podium finishes, the slippery surface in Valencia and the high-load corners tend to induce much greater tyre wear.

Last year the strategy used exclusively by the front-runners was three equal-length stints on the soft tyre followed by a switch to the medium rubber at the end of the race.

However, alternative strategies were successful lower down the order: Sergio Pérez managed a one-stop race that elevated him from 16th on the grid to 11th at the chequered flag, while Jaime Alguersuari was catapulted from 18th to eighth with a two-stop strategy.

The 2012 season has rewritten records so far, with the first seven races of the year producing seven different winners from five different teams and two very competitive championship tables.

It is being hailed in some quarters as the most unpredictable season in the history of the sport.

Valencia Street Circuit Data

• Length of lap: 5.419km
• Lap record: 1:38.683 (Timo Glock – Toyota, 2009)
• Total race laps: 57
• Race distance: 308.883km
• Pit speed limits: 60km/h during practice, qualifying and race

Changes to circuit since 2011 race

• Areas of artificial grass laid around several section of the circuit have been replaced with a more durable product for 2012. This follows problems in 2011, with the synthetic turf becoming detached from the surface to which it was glued.

European Grand Prix Fast Facts

• The four European Grands Prix in Valencia have produced three winners: Felipe Massa won the inaugural race in 2008 for Ferrari, followed by Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello in 2009. The 2010 and 2011 events were won by Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing. Vettel is both the first driver to win this race and go on to become World Champion that season, and also the first reigning Champion to win here.
• This race has been won from pole position three times. The only exception being Barrichello’s victory in 2009 in which the Brazilian triumphed from third on the grid.
• Vettel and Lewis Hamilton are the only drivers to have been on the podium more than once. Vettel’s two victories are his only visits while Hamilton, never having won the race, finished in second place the first three times the race was run.
• Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are the only two drivers to finish in the points every time F1 has raced in Valencia.
• The Valencia Street Circuit has more corners than any other current F1 circuit, though some are corners only in name. However, the combination of long straights and ten turns taken in third gear or lower puts a heavy load on braking systems. Together with expected high ambient temperatures this creates issues for brake cooling.
• Unusually, this is F1’s first visit to the city of Valencia this year. The city’s permanent race track, the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, is a popular testing venue and has been used every year between 2000-2011. Its very smooth surface provides a direct contrast to the abrasive Jerez. In the modern era of limited winter testing it held one of the four tests each year between 2009-2011 but lost out when only three winter tests were held in 2012.
• Five circuits in three countries have held the modern incarnation of the European Grand Prix. The first of 21 runnings was held at Brands Hatch in 1983 and again in 1985. The other British track to host the race is Donington Park (1993). The race was run 12 times at the Nürburgring between 1984-2007 before moving to Valencia for 2008. It also took place on Spanish soil in 1994 and 1997, when it was held at Jerez.
• Before the modern incarnation, the title ‘European Grand Prix’ was an honorific, grafted onto other races. In the Formula 1 era this practice (with exceptions in 1953, 1969, 1970 and 1971) was used between 1950 and 1977. The first winner of the European Grand Prix was Nino Farina, at Silverstone in 1950, the final winner was James Hunt, also at Silverstone, in 1977.
• The title was also used as an honorific before the creation of the F1 World Championship. The first European Grand Prix is recorded as being the 1923 Italian Grand Prix held at Monza. It was won by Carlo Salamano, driving for Fiat.

European GP Race Stewards Biographies

• Garry Connelly has been involved in motor sport since the late 1960s. A long-time rally competitor, Connelly was instrumental in bringing the World Rally Championship to Australia in 1988 and served as Chairman of the Organising Committee, Board member and Clerk of Course of Rally Australia until December 2002. He has been an FIA Steward and FIA Observer since 1989, covering the FIA’s World Rally Championship, World Touring Car Championship and Formula One Championship. He is a director of the Australian Institute of Motor Sport Safety and a member of the FIA World Motor Sport Council.
• Paolo Longoni is a steward with more than 20 years’ experience. Milanese Longoni began his stewards’ training at his home circuit – Monza – in 1990 and was immediately ‘bitten by the bug’ of motorsport. While his early stewarding experience was based largely at Monza, since 2006 Longoni has been a national steward, officiating at rounds of the Porsche Supercup, Ferrari Challenge Championship, FIA Historic Championship, ETCC, WTCC, Formula Two and Le Mans Series events.
• During a motor sport career that has spanned almost 40 years, Emanuele Pirro has achieved a huge amount of success, most notably in sports car racing, with five Le Mans wins, victory at the Daytona 24 Hours and two wins at the Sebring 12 Hours. In addition, he has won the German and Italian Touring Car championships (the latter twice) and has twice been American Le Mans Series Champion. Pirro enjoyed a three-season F1 career from 1989 to 1991, firstly with Benetton and then for Scuderia Italia. He subsequently spent four years as a test driver for McLaren. Pirro’s debut as an FIA Steward came at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.