New track challenges F1 drivers

Shanghai's gleaming US$320 million circuit might add extra spice to the first-ever F1 event in China on Sunday's race.

World champion Michael Schumacher will have to start from the back of the grid after a spin-off in Saturday's qualifying at the first turn on the new track, described as "challenging" by himself.

"I'm not really sure what happened when I spun," said the 2004 champion, "We usually have to fight some understeer in that corner and we had not changed much on the car since the morning session."

He led a Ferrari one-two in Saturday's final practice session ahead of qualifying and clocked the fastest lap time of 1:33.185. And then, all of a sudden, came in the spin.

"At the moment, the data does not provide an answer, so we will look into it," he said.

While the team will probably squander the evening in search of a full explanation, it appeared that a completely new track undoubtedly presented plenty of challenges.

Barrichello also admitted they were still learning the details of the brand-new circuit, which might have affected Schumacher.

The German was an uncharacteristic 15th in Friday's first practice and only managed to bounce to 8th in the second.

"We still have to adapt our car to the demands of the track and it is not yet perfect. So there is still some work to be done, but I am confident we can have a good weekend," said Shumacher.

According to his younger brother, Ralf Shumacher of Williams, it will be fun going to a completely new track because "everyone is equal in their lack of knowledge".

"I must admit I have struggled a lot to find the right set up on this track. My car is still quite hard to drive and somewhat unpredictable," said Ralf's team mate Juan Pablo Montoya, who was 11th in qualifying.

Sam Michael, Williams' technical director, thought the layout of the circuit is unique and it would take a considerable amount of work from the drivers to make sure they learn the circuit as fast as possible during the free practice sessions.

"Working towards a good mechanical set-up for the slow speed corners will be an important part of the engineers' work," he said.

"From the circuit layout, Shanghai appears to be quite a twisty track, with the majority of the corners being slow speed, although there is a short, high speed section,"

"There are three straight sections that may offer the opportunity to overtake, however, it will be difficult without a large differential in car performance. The first corner continues to tighten up on itself which will make the start of the race interesting," he said.

That is where Michael Schumacher made the mistake. It's actually a three-corner combination that resembles a reverse "S", where the cars are highly-loaded since they need to brake, turn and downshift all at the same time.

The state-of-the-art circuit was designed by renowned architect Hermann Tilke, in a shape like the Chinese character "shang".

Not only will the course be remarkable for its change of acceleration and deceleration in different winding turns, but also for its high-speed straights making high demands on the driver as well as the car.

This should offer many opportunities for overtaking, which promises a breathtaking scenario when Michael Schumacher has to fight through the field in Sunday's race.