This weekend’s European Grand Prix is held on a brand new circuit, the Valencia Street Circuit. The circuit has a contract for seven years, so we may as well try and get acquainted with it as best we can.

We won’t know exactly what to expect until the F1 cars arrive there. But for a street circuit it seems rather promising. For a street circuit, it is particularly fast. It is estimated that the F1 cars will reach 185mph at least four times during a fast lap. The top speed is estimated at an incredible 199mph, with an average speed of 140mph. Pretty quick for a street circuit.

The circuit is also said to be very smooth for a street circuit. In addition, the circuit is wide and has plenty of run-off area which should encourage overtaking. Alex Waters, who competes in Spanish Formula 3, said in the September 2008 edition of F1 Racing that there are three obvious overtaking spots. That is more than some circuits, like a certain other one in Spain. To demonstrate this, Waters reached as high as 6th position from a grid position of 18th before retiring. So the drivers should have no dodgy excuses for not being able to overtake!

Here are a few videos to help us get acquainted with the circuit.

First is Sidepodcast’s ‘Inside Track’ preview, which takes us on a virtual tour of the circuit.

Here is some on board footage taken from a Formula 3 car. This gives you an idea of the speed of the circuit and the amount of run-off there is.

And here is a video from the International GT Open race which was held on the circuit earlier on this year.

Keith at F1 Fanatic has collected more on-board videos and television footage of the races.

Keith also has a guide to the characteristics of the Valencia Street Circuit.

I’m looking forward to this weekend’s sessions and the liveblogs that will take place throughout the weekend will be indispensable as we come to terms with the new environment.

I have been moonlighting. I finally found a bit of time to send a voicemail to Sidepodcast and it’s in this week’s podcast.

My message is in two parts. The first part in the ‘News and views’ chapter is an exclusive rant about Jean Todt, particularly the rumours surrounding the FIA Presidency. And his height. Don’t miss it! The second bit is in ‘Housekeeping’, where I plug this blog and thank Christine for her post.

I hate hearing my own voice! I suppose everyone says that about their own voice though. But I am clearly a lazy speaker because I slur even when I am stone cold sober!

Just a quick bit of admin news while I’m here. I am finally getting round to putting the final touches to this blog, so expect a couple of changes. If anything looks broken, please do let me know, especially if you’re on a Mac or Linux. I test all the major PC browsers, but I’ve not got a Mac.

Firstly, I need to apologise for the lateness of this post. I have been putting it off for a long time now (over a week actually!).

I have written before about how I have not been able to get into podcasting. But I was asked personally on Twitter to write about this, so I thought I’d better!

It is strange how podcasting has never captured my interest. When I was a child you would have said I would be more likely to become a podcaster than a blogger. I never had much interest in writing or even reading. And while everyone else was off playing doctors & nurses and cowboys & Indians, I was indoors pretending to be a radio presenter. Sad, I know!

Anyway, here is the post with the challenge to F1 bloggers:

I read with interest what you might describe as a call to arms on Renault’s blog today, because it touches on a subject I’ve been giving some thought to recently. Namely that Formula 1 bloggers spend a lot of time picking up the latest news from traditional media sources and posting their thoughts, yet spend almost zero time listening to podcasts and doing the same.

The post goes on to outline some of the reasons this might be the case. They are similar reasons as why I have not got into podcasting. The main one is that it is quite time-consuming to listen to podcasts.

With blogging, I can be subscribed to about 200 blogs and get through the day’s posts from those blogs fairly easily (if I have, say, a couple of hours to spend in the evening). This is because I can just scan through all the posts and read whatever grabs my attention. While I might miss the odd gem by doing this, I also save a lot of time just by skipping past boring posts.

With a podcast, you just cannot do this. Sure, there is a fast-forward button in iTunes. But I can’t ’skim-listen’ to a podcast in the same way that I can skim-read a blog post. So I just have to sit through all the boring bits in the hope that there will be something interesting sooner or later.

Not that there is much chance of me being bored with the good F1 podcasts out there (thank goodness ITV don’t make a podcast, eh?!). But the point still stands: listening to podcasts is time consuming.

A few days ago I listened to the latest Renault F1 podcast and Sidepodcast. Listening to those two took an hour. And while, for the most part, this was an entertaining and informative hour, the whole thing does depend on me having a spare hour to spend in the first place.

I have tried to listen to podcasts more in the past, and the experiment usually does not last long. Last week I did cite the BBC’s rather excellent Chequered Flag podcast. I have downloaded it and listened from time to time, but the only reason I picked up on Anthony Davidson’s comments last week was because it happened to be on the radio overnight when I was listening.

As for the Renault F1 podcast, I was quite impressed. The discussion section with Pat Symonds and Alan Permane were particularly good. As for there being not “too much spin”, I am not so sure. It is true that nobody tried to kid us on that Renault have had a perfect season so far. But they know that to claim otherwise would just make them look a bit silly, Iraqi information minister style.

I like Pat Symonds a lot actually because he does not hide away from the truth. In the podcast he admits that Heikki Kovalainen has not done as well as they might have hoped. But they could hardly claim that Kovalainen has blown the field away, because every F1 fan with two brain cells would know that it would be a lie.

But back to the puzzle posed by Sidepodcast.

…Formula 1 bloggers spend a lot of time picking up the latest news from traditional media sources and posting their thoughts, yet spend almost zero time listening to podcasts and doing the same.

I’m not exactly sure what the point is here. I mean, where do podcasters get their news from if it isn’t from traditional media sources (“official” podcasts like Renault’s aside). Podcasters and bloggers alike rely on traditional media sources to keep up on the news, so I don’t really understand what the point is of complaining when bloggers do it.

But here is another conundrum. I am discovering new F1 blogs all the time, but where exactly are all the F1 podcasts? No doubt a quick search on iTunes will unearth some. But as I said, it is time-consuming to even discover whether a podcast is worth listening to or not.

With a blog I can take a quick look at it, skim through a couple of posts and decide if it is worth subscribing to or not. I simply can’t do this with a podcast. I have to listen to the whole thing before passing judgement. And if listening to two podcasts takes an hour, how long will experimentally listening to newly-discovered podcasts take?

Besides Renault and Sidepodcast, I have only ever listened to one F1 podcast and I found it quite unfulfilling. It was literally just two blokes sitting there talking, and one of them didn’t seem to have much of a clue. Or at least he was caught off guard by a couple of the topics, which made me think that a little more preparation wouldn’t have gone amiss. (Sidepodcast is much more slick and entertaining, so I will probably stick with it.)

I am on my summer break at the moment, so I have some more spare time on my hands. I have also subscribed to the Williams podcast in iTunes. But what are the F1 podcasts I should have a listen to?

(Incidentally, what on earth is going on with that Williams website? Those bouncing circles are infuriating!)