Circuit Preview: Lowndes' Lap of Albert Park

Five-time race winner of the Formula One Rolex Australian Grand Prix Craig Lowndes talked v8supercars.com.au through a lap around the Albert Park street circuit.

The 5.303km clockwise circuit is similar to Townsville, in that it is a “hybrid” of some street and some permanent elements.

This year there are a number of format changes for the four V8 Supercars races, with rolling starts, side-by-side restarts, accumulative points determining qualifying positions and double points on offer for the final race. Click here for more on the year’s new format.

For Lowndes, it’s an event he loves to win. He has come home first in five races at the event, most recently in 2009. 

“It’s hugely exciting and nice to be involved back in the Melbourne Grand Prix as the ambassador – it’s an event that we all love, and we take this seriously,” he told v8supercars.com.au.

“The format is going to be quite interesting… I think it will be a spectacle with the cars.

“We’ve had really good results here and the way that the cars are set up is really different at what we’d normally race at.”

“The actual track layout is quite unique, it’s half permanent track and half a street circuit. For us it’s quite a smooth track," Lowndes explained. 

“If you go down the main straight in top gear, you go under the walkover bridge – which I think is about the 150 mark – you’ve got your brake marker. That is the highest speed you encounter [top speed at the circuit is approximately 256km/h]. So for us it’s a great opportunity for passing as well.

“You’re hard on the brakes, back to third gear – it’s a quick little turn one-turn two, which again trying to get the car to balance, or to flow through there is actually quite difficult because to get out of turn two, which then leads onto that rundown to turn three."

“You go into turn three, which is another great passing opportunity under brakes.

"You’re back into second gear through there, hard on the accelerator out of turn three, short shift third through four. A very quick corner, which is turn five, and again it’s quite difficult to get the car balanced through there."

"Turn six is another good passing opportunity under brakes – back to second gear, quite a cambered corner, has some really good camber through turn six. You accelerate hard out of that, short-shift to third for the switchback at seven. And then going up to fourth through turn eight.

"And turn eight is probably one of the high speed, loading corners. So when you’re on your own, generally through eight is flat. But in traffic, you generally get some aero understeer.

“And then again, turn nine, one of the slowest corners on the track – back to second gear for that – also, another passing opportunity under brakes.

“Accelerate hard out of nine, up the gearbox quickly through 10, trying to get a balance through 10 is again difficult because the rear wants to come around on you. Up the gearbox into 11, which 11 and 12 is a really quick chicane."

“Generally you have a little bit of understeer through 11, but you need to get a switchback for the run out of 12.

“Which leads onto another great passing opportunity, the run onto 13, which is the back straight. Hard on the brakes into 13, I think it’s about the 150 mark, back to third in the gearbox, exiting out of 13 a short turn to 14, which again 14 is a difficult corner because it’s a blind corner and if you get it right you can carry some good speed through 14.

“And then of course the second last corner, 15 is a great opportunity – it’s one of those corners that’s a good opportunity to bomb dive, to have a good, on the last lap it’s always the corner everyone wants to sneak down the inside. You can protect out of 15, second gear out of there, third, fourth, coming out of 15 running into 16 and then 16 is hugely important to get right because that leads onto the main straight.”

“It’s a great track to race on because of it’s uniqueness,” Lowndes said.  

“For us it’s quite a smooth track. It’s got some elements of street racing, some elements of public permanent track.

“So it’s got all that and makes up for a reasonably interesting race and I think the format of the rolling starts will definitely create some really interesting entries into turns one and two.

“For me it’s been a mixed race weekend. We’ve had some great performances, been able to win some races and we’ve had some disappointing races a well – a couple of years ago around turns 9 and 10.

“So it’s a mixed emotion, it is definitely a race we all love to win because it’s in front of probably the biggest audience we have. And again like us I think there’s many teams that have connection with formula one teams, want to showcase what V8 Supercars is all about.

“We take it deadly seriously, getting the cars right, getting the set-up right, making it all work for us.

“The interesting thing I find and I think the fans do is the speed comparison – to see the difference between a road car, V8 Supercar and formula one car. It’s incredible to see the speed element, so for me it’s an enjoyable weekend.”

Tickets are available now for the 2014 Formula One Rolex Australian Grand Prix, which begins on Thurday.