With the next round of the 2008 Formula One season taking place at the new Circuito Urbano Valencia circuit the unknown nature of the street circuit will throw up variety of challenges for the teams and drivers.

For AT&T Williams driver Nico Rosberg the next race may give the Williams team the opportunity to gain from the unpredictable nature of the weekend. It is going to be a major challenge for the drivers as they come to grips with the new circuit

Nico said: "“On a normal circuit you learn it in 15 or 10 laps even, but on a street circuit it is going to take you longer than that, so maybe 20 laps, to get the hang of it. It is going to be very important to keep the car on the track, because if you crash you are going to lose a lot of time on track.”

"We'll really be taking a guess on the set-up from what we know of other street
tracks, and then take it step by step through the weekend. So it's very
important to keep the car on the track because if you crash, you lose a lot of
time that the others will spend working on it.

He added: "Everybody is starting from zero more or less with the track, the set-up and everything so it is going to be really cool I think. It is going to be a big challenge for everybody to get the best out of it as quickly as possible in the limited time that you have on such a race weekend. So it should be good fun.”
to get the best out of it as quickly as possible in the limited time we have."

"That is going to be a really interesting race for sure,” Nico said in the latest Williams’s podcast.

For some teams, including Williams, they have been able to simulate the track on their simulators to gives its drivers a feel for the characteristics of the
circuit.

Nico said that he would also take the time to study TV footage from some of the first races at the circuit.

Nico added: “I’m going to watch the on-board from some of the GT racing and things like that to get a good idea of the track, but it is then really taking a guess on the set-up and comparing to other street circuits like Monaco.”

“Then from there you just have to take it step by step through the weekend.”

Williams’s chief operations engineer Rod Nelson spoke of how the Williams team have used virtual simulations to make some initial decisions as to which way to go with the FW30's setup. As the weekend progressed these will be modified depending on what the team and drivers find out during practice.

In the Williams podcast Nelson said: “We started doing some initial mapping of the circuit several months ago, from architect plans and FIA information that we were given.”

“So we do a rough map of the circuit and then we run our simulation around it to
see things like aero levels and look at the potential for high brake wear or
what kind of demands the circuit will put on the tyres.

“So in the case of aero levels for instance, we can make new parts to suit that
particular circuit.

“And then as you come nearer the time you can get more information from the
organisers and the FIA and you just build up the picture, improve and refine the
simulation to refine the actual area that you think you can work on to optimise
your performance.”