Button: Valencia to bring new fans to F1

With the street circuit having been granted its F1 licence at the weekend following a successful inaugural event for sportscars and Spanish F3, Button believes the event could become a big success story for the sport.

"Valencia looks fun," said Button. "I have spent some time there before and it's in a beautiful part of the city on the coast.

"It is a great venue and it will bring a lot of new fans to F1. It is quite a fast circuit, for a street circuit. It has got a lot of run-off in the places that you need it.

"It looks quick for a street circuit but you have the run-off that is necessary. It is a very different circuit to Singapore, and in their own ways they will both be exciting. Valencia for the high-speed and overtaking aspects and Singapore more for the new idea of the night race."

Although most drivers are excited about the prospects of Valencia and Singapore being added to the calendar this year, Jarno Trulli is one who is remains unconvinced about the safety of street circuits.

"For a driver, street circuits are very challenging because everything is new. You have to battle not with the kerbs, but with the walls and guardrails. So you have to be really precise and careful, have a good feeling on the car and be confident. There are many things on the car that the driver has to get out from their head.

"The only real problem of street circuits is safety. When you drive on a street circuit it is always a problem with safety, because we don't have a run-off area. On the other hand Monaco is a quite low-speed circuit but anything can happen at any time. The new street circuit, I don't know what it will be like in terms of safety. But apparently the FIA is looking quite closely at that.

"As a driver and as a GPDA member, it is better to race, if it's a question of safety, on a (permanent) race circuit. It's more natural."

Despite Button's optimism about Valencia, the Honda Racing driver says he remains unsure about the characteristics of the new Singapore track - which he thinks could pose problems by being so slow.

"I've driven the circuit on a simulator and it's very slow. It is a really slow circuit, but a way if it's wet that is probably a good thing. I think it will be a great spectacle, racing around a place like Singapore is very spectacular.

"There are a couple of quick corners. The last two corners are reasonably quick, and Turn four or five is reasonably quick. But the rest of them are slow corners. I think it will be difficult generating heat (in the tyres), but we'll have to wait and see. I don't know what the track surface is like or how aggressive it is.

"I think it will be a great spectacle but we just have got to hope that it is dry in a way. It will be interesting racing at night and I think it will be great for the spectators to see the brake discs lighting up, flames coming out the exhaust. But it is going to be very difficult for overtaking and that sort of thing."