Europe preview quotes: Honda

Q. What are your thoughts on racing at the new Valencia street circuit?

JB: "My first thoughts are that it's a circuit that we haven't raced at before and it's got barriers all around it! I think the whole of Formula One is very excited about going to Valencia. It's a beautiful city and it will be great to be racing around the streets there. We have a simulator at our UK base, as do most teams, and spending a lot of time on that has been vital in terms of learning the circuit. With a simulator, you're not getting the complete feeling of the car but you are gaining understanding of the distances and the braking points, so it's very useful. We have some very fast circuits like Monza, Spa and Silverstone on the calendar and then the slower circuits like Monaco and Hungary, and we're expecting Valencia to be somewhere in the middle. It's also got the added excitement of being surrounded by barriers which really focuses your mind and demands that you give full concentration around every single lap."

Rubens Barrichello

Q. Are you looking forward to racing at Valencia?

RB: "The challenge of learning a new circuit is always exciting,
particularly when it is an unusual venue such as the new street circuit in Valencia. Despite preparing as much as we can in advance of the race, our track walk with the engineers on Thursday and the practice sessions on Friday will be absolutely key to learning the track and assessing the grip levels. A new track always opens up the field and gives an opportunity for the driver to make an impact as our feedback will be very important in achieving the correct set-up. We have prepared well and I am looking forward to the weekend and the potential to score some points. We can expect the race weekend to be very hot which will add to the physical challenge for the drivers, car and team. I'm a big fan of Valencia as a city; it's a beautiful location, and hopefully the race will bring a lot of new fans to Formula One."

Ross Brawn, Team Principal

Q. How has the team approached the challenge of the new European Grand Prix in Valencia?

RB: "Valencia is often thought of as a temporary race venue, however it is actually a permanent street circuit which is quite fast and flowing; it's not like the type of street circuit that we have been used to racing around in Monaco. There has been some racing around the track already with sportscars and Spanish F3, so we have been gathering information from those races to see what we can learn in advance of the race weekend. Valencia is going to be a medium to low downforce track with a couple of quick corners which will present a very challenging circuit in an exciting environment. One of the key aspects is that it is going to be very windy. The America's Cup is held in Valencia for this very reason however such conditions could make achieving a good balance on the cars quite tricky. The Valencia weekend is going to be a fascinating engineering challenge for the team and we are all looking forward to it."