Source: The Daily Telegraph
THIS is the most unforgiving track we race on. It is all concrete and crashes - it's absolutely brutal.
The walls are closer, the corners tighter and kerb profiles more aggressive than any other track we race on. You have to be super precise where you put the car in every corner on every lap or you will end up in the wall.
After all, this place known as "concrete canyon" has also claimed me.
THE TRACK
From the start you head down the front straight maxing 250km/h in sixth gear into turn one, which is a significant braking zone and you tend to get a bit of brake fade there, making it hard to pull the car up as the race goes on. But it's a good opportunity to fire down the inside of someone.
Out of turn one in second gear, we touch 230km/h before the first chicane. This isn't really a passing opportunity, but it's a good place to bridge the gap to the guy in front.
You throw the car over the left kerb and then it's a really sharp change of direction to get it through the right-hander, the slowest on the track at just 53km/h. You can easily lose time here, you must push hard.
It's then back up the gears, reaching 210km/h along the short straight that leads into the fast, flowing left-hander. If you only set up for the slower corners, it can hinder you here.
Once you get through there you're hard on the brakes for the second gear, turns six and seven chicane that spits you almost up against the fence on the exit. You must manhandle the car and attack the kerb at exactly the right angle.
Too much or too little kerb can lift the car off the ground and send you into the tyre bundle or the fence. It happens to someone every year.
On to another short straight and to the interesting turn eight left-hand corner, with its off-camber entry and exit. There tends to be a lot of marbles just off the racing line on the exit of the corner and that's where, in 2009, I put my Jack Daniel's Racing car just half a metre wide on the way in, got caught on the marbles and went straight into the fence.
Getting through that corner well sets you up for the second-best overtaking opportunity, under brakes at the end of the 225km/h straight into the first-gear turn nine left-hander at the beginning of the bus stop section that takes in turns nine, 10, 11 and 12. The braking zone is up and down a little hill so it's difficult to pull the car up, but there's a little bit of run-off so you go in a little deeper.
You have to hustle the car through turns 12 and into 13, with its surface change right on the apex of the corner, which alters the grip level. All that makes for a very, very fun lap but an aggressive lap and a hard one to get right.
THE SET-UP
Other than the fast turn five left-hand sweeper, all corners are taken in either second or third gears. And with two chicanes and the bus stop section, it's vital to have the car set up so it delivers a strong change of direction. We must also ensure our Jack Daniel's Racing Commodore doesn't get upset by the aggressive profile of the kerbs. The suspension, steering and brakes take a real pounding around this track.
GEAR CHANGES
The gearbox gets a workout around the 3.42km circuit with 35 changes per lap. Over the two 74-lap races we will make almost 5200 gear changes.
FATIGUE
The demands on a driver's body and concentration around here are extreme as there is nowhere to take a breather. Add in the high temperatures expected today. We will drink up to eight litres of special fluids during each race and be plugged into our cool suits. I wouldn't be surprised if cabin temperatures exceed 65 degrees.
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