INTRODUCTION

This guide was created due to a personal inquiry, wishing to learn more about the history of the race venues currently used in F1 competition (and in Grand Prix Challenge as well). This is not intended to be a detailed history of all the race venues, but more of a general overview of the circuits.

CIRCUIT HISTORY: ALBERT PARK

The Albert Park circuit is a beautiful tree-lined venue using real Melbourne city streets encircling the serene Albert Park Lake. The Albert Park circuit has hosted the Grand Prix of Australia since 1996, taking over from the Adelaide temporary street circuit. Over 400,000 spectators saw the 1997 Grand Prix of Australia in person at the Albert Park venue.

The 2002 Grand Prix of Australia was extremely eventful from the very beginning - to the extent that only eight cars finished the race!!! Rubens Barrichello began the race from Pole Position (P1), but on slowing for the first corner of the circuit, Ralf Schumacher (brother of Michael Schumacher) rammed the rear of Barrichello's Ferrari and was sent airborne, landing in the massive sand trap at the end of Pit Straight with far too much damage to continue. The incident created a massive chain-reaction melee as the other drivers scrambled to take evasive action... but many ended up taking each other out of contention due to massive damage. Seven other drivers were forced to retire from the race due to extreme damage. Fortunately, there were no severe injuries - just a lot of bruised egos and angry tempers. Stupidly, however, the race marshals made the decision to send out the Safety Car instead of red-flagging the race; had the race been stopped instead, FIA rules would have permitted all those drivers involved in the incident to use their back-up ('T') cars when the race was restarted. Of course, those drivers whose cars were damaged in the opening-lap melee were able to take advantage of the Safety Car situation to make repairs and rejoin the race.

F1 winners at Albert Park include Damon Hill (1996), David Coulthard (1997), Mika Hakkinen (1998), Eddie Irvine (1999), and Michael Schumacher (2000-2002).

The official Web site of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (http://www.grandprix.com.au/cars/index.asp) features information on Australian F1 driver Mark Webber.

Interestingly, there is a movement afoot - Save Albert Park (http://www.save-albert-park.org.au/) - which aims to prevent the relocation of the Grand Prix of Australia to a permanent race venue.

CIRCUIT HISTORY: KUALA LAMPUR

The Sepang Circuit opened in March 1999 and includes three circuit formations: Race Track (used for the F1 Grand Prix of Malaysia), Go-Kart Track (using the first half of Race Track), and Motocross Track (circuit layout not yet available on the official Sepang Web site). This is the second-newest race venue in F1 competition, which began its F1 use at the end of the 1999 season. Sepang hosts F1, JapanGT, MotoGP, Merdeka Endurance, Malaysian Super Series, Motocross, and other track events (including private bookings).

Two features cause the Sepang Circuit to truly stand out among all other F1 race venues. The first is the incredibly wide nature of the track itself, which has a 16m minimum width to provide plenty of side-by-side racing action. Aesthetically, the Sepang Circuit is literally dominated by the main grandstand, which is nestled snugly inside the two longest straightaways and has a roof designed to simulate Malaysia's national flower (the hibiscus, or Rosa Sinensis - known locally as the Bunga Raya).

Unfortunately, with the relative newness of the Sepang Circuit, there is not much historical information to be found. The winners of the initial four Grands Prix of Malaysia: Eddie Irvine (1999), Michael Schumacher (2000 and 2001), and Ralf Schumacher (2002).

See the official Web site (http://www.malaysiangp.com.my).