Hail for the Korean Grand Prix circuit

The new Korean Grand Prix circuit is receiving several compliments from the Formula One drivers ahead of its debut on Sunday. The F1 drivers are predicting an exciting race for this weekend.

Over the last months the news focused on whether the track would be ready or not for the first-ever Korean Grand Prix. As they make the first eye contact with the track drivers are saying that they are positively surprised by the layout of the new venue.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa thinks that it seems like a very interesting track. “As I could see yesterday going around the track you have every type of corner that you can see at many other different tracks. There are slow corners, strong braking points, long straights, very quick corners and medium speed corners where you need 3rd/4th gear. I think you have a bit of everything so it looks really interesting.”

Lewis Hamilton said: "They deserve a pat on the backs for getting this place ready, and it looks like it can put on a good show."

"The circuit looks really nice. The layout looks great and not everything is finished but it is better than what I expected after what I heard over the last few weeks," said Nick Heidfeld.

Sebastian Vettel will be hoping to see lots of people coming to the Korean circuit to fill up the several grandstands that he saw while he walked the circuit. About the layout of the circuit Red Bull driver says that “we will see how grippy it will be, but given the fact that there was a lot of concern and talking about not racing here, lately they did a very good job. Most of the things are finished so it should be alright for us to go out."

Among the drivers there are still some concerns about how slippery will the track be over the weekend, as the asphalt has just been added and should produce little grip.

Lack of adhesion has already been felt by Bernd Maylander that briefly ran off track as he was making the safety car reconnaissance laps.

"The first couple of corners are a bit boring, but I think there might be some action for overtaking, but again the surface will have a big influence, and if the offline will be grippy or not. If yes in this case there might be some overtaking possibilities in to Turns 1 and 3”, said Renault’s Robert Kubica.

The Pole says that drivers will be ready to handle slippery conditions and that he thinks that the track will be even more slippery than they might think. “Normally you don't really enjoy driving in F1 where there are slippery conditions, but we have been in a similar situation in Canada where the new surface was really slippery but I will have to see how things develop tomorrow,” said Kubica.

Action starts in Korea tomorrow, with the first free practice session taking place in the morning.