Wednesday 30 July at 11:35 : While the new "Valencia Street Circuit" was only recently given its baptism of fire as it played host to a Formula 3 race, the BMW Sauber F1 Team is already hard at work preparing for the European Grand Prix.

The "Valencia Street Circuit" opened last weekend with races from the Spanish Formula 3 and GT series. The circuit, which will make its Formula One debut at the European Grand Prix in August, celebrated a successful dress rehearsal. Once the FIA has awarded the necessary homologation, nothing stands in the way of the BMW Sauber F1 Team competing in Valencia.

The team from Munich and Hinwil is already preparing intensely for the race in Spain. "In order to avoid losing precious time during the race weekend, we need to have as accurate as possible a picture of downforce levels, gearbox ratios and brake specification in advance," says Willy Rampf, Technical Director of the BMW Sauber F1 Team. This is made possible by modern simulation tools, Intel computer capacity, and the engineers' wealth of experience.

"Our aim is to ensure that the lap times and top speed calculated using the simulation software do not vary by more than one percent from the actual values," says Rampf, indicating just how precise these calculations can be.