The Formula One circus can look forward to rather cooler conditions in the next grand prix of the year following the sweltering heat of the first two races of 2006. Normally the season curtain-raiser, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne has been given a later slot in the calendar this time around and will take place on 2 April as the third of 18 world championship races.

Since last weekend’s Malaysian GP, the BMW Sauber F1 Team has been preparing for the race in Australia with testing at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. Work has focused on making further improvements to reliability and building on the race pace the cars have recently shown.

Nick Heidfeld “This season’s Australian Grand Prix will certainly have a rather different feel about it. To start with, the race has been put back due to the Commonwealth Games, so there won’t be that extra buzz you get when it’s the first race of the season. And because it’s later in the year, it won’t be as hot as usual either - the race is a month later than normal and Melbourne will be getting really quite autumnal. The Albert Park circuit is nice to drive, but also a demanding one for the drivers. Because it isn’t a permanent race track, there isn’t much grip at the start of the weekend. The situation improves with each lap as the cars lay down extra rubber.   Australia is my favourite place on the Formula One calendar to travel to and I tend to fly out to Melbourne a few days early to get used to the time difference.”

Jacques Villeneuve “It’s always a pleasure to travel to Melbourne, especially if I have bit of time there to relax before the race. I enjoy racing at Albert Park - I like the circuit and am looking forward to the GP. BMW have got a lot of things going on around the grand prix and that in itself will make it an interesting weekend for me. As for our performance, I think the two points we collected in Malaysia show that we can be pretty competitive - and that was psychologically important for the team. Added to which, BMW has proved with my engine that they can react extremely quickly when a problem comes up. There is a very constructive atmosphere within the team. Having said that, the circuit in Australia is another that’s heavy on engines, and this will be my second race with the engine I used in Malaysia. So we’ll have to exercise a certain amount of caution during the weekend.”