21
Jenson Button, the current World Champion
Middle East with a high-tech purpose-built desert track. The Bahrain Grand Prix, and other new races in China and Turkey, present new opportunities for the growth and evolution of the Formula One Grand Prix franchise while new facilities also raise the bar for other Formula One racing venues around the world. In order to make room on the schedule for the newer races, older or less successful events in Europe and the Americas have been dropped from the calendar, such as these in Argentina, Austria, Mexico, France, San Marino, and the United States. Even more recent additions to the calendar include the Valencia Street Circuit, which became the host of the European Grand Prix in 2008, giving Spain two Grands Prix. In September 2008, the Singapore Grand Prix, hosted the first night race ever held in Formula One, in order to be held at a time better suited to the sport's core European audience. The most recent addition to the calendar is the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which hosted the final race of the 2009 season, becoming the first day-to-night race. New circuits scheduled to join the calendar in the near future include the Korean Grand Prix, which will be held for the first time in October 2010, and the Indian Grand Prix which will be held in Delhi, India in 2011. The United States Grand Prix will be hosted in Austin, Texas from 2012-2021. A typical circuit usually features a stretch of straight road on which the
Circuits
starting grid is situated. The pit lane, where the drivers stop for fuel, tyres, or minor repairs (such as changing the car's nose due to front wing damage) during the race, and where the teams work on the cars before the race, is normally located next to the starting grid. The layout of the rest of the circuit varies widely, although in most cases the circuit runs in a clockwise direction. Those few circuits that run anticlockwise (and therefore have predominantly left-handed corners) can cause drivers neck problems due to the enormous lateral forces generated by F1 cars pulling their heads in the opposite direction to normal. Most of the circuits currently in use are specially constructed for competition. The current street circuits are Monaco, Melbourne, Valencia, and Singapore, although races in other urban