Zoom Fisichella looking to improve on his best position so far this year of tenth

Following a three-week break, the Formula One championship returns to action with the 12th of the 18 round series, and a completely new event: the European Grand Prix, to be held on the streets of the vibrant city of Valencia.

The city's marina, which also played host to the America's Cup last year, will be converted into a temporary street circuit. The race will be the first new event on the calendar this year, and the second of three street course races that will be used in 2008.

After testing the new seamless-shift gearbox in Friday free practice in Hungary, the Force India Ferrari team will race the new units for the first time this weekend and believe that the advance could be worth up to three-tenths of a second a lap.

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer

The seamless shift gearbox ran on Friday in Hungary, and will race in Valencia. What was the rationale behind this?
"We tested the gearbox for the first time at a shakedown in Silverstone, and then again for three days in Jerez, but for such an important component, it really isn't enough to be able to validate it. Running it on Friday in Hungary gave the opportunity to conduct further testing, plus we avoided the penalties of changing gearboxes in the middle of a four race cycle. The 'boxes we used in Hungary were three races into the four race cycle, and changing them would have incurred a grid penalty. It made sense to put some more miles on it, then use when we are at the start of another four race cycle. "

So what will the net result be over the course of a lap?
"Our simulations typically show a benefit of two to three tenths over one lap, and possibly more as the driver has the option to get on the power earlier as the car isn't upset by the gear change. The driver can therefore be much smoother with the acceleration, so there is less disturbance when cornering and under power. We will see an advantage everywhere as you will always ratio the gearbox to get the most out of it at each circuit, so its effect over a lap will be fairly consistent from circuit to circuit."

What were the processes involved in introducing the gearbox mid-season?
"With its limited resources the team has done a very good job to get it introduced this season. It is a big thing for a small team to introduce such a large component mid-season as we don't have the transient dynos and test rigs that the other teams have. Really we were only able to start work on the box when we became Force India and had reasonable levels of budgets and resources to make it work. From an engineering point of view the team has done an excellent job to get it ready on time, and the gearbox department has done well to make the introduction of the seamless box almost seamless in itself."