F1: Teams won-der what Korean track holds

It's Thursday. Late afternoon. The F1 paddock has filled up with the trucks and all the other stuff that will, between now and early tomorrow morning, be unpacked and prepared for the beginning of free practice.

Nico Rosberg wants to get a feel for the new track. Although Karun Chandock drove last year's Red Bull around it a few weeks ago, the final layer of Tarmac was put down just two weeks ago - after the supposedly final deadline for an FIA inspection. After the Japanese GP, Charlie Whiting flew to Yeongam, just outside Seoul.

He found that the facilities were more or less ready and that the track was finished. Having extracted undertakings that certain things would be finished, he signed off on the track. Teams, until then in limbo, were able to confirm that the race would actually happen.

But Ross Brawn's first impressions were not entirely favourable when he arrived this afternoon. " Frantic work going on around the track to get everything ready for tomorrow," he said. Worryingly, the best thing he had to say of first impressions was "Nice & sunny conditions here."

Two hours later, Rosberg and his physio started a track walk. Running.

Renault have been busy in the simulator: they reckon they've a decent chance because more than half of the track is a power circuit. Of course, that means that almost half is corners and that's where the trouble is anticipated. Kubica's not wound up: “I have seen the videos on You Tube and collected as much information as I can," he said before getting to the circuit.

Chandok's comments in an extensive interview with the UK's Daily Telegraph have informed the decision making of several teams. Sam Michael, Technical Director of Williams, says "We certainlyexpect the track surface to be quite low grip because it's only recently been laid."

What's worrying the teams is that the new asphalt has not had time to bed down and F1 cars present a particularly tough challenge for the top layer of any circuit. As the top layer "cures" it hardens. that's a process that can take several months. And even then, it's not as tough as many would like: the braking area at the end of the main straight in Sepang became "corrugated" because of the enormous forces as F1 cars come from flat out to suburban-street speeds in a matter of a few metres. And that was some six years after the track was laid.

In addition to the worry that the surface might break up, there's the little matter of the residual oil that comes out of fresh tarmac. Every driver knows that newly laid tarmac "gives up" a little of its oil in the first few weeks. That's bad enough on the road but at F1 speeds, the lack of certainty as to braking and cornering will be scary. And if it rains .... well, oil and water are a lethal - perhaps too literally - combination.

Rubens Barrichello is totally resigned to having no idea what to expect. "All I know about the circuit is that there is a long straight and some tight corners, that's it." He's not going to run around to find out: "I will be walking the circuit on Thursday and will then probably go round it on a moped later."

The teams at the back are relishing the prospect. With little technical data for the big teams to build their computer models, everyone is in the same boat (not, literally, boats as in the pit-crew paper boat races held in Japan, one hopes).

Buemi got his first look in early: he was there early yesterday evening. "Had a look at the circuit today, The circuit is nearly finished but there is still a lot to be done! We will need downforce!" And this morning, his comment was stark: "People are still working day and night at the Korean circuit!"

Heikki Kovalainen has spent much of the last week playing a round (or several) of golf with Tony Fernades and celebrating his (Heikki's) birthday. "It’s new for all of us and while I’ve had a bit of a look at the layout, the first couple of laps will be all about finding the right lines, and then we will focus on setups. To be honest, it won’t take long to get to grips with the track and I think the car will be ok there" he said, his colloquial English providing unintentional humour given the expected slipperiness.

But he, too, (perhaps inadvertently) explained why there are potential problems with a new surface "It’s a pretty typical modern circuit - a couple of long straights with heavy braking at the end, and then a mix of a few tighter corners and a couple more quicker ones."

That's exactly what chews up the tarmac in some places and moves it around in others. Think of the grooves formed by heavy lorries in the slow lane of a motorway on steep hills: the forces are similar, at least in nature. Lateral pressure may well cause some of those corners to look like the ripples when a stone drops in a pond.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa is no more certain about what to expect than Barrichello: “We need to wait and see how we will get on tomorrow to have a clearer idea, especially as this is a new track which means things can either be exactly what you expected or the exact opposite," he said in the paddock this afternoon. But he has stolen a march on several of his rivals: “I did a day in the simulator back in Italy and I also drove the track on the Playstation game and yesterday, I went round it for real on a bicycle, stopping at every corner to check out the kerbs, the asphalt, what the corner looked like, what gear we should use according to the simulator.”

Championship leader Mark Webber is sanguine. Last night he said "flying over night to Seoul,there is a car race on up there this weekend."

With no idea what to anticipate, it seems that the battle-hardened drivers are simply anticipating nothing.