Living in Adelaide, one of the things I miss each year is the vibe when the spectacle that was the Adelaide Formula 1 Grand Prix came to town. If there's one thing I know about the Formula 1 Season it's that you ether love it or hate it - and I, for one, love it. For me, nothing comes close to the mix of technology and pure horsepower when the F1 Cars roll into town, so when I received an invite to look at a Formula 1 simulator (care of Intel and Sauber-BMW), and ask Sebastian Vettel, Sauber – BMW's test driver, a few questions at Melbourne's Lunar Park I jumped at the opportunity.

F1 Simulator, just ready for racin'.

I think there are two things you need to have in a good racing simulator: a good game to play and a way to immerse you into that game. In May 2006 Image Space Incorporated, BMW and Intel announced they had turned an exceptionally accurate racing simulator into a game - the PC speed monkeys out there would know it as the popular "rFactor" title. (For those who aren't familiar, rFactor is a free, highly-configurable racing simulator that took PC racing by storm over the last year with its new level of realism and map detail. It currently includes 12 tracks many of which are measured using GPS systems and 13 highly accurate cars, from F1 to Rally.) That makes up the software part of the simulator. The systems were made up of Intel Vpros with Core2 Duo CPUs, not the most grunty machines in the world, but perfect for the business-people who arrived after we went on our way (when it comes down to it, rFactor will run on most high spec-ed PCs with good video cards). And the Dell 30" Monitors, not much else I can say about these other than drool...

Now, anyone who has played a racing game at an arcade would know that the cockpit you sit in while you spend all your tokens is what makes it worth leaving your house and hearing that Dance Dance Revolution music over and over again. "Hyper Simulator" a company based in Melbourne have designed what they call "The Virtual Cockpit", this product is for the truly dedicated racer and it really impressed me. It comes with everything you need in a good racing control system plus a lot more. The Steering wheel comes with 12 buttons and F1 Gear changer (panels behind the steering wheel to change gears with your hands), and if you don't want to use those gears you can also get an optional sequential gear stick on your right-hand side. It also comes with metal throttle and brake pedals, which unlike many on the market now, actually had the pressure that made it feel like you were actually braking. The height of the steering wheel and leg length of the pedals were also adjustable for those of us who don't fit the small skinny driver profile. The seat itself was comfortable, and once the wheel and pedals were adjusted for me, I could have sat in it for hours – if it wasn't for the sun streaming in the window on a warm Melbourne day, I'd still be there now, shooting around the track.

Sauber-BMW, rFactor style

By the way, all of this runs happily off your pc's USB interface. It folds up too, and like all good cars and racing cockpits - a drink holder is standard. Of course all of this doesn't come cheap but for what you get (the Chassis kit with controls starts at just over $960, and a pre-built and painted version will set you back just over $2600), it's well worth it. If I had the money, I would buy one today.

Now if we went to an Intel event and didn't get some news about how there products were improving things I would be shocked, mind you I have to say I was impressed with what I was told. For all you hardware whores out there, what would you do with 512 Dual-core Xeon 5160's with 2TB of main memory, 20TB of storage and another 15TB of storage on another cluster? I for one, would run Australia's biggest Games Network (so if Intel would give that to me, I'm sure I would make a lot of gamers happy :) ) – but BMW-Sauber use it to simulate aerodynamic characteristics of their teams Formula 1 race cars. The supercomputer is capable of performing 12.228 GFLOP's which would make a pretty nice PC for browsing the Internet.

If you're less bothered by the computers and more interested in the people using them, may I introduce Sebastian Vettel. He has been test driving for Sauber–BMW for two years, and before that had a successful career racing karts, Formula BMW and the Formula Three Euroseries. Since he started test driving for Sauber–BMW and set fastest time in both Friday practice sessions at the 2006 Italian Grand Prix at his debut race meet, and at the age of 19 he has a very promising future. And for those who are going to the race on the weekend you might see him speeding round the track on Friday during testing.

We were also lucky enough to get Tony Trubridge to come along, as a gamer for Sebastian Vettel to race against (you might also know him a Sent1nal from Team Immunity). They ended up doing time trials around the Albert Park track and although I'm not exactly sure what the lap times were the last rumour I heard was 1:41 vs 1:46 with Sebastian being the victor.

Following the race, we were lucky enough to sit down with Sebastian and a number of other people in the media to ask him some questions.

Sebastian Vettel

Where is home for you?
I live in Switzerland now. Originally I come from Germany, close to Frankfurt, close to Hockenheimring, I just moved to Switzerland last year, as the team is based in Switzerland - Switzerland and Munich. That gives me the chance to come by the factory every time I want.

Do you play any car games in your bedroom or on your computer at home?
Yeah, I've got these Formula 1 games and I play a lot. I mean - "a lot" - if I'm not in the car, then sometimes I have the time to play.

What brand of computers do you use at BMW?
We use Dell. We get supplied by Dell, so it's quite good to get the computer for free.

What about your personal time, how do you use technology? Are you on messenger, do you download music?
I listen a lot to music, when I travel I have my MP3 player with me. In general I use my computer at home, and the notebook if I travel, to stay in contact with my family, with my friends, email and everything - like everybody does more or less. I don't have that much working email or work email to do, so it's not too bad. A lot of people receive massive emails every time they switch on their computers - for me I maybe get eight emails a day, six of them spam mails and the rest of them interesting, so it's not too bad.

You've got just the one computer? A desktop, or a notebook, or...
I've got a notebook, yeah. Desktop... I'm not on very often at home.

What car do you drive when you're at home?
Road car, you mean? I have a BMW, yeah, just one car. I don't know if many people with 19 years have two cars already, so... no, I have a normal 325 coupe.

Are you ever allowed to practise driving listening to music? Does it change the way you drive at all?
No we don't. I've never tried, I'm sorry - maybe it would be worth a try, but I don't think it would be much better. What you do in the car, we have special earplugs so it would not be that noisy - because otherwise it's just too loud. You use the engine noise quite a lot, especially for the up-shifts - you cannot always look on the dash, and look when the lights are on, but you use it also in the corners, so if you have a feeling for the engine then it gives you also a feeling for the speed.

How many hours have you spent in an F1 car?
Hard to say, I think about maybe 5,000 kilometres by now. In hours... I don't know.

Just like the real thing.

What was the most challenging part of the track for you?
Just now, here in Albert Park? I think the two fast corners are quite interesting. Me personally, I prefer fast corners as it is more demanding. I mean slow speed corners, you really have to focus to be at the latest point on braking possible, then turn around the car and accelerate as quick as you can again. But on fast corners, it's always you get this special feeling - it's coming up - and if ...maybe you don't have the chance or the opportunity... but if you are flying through a corner with 250km, 270 - it doesn't matter, everything above 200 it just feels amazing. And you get this feeling that this is what (for me) it is like, and I really enjoy this moment, so the two fast corners here, the left and the right, they look pretty difficult, so hopefully on Friday I'll be able to manage better than i did here.

How often do you train on these simulators?
Um, we travel a lot, so in the plane you have to do something, and then we try to play a bit on the computer and it's a good thing, because obviously it's not as realistic as in the car, but it's very close, it helps you a lot, to get to know the circuit. At least then you know when there is a right corner or a left corner - you know where you go. And it's getting better and better, remember compared to a couple of years ago, it was very, very bad. Things go better with all the development and nowadays it even has the possibility to simulate the driving - we have the hills and little kinks, bottoming and everything, the bumps on the circuit, so people really focus on building these computer games as realistic as they can and it's getting much better. It got better in the last year, and it still will, I think.

How competitive are you with the other team drivers at BMW? Do you guys all compete on these things and try to beat each other?
Yes, sometimes, if we have the time - we've all got our notebooks with us and in the evenings, when we have a bit of time and we are not in the most interesting place to be - some hotel in the south of Spain where it's quite boring - then we have the chance to play a bit. You cannot say every evening, or each day after testing, but sometimes we have the chance. I had a fight with Robert just when we were in Bahrain tests - Robert Kubica - and we played like mad, and we practiced on Albert Park - just to get the feeling for the circuit again, and it was crazy. We started at I don't know - 1.28 - and then we finished at 1.24 - when we started it was already "Okay, this was a really perfect lap", and then every time, he was quicker and then I was quicker, him, me, so it was really interesting.

Is there any technical data that you can take from these things and apply to real cars?
Not with this type of gaming, but some teams have their own simulator, and what they do - it depends. If we test some parts of the car, we make all the calculations before we actually develop the parts, build the parts, produce the parts, and then actually put it on the car, so the idea of the simulator is to try different things on the setup, also for the drivers, and try to see how they feel. but you cannot take it one-to-one with the racing car, because it's still a bit different. Many teams work with this.

Sebastian Vettel vs Tony Trubridge

What about the tyres for this season? You've all switched to Bridgestone?
Yeah, we're all on Bridgestone tyres. The thing is that many people think the teams who raced with Bridgestone tyres last year have an advantage, but you have to consider that the tyres we use this year are a totally new construction, new compounds, so for all the teams it's the same. I mean there are rumours going around that some teams may be "more equal" than others, but I think in general it's completely new tyres, so we'll be all the same. The tests we have - it's better than expected – because the tests we had so far they all went quite well ,and if you have a look at the timesheet, I mean we are at the same times compared to last year, so there you can see how much of a step you can make within one year. We are very restricted by the FIA, I mean - if we could do what we would love to do, then we would be... I don't know where. I don't know if it's even possible for the driver to send, I mean all the forces and so on, in the car, they are really heavy I can tell, especially for your neck. There you see what a big step you can make within one year and I think it will be better this year because it takes the whole grid together, so the top teams they will be very close - so it's hard to tell who's going to win on Sunday.

What about with the tyres on the simulator? Can you change the tyres there?
Yeah you can. It works, also - the wear of the tyres, if you have new tyres / old tyres, it makes a big difference in lap-time. It's pretty good, it works pretty well.

Who's going to win this season?
Who's going to win the championship? It's hard to predict, I mean Ferrari looks pretty strong. For us we have made a big step so far, I think. The most important thing here in Melbourne or generally for the first race is to finish the race, so that will be the main task this weekend and I think we have good chances to score some points, big points over the season. First we have to see where we are, and then try to progress. For the whole championship, yeah I would still see Ferrari - I don't know which driver - but I would still see Ferrari as the favourites.

Good luck with the race!
Thank you very much.

I'd like to thank the guys at Intel for inviting me along, and Sebastian Vettel for showing up and letting us interrogate him on a hot Melbourne afternoon. Thanks also to all the people who supplied the equipment to make me want to do a real lap around Albert Park. Any way we can organise that?