Klien learning the circuits

Jaguar rookie Christian Klien's immediate task as the 2004 season readies for take off is to learn the circuits on the F1 calendar. The Austrian is unfamiliar with many of them and intends to make use of computer games for a crash course, as it were, in track familiarization.

"My first priority will be to learn the circuits as I haven't driven on most of them before," said Klien at Jaguar's annual NSPCC charity event this week. "As far as Australia goes, my target will be to get used to the circuit, have a solid qualifying run and finish the race. Until then I'll be playing a lot of playstation to get used to the circuit!"

Another area Klien is working on is his fitness, as the demands of driving an F1 car are strenuous: "I'm training quite hard at the moment, especially in the upper body and neck region as that's one of the biggest adjustments fitness wise to make going from Formula 3 to Formula One," he commented.

As for teammate Mark Webber, Australia is his home race and always an extra busy time for him. Webber is steadily progressing in F1 and attracting a lot of interest but the Aussie fans are making sure it's not going to his head.

"Obviously it's also my home race which adds its own pressures and levels of expectation and it's an extremely busy few days with all the media commitments and interviews," said Webber.

"But the Australian public are very knowledgeable and know I'm not going to win every race so as long as I try my hardest that's good enough for them and it's a nice problem to have. They know all about the tall poppy syndrome and are very quick to tell you it you're getting too big for your boots so it certainly keeps your feet on the ground."

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