We've got some new circuits coming to Formula 1 over the next couple years, but will they really make a difference to the spectacle?

The Valencia Street Circuit, making its F1 debut this year, is another to run round a city’s marina, passing through the inner docks of the port and streets of the future neighbourhood, that is part of the area’s regeneration.

It also has the benefits of being designed with a permanent racetrack in mind, built to that specification with safety in mind, unlike Monaco, which has very little in the way of run-off areas. If you crash and don’t damage the car, you’ve got a better chance of continuing at Valencia.

Unlike Monaco it has some long, sweeping straights free of bumps or severe uphill climbs, but it has the tight slow corners, and affords more in the way of overtaking than Monaco. Down the pit straight the track is 15 metres wide, compared to just 12 metres on the rest of the circuit. Monaco can only dream of having so much room available.

The organisers of the event claim it will be the best street circuit in the world (are you listening in Monaco?) and tickets have already sold out for the inaugural race. Spain won Euro 2008 and Rafael Nadal won both the French Open and Wimbledon this summer, so they expect to do well with the second Spanish race on the F1 calendar too.

The Singapore Grand Prix is the second new race on the F1 calendar for 2008, another street circuit raced around a Marina, but this will be the only street race in Asia - and has the added challenge of being at night. The first ever night race, powered by roadside floodlights, means it will be on television in the afternoon in Europe.

Singapore is expected to become a regular feature if the inaugural race lives up to expectation, but there are safety concerns with this race as F1 cars don’t have lights, and there could be problems if any part of the street-lighting fails.

The circuit has also been redesigned from the original put forward to be faster and allow more overtaking opportunities. It has been moved away from the big-business Suntec City area of Singapore where it was expected there would be big problems for traffic, and some slow, tight corners have been dropped in favour of longer straights to allow drivers to build up to over 200mph on some parts of the circuit.

The Yas Island Circuit will be the third new race in two years when it enters F1 as the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2009 – the final race of the season on November 15. The plan for Yas Island is for it to race around a theme park, marina, water park and sand dunes around the island, with the majority of the surrounds being built by the same company building the circuit.

It will be the second in the Middle East and, like many of the new circuits, has borrowed ideas from those before it, with an Eau-Rouge style sweeping corner and a Marina backdrop on public roads, so hopefully the long straights running into tight corners in front of the spectators will add to the spectacle as well, and will prove to be popular with fans.

When you look at places like Interlagos, Monza or Barcelona where racing is often predictable and boring, there's always a chance you might go down the pub or spend the afternoon asleep, but you can’t help but get excited when you see what these new circuits offer.

The races will undoubtedly be exciting because they’re all new and, with the exception of Valencia, we’ve never been to these cities before to race. So they’re a new challenge to the drivers in many ways, whether it’s the night racing in Singapore or the dust and humidity of Adu Dhabi. The entire weekend at these new races will be something special, and I can’t wait.

You might be going on holiday to Spain or Greece this summer, but I'll be heading to Singapore in September!