After a three week break when F1's war sort of sorted itself out and Bernie Ecclestone made some questionable comments, the cars return to the track at the Nurburgring this weekend for the latest part of a somewhat odd season.
Talking Points
- No more Brawn supremacy?
Firstly, in our defence, that's the first time we've made a Bourne/Brawn pun on this site, so don't hurt us. Secondly, after we finally got a Red Bull surge at Silverstone, with the caffeinated team taking the easiest of 1-2s in Jenson Button's back yard (if you ignore the fact that he lives in Monaco), we now wait to see what Brawn's response will be. Button was not only unable to keep up with the RB5s in Britain, but was routed by his team mate, bad back and all, and finished behind Felipe Massa's Ferrari and Nico Rosberg's Williams. While his points lead over Silverstone winner Vettel still remains an imposing 25 points, and the onus is on him merely securing solid points rather than going all-out for wins for the foreseeable future, a couple more dire runs to 6th place or thereabouts will leave his lead looking more than a little shaky. Having said all that, Ross Brawn has said that his cars will be much stronger in Germany, and Silverstone was always expected to play right to Red Bull's strengths, so maybe the odds will be on Button returning the favour to Vettel at his own home race, rather than anything else.
- Still no surrender
An interesting trivia question to posit at this point in the year may be: when was the last time the top three constructors from one season failed to win a race between them in the next season? Well, we say interesting, but really it's just quite telling as far as the unique problems facing the trio of Ferrari, BMW Sauber and McLaren this year are. While Ferrari have at least managed to drag themselves up to the level of "solid points scorers", and could nick a win or two later in the year, BMW and McLaren have stagnated in the depths of the lower midfield. Nevertheless, like the plucky underdogs they aren't really, both teams are continuing their efforts to somehow make their awful 2009 cars work. Although McLaren's developments are largely being held back until Hungary in order for the team to actually check that they work, BMW are ready to debut another raft of flickups, aero tweaks and sticky-backed plastic at the Nurburgring. Both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld will be hoping that the new parts do something to lift the team up, after finding themselves ahead of only Force India and Toro Rosso in the championship after eight races.
- Findia's Quest
Over the course of the often chaotic last year and a half in F1, only one of the teams on the grid have failed to score a measly point. Force India, despite plenty of bluster and promises from Vijay Mallya, remain clutching as many points as the work experience kid in the office walking grimly towards the desk pencil sharpener with a set of blunt 2Bs in his hands. But once again, the team has been talking the talk in the runup to this race. And perhaps with good reason, what with Giancarlo Fisichella overtaking cars in pairs at Silverstone on his way to 10th place. But still, even with optimism by the shedload, the team realistically need at least three from Button, Vettel, Webber, Barrichello, Massa, Rosberg, Trulli, Glock, Raikkonen and Alonso to come a cropper, at the very least, in order to threaten the top eight. The VJM02 is becoming a useful car, but it still looks frustratingly far from points scoring form. Though now we've said that, expect Fisichella and Sutil to romp to the most comfortable 1-2 finish in F1 history.
- Track Talk
With the recent "loss" of the Fuji Speedway from the F1 calender for next year, the off-track talk for this weekend will trurn to the future of Germany's other track Hockenheim, which is set for an off-again, on-again meeting with Bernie Ecclestone over securing it's place on the calender in the future, with the track currently in a flip-flop contract for the German event with the Nurburgring. With another modified Tilke track teetering on the brink of disappearing from F1's sights if the talks aren't a success, Bernie's questionable attitude towards forcing most track owners to run their events at a loss simply to earn an extra few million will be brought back into the spotlight.
Track Facts
Nurburgring, Germany
Number of Laps: 60
Circuit Length: 5.148 km
Race Distance: 308.863 km
Lap Record: 1:29.468 (Michael Schumacher - 2004)
2008 pole: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren - Mercedes)
2008 winner: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren - Mercedes)
Timetable
Friday 10th July
Free Practice 1 - 10:00 (Local Time) / 09.00 (BST)
Free Practice 2 - 14:00 (Local Time) / 13.00 (BST)
Saturday 11th July
Free Practice 3 - 11:00 (Local Time) / 10.00 (BST)
Qualifying - 14.00 (Local Time) / 13.00 (BST)
Sunday 12th July
Race - 14:00 (Local Time) / 13.00 (BST)
Race Revisited - 2000
After several seasons of midfield running, Rubens Barrichello's career as a fully-fledged Boobens began in 2000, with his first taste of being slower than Michael Schumacher for the whole season leading to several more years of similar efforts. But every dog has it's day, and in the 2000 German GP at the old, forest-clad Hockenheim, the Boobens became a Grand Prix winner for the first time, with a nailbiting run to the chequered flag.
It was made all the more improessive by the fact that he started from 18th after problems in qualifying. After Schumacher was eliminated in an opening corner accident, and the McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard powered off into the diestance, Ferrari's afternoon looked set to be a traumatic failure. But Barrichello put in a sterling recovery drive and was running fourth when the situation took a bizarre turn when a former Mercedes employee began to stroll down the side of the track in a mad protest against his former employers. The safety car was called on, and when everything shook out, Hakkinen led from Jarno Trulli and Barrichello.
Trulli took a pit lane penalty, leaving Barrichello second, and then the rain that had blighted the weekend returned, with Hakkinen dropping to fifth after stopping for wet tyres, and Barrichello staying out on grooved dry tyres in the lead. With the rain only wetting half the track, what followed was a fabulous cat and mouse tussle, with Hakkinen breezing up to the Ferrari in the slippery sections, and the Brazilian pulling away on the drier parts. Boobens hung on to take his first win, and celebrated becoming the first Brazilian GP winner since Ayrton Senna triumphed in the 1993 Australian GP by blubbing like a baby. Bless him.
Watch the 2000 race (or most of it anyway) by going here.
One Year Ago
Last year, rather than the shell-of-it's-former-self Nurburgring, we were at the shell-of-it's-former-etc Hockenheim, where, for the 359th time in F1 history, a dire race was artificially enlivened by a mid-race safety car, caused by Timo Glock's nasty crash at the final corner. Lewis Hamilton, who had been leading by several minutes when the incident happened, took the curious decision not to pit along with everyone else, meaning that when he finally made his stop at racing speeds, he dropped to third, behind Felipe Massa and the improbable sight of Nelson Piquet Jr, who made his only stop under the safety car to grab a massivley lucky place at the front. Hamilton, with no more pit windows to use to overtake his rivals, did things the old fashioned way by emerging from an elbows-out duel with Massa in front, and then making the easiest pass for the lead in history to jump ahead of Piquet. He then eased to the win everyone had expected him to take, from Piquet and Massa.
Remember the relatively-interesting action by revisiting Patty's own review of events here.
Best Race Odds
Sebastian Vettel - 6/4 (Ladbrokes)
Jenson Button - 15/8 (BetFred)
Mark Webber - 7/1 (Sportingbet)
Rubens Barrichello - 14/1 (ExtraBet)
Felipe Massa - 33/1 (BetFred)
Patty's Tip - With Force India's Vijay Mallya and the team talking up their chances of finally getting the monkey off their back and scoring a point in the championship, why not put your money where his mouth is and take a punt on Giancarlo Fisichella to make the step forwards from his 10th place in Silverstone and pick up a points finish, a chance which is 9/1 with Stan James.
On Patronise
Here on Patty, should you be at a loose end in ways to follow the race once you've fired up your TV feed, live timing, various internet forums, interactive commentary and James Allen's Twitter feed, we'll be offering our usual slapdash array of coverage. Friday's practice will be reported on shortly after the event, and then all of Saturday's running and the race itself will be accompanied by a random, incoherent commentary by one of our award-losing team. Plus we'll have reports, blogs, opinion and the inimitable Fifth Column. Bonza.
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