2006 EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX PREVIEW
Round five of the 2006 Formula One World Championship, the
European Grand Prix, takes place this weekend at Germany's
Nürburgring. The race is the first home event of the
season for Mercedes-Benz, followed by the German Grand Prix
at Hockenheim in July.
In the two weeks since the San Marino Grand Prix, Team McLaren
Mercedes has completed a productive test session at Silverstone,
covering over 1,680km in preparation for Sunday's race, with
Kimi Raikkonen, Juan Pablo Montoya, Pedro de la Rosa and Gary
Paffett in attendance.
The European Grand Prix was first held at the Brands Hatch
circuit in the UK, in 1983. In the 14 races since then, the
event has travelled to Donington in the UK and Jerez before
settling at the Nürburgring. The first race at the German
track took place in 1984 and was won by Alain Prost in his
McLaren TAG Turbo.
Set in countryside some 80 kms south-west of Cologne, the
Nürburgring stands in the shadow of the epic Nordschleife,
which was built in 1927. The legendary 22 km drive through
the Eifel mountains was used as a test track for the German
automotive industry in addition to being a race circuit, regularly
staging the German Grand Prix. The inaugural race on the track
was won by Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes S.
The Nürburgring was also the birth place of the Silver
Arrows, when in June 1934 Manfred von Brauchitsch won the
Eifel race in a Mercedes W25. In order to meet the weight
limit of 750kg, the car's white paint work had to be stripped
the night before the race exposing its silver aluminium body.
However safety concerns saw the German Grand Prix transferred
to Hockenheim in 1977.
In 1984 the revised track returned to the calendar, in the
form of a modern Grand Prix venue, and has held the European
Grand Prix on nine occasions. Further revisions to the track
since then have included the addition of a 583 metre section
called the Mercedes Arena prior to the 2002 race.
In every year since 1995 Mercedes-Benz has presented a special
programme to entertain the visitors of the Mercedes-Benz grandstand
between the practice and qualifying sessions. This creates
additional value at no extra cost to the spectators. In the
safe driving centre next to the grandstand the visitors can
experience driving lessons onboard with a professional driving
instructor. The display areas behind the grandstand and the
vending area next to the paddock entrance are meeting points
for the fans of all teams. Live music will be performed, several
contests with exclusive prizes will be held. Interview and
autograph sessions, which will be announced well in advance,
will be held with the Team McLaren Mercedes Formula One drivers,
Mercedes-Benz DTM drivers and members of the Team McLaren
Mercedes team management.
KIMI RAIKKONEN
"Although it is not like some of the wider tracks such
as Bahrain and Turkey, there are a couple of genuine chances
to overtake at the Nürburgring, such as the chicane,
the first corner with its wide entrance and also as you go
into to the Mercedes Arena. At Imola it was impossible to
pass even if you had the pace, so hopefully we will be able
to make the most of our strategy for the qualifying and race
and get a good result here. Although the nature of the track
means you can build up a good rhythm, there are some odd cambers
and bumps that you have to watch out for. Also, as with San
Marino, Nürburgring is another track where you really
use the kerbs pretty aggressively, to make sure you get a
fast lap time. Following my exit on the final lap at the Nürburgring
last year as a result of a flat spotted tyre, I am hoping
to have a less dramatic race this year; however this track
seems to always see exciting and close racing."
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
"It was good to get on the podium at Imola and get some
points. The strategy worked well and hopefully we can build
on that and continue to move forward in Europe.The Nürburgring
is a fairly mixed track, with some straights, hairpins, different
types of corners, however I would say it is dominated by slow
corners. As a result, we will run with a medium-high downforce
here and traction and grip are more important than at a super
fast track such as Canada. It does tend to be quite grippy
here as it is pretty smooth, but there is a lot of understeer
and this is always a focus of the free practice sessions to
minimise this. We have been testing at Silverstone for three
days following San Marino, it was an interesting test and
we had some good running with new components for this race.
As this is a home race for Mercedes-Benz, I hope we can put
on a good show for the home fans."
MARTIN WHITMARSH, CEO FORMULA ONE, TEAM McLAREN MERCEDES
"We had a positive week at the Silverstone test, completing
the proving process on developments to the chassis and engine,
and it will be interesting to see how they translate to the
race track. The character of the Nürburgring lends itself
to closely fought racing, with the opportunities to overtake,
and with the competitiveness we have seen so far this season
across a number of teams, it should be another hard fought
race. As always, our primary target at Team McLaren Mercedes
is to take the victory, and we are pushing forward with our
development programme strongly as we need to make a performance
step to arrive at the European Grand Prix with the pace to
challenge for the win. The track does not see an over-dependence
on a particular element of the car, be it the chassis, engine
or tyres, and as a result will provide an opportunity to maximise
performance of the package as a whole. The weather at the
Nürburgring is notoriously unpredictable and could be
a factor for the outcome of the race."
NORBERT HAUG, VICE PRESIDENT, MERCEDES-BENZ MOTORSPORT
"The Nürburgring is the birth place of the Silver
Arrow, which will celebrate its 72nd anniversary during this
year’s Grand Prix. In our first home race in 2006 the
strain on all team members who work outside of the pits will
be bigger than previously at Imola for example, however we
all look forward to these efforts. After Imola we tested intensively
at Silverstone and covered a total of 1,689 kilometres. The
Nürburgring’s layout is a good mixture of very
fast, medium fast and slow corners. Right in front of the
Mercedes grandstand the lap starts with a dramatic hairpin
leading into the Mercedes Arena, which is particularly interesting
because this twisty part of the track allows different racing
lines. We have always been fast at the 'Ring and last year
we held the lead until the last lap, when Kimi’s suspension
broke due to vibrations he encountered since the halfway point
of the race because of a flat-spotted tyre. To hold the same
position through to the finish line would be the greatest
reward for everybody in the team who had continuously worked
hard since we began testing on 23rd January."
USEFUL STATISTICS
European Grand Prix McLaren Team McLaren Mercedes Kimi Juan
Pablo
Circuit length 5.148 km Race starts 600 190 91 89
3.199 miles Race wins 148 44 9 7
Race distance 308.863 km Pole Positions 122 43 9 12
191.938 miles Points 3074.5 1167 299 296
Laps 60 Podiums 387 134 32 28
Inaugural race 1983 Fastest Laps 128 58 17 12
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