2008 SANTANDER GERMAN GRAND PRIX PREVIEW
After Silverstone, the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team begins
preparations for its second ‘home’ race; next
week’s Santander German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
Another historic event, the German Grand Prix has previously
been held on four circuits – two iterations of the Nürburgring.
(22 races for the Nordschleife, one for the new circuit, in
1985), Hockenheim (30 races) and a singular event, in 1959,
at Berlin’s Avus circuit. This year will mark the 55th
running of the German Grand Prix.
While the Hockenheim circuit was not introduced onto the
Formula 1 calendar until 1970, it first existed in recognisable
form way back in 1938 and gained its familiar concrete stadium
section in 1966. It existed largely unchanged until 2002,
when it was dramatically shortened from its mighty 6.8km incarnation
to 4.6km by Formula 1 architect Hermann Tilke.
McLaren has won six times, including a victory for McLaren-Mercedes
with Mika Hakkinen in 1998. As a manufacturer, Mercedes-Benz
first triumphed in Germany back in 1954, when Juan Manuel
Fangio won at the old Nürburgring in a W196.
Since last year, organisers elected to alternate the German
round of the world championship between the Nürburgring
(organised by ADAC in odd-numbered years) and Hockenheim (organised
by AvD in even-numbered years). Due to a disagreement over
naming rights, this is the first German Grand Prix to take
place since 2006; last year’s Nürburgring race
was called the European Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton
Does your win at Silverstone take some of the pressure off
your shoulders?
“Pressure always exists because you need to win consistently.
In Formula 1, you’re only as good as your last race
and Silverstone already felt like an old memory by the time
I was testing at Hockenheim on Tuesday. Generally, however,
a race win briefly takes the load off everyone’s shoulders
because it allows you to push forward without looking back
at the problems you may have faced in the previous race. But
you can never get complacent and we’ll be pushing hard
again in Germany next week.”
This is your first time at Hockenheim in a Formula
1 car, what are your initial impressions?
“I was at Hockenheim in 2005 when I won a Formula 3
EuroSeries race and in 2006 with GP2 when I finished second
and third. It’s actually quite a straightforward circuit
to get into, and it helps that our car just feels so awesome
at the moment. There’s a bit of everything around here
and it’s quite fun to throw the car into some of the
high-speed corners, like Turn One and Turn 12 – the
high-speed right-hander into the stadium section.”
You are going to the Goodwood Festival of Speed and
the Farnborough Air Show ahead of the Santander German Grand
Prix – how do events like these affect your preparations?
“I’m going to Goodwood on Sunday – it’s
an event I love because, unlike a grand prix, it lets you
get closer to the fans, and I always get a real boost from
their enthusiasm and positivity. It’s also a place where
you can meet other racing drivers in a really relaxed atmosphere
– that’s not something you experience during a
race weekend either. On the Monday I’m going to Farnborough,
which should also be pretty cool. But I’m still doing
less than I was before Silverstone and I’ll have several
days to relax before Hockenheim.”
Will there be any special promotion activities with
Mercedes-Benz for the fans?
“It will be great to be at Hockenheim where I will compete
in my first German Grand Prix. I’m looking forward to
the support of the Germans and especially the Mercedes fans.
I know that many of them will be on the Mercedes grandstand
from where they have a great view and there will also be a
fantastic entertainment programme behind the grandstand. I
will be on stage during the weekend and answer questions about
my practice and qualifying. It is always nice to get close
to the fans as it gives me additional motivation.”
Heikki Kovalainen
At the start of the season, you talked about needing time
to settle in – after your impressive qualifying performance
at Silverstone, do you now feel more at ease with the car
and team than before?
“In some ways, yes. For sure, in the dry at Silverstone
I couldn’t believe how good the car felt and just how
much I could keep pushing it. It felt better than ever. But
the race showed I can still do more to improve – both
in terms of my driving style and the way the team works with
me. I know I have the speed, I just need to work harder to
apply it across the whole race weekend.”
Does the track suit the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
technical package?
“Our car’s real strengths are in high-speed corners
and under braking. Hockenheim is more of a technical, medium-speed
circuit so I wouldn’t expect us to have any particular
advantage – but the car does feel very good here. It
has a similar downforce level to Magny-Cours, where we weren’t
really able to show our true potential, so it will be interesting
to see where we sit in comparison to our rivals.”
The team tried a new dorsal fin engine cover during
the test – did it make a difference?
“The new top body engine cover has been designed to
improve aero performance, particularly through high-speed
corners – and we feel it had an advantage during the
Hockenheim test. But it’s still too early to say; maybe
Hockenheim is not the best place to try this new wing and
we need to see if it is affected by crosswinds – it
was quite windy at the Hockenheim test, but we didn’t
seem to be too affected by the wind. It’s definitely
encouraging for the future.”
Martin Whitmarsh, CEO Formula 1, Vodafone McLaren
Mercedes
Nine races gone and nine to go: what’s your evaluation
of the team’s progress at this halfway stage in the
world championship?
“We’re leading the drivers’ championship
with Lewis and are third in the constructors’ championship.
And while we remain encouraged by the pace we’ve recently
shown and the victories we’ve achieved, there’s
a feeling that we could still be doing more to consistently
score strongly. Several opportunities for victory, most notably
in Istanbul and Montreal, have slipped through our fingers;
we’ve suffered a few penalties – which we took
squarely on the chin – and, through no fault of his
own, Heikki has finished out of the points on several occasions,
either due to us being unable to provide him with a suitable
car or through circumstances that were largely beyond his
control. So as we head into the second half of the season,
our primary objective must be to work harder to iron out these
imperfections, to provide our drivers with race-winning machinery
at every opportunity and to sharpen our focus on the world
titles – both of which are still achievable for us.
I think Heikki’s pole position and Lewis’s win
in the Santander British Grand Prix win were good for our
momentum; the atmosphere back in Woking on Monday morning
was incredibly upbeat and positive because we all know we’re
strongly back in the hunt for the world championship. And
we’re not going to easily let go of that.”
Has it been difficult to get an accurate read on
the team’s overall competitiveness in the last few races?
“I know the fans would love to see a straight fight
between ourselves and our rivals – but fate, and the
weather, has conspired against that happening in the four
most recent races in Monaco, Montreal, Magny-Cours and Silverstone
– so we can still only estimate where we sit in terms
of overall performance. But the reality is, we’re keenly
aware of the steps we’ve taken to improve the car and
feel confident that we’ve currently got a fantastic
race car that can be developed sufficiently for the rest of
the season. We’re confident we’ll be competitive
in Hockenheim next week, but one of the beauties of Formula
1 is that you just can’t tell until the red lights go
out on Sunday afternoon.”
In which areas are you particularly satisfied with
in-season development?
“While MP4-23 immediately kicked off the year in winning
style, we were under no illusions that it would only be through
continuous season-long development that we would remain competitive.
Clearly, Ferrari has a very strong package and BMW Sauber
remains a constant threat to both teams, but the upgrades
we made prior to the French and British Grands Prix, particularly
in the detail aerodynamic work, has given the car a considerable
step-change and made it feel much better balanced for the
drivers. Silverstone also saw the introduction of new fuel
and lubricants from our partners at Mobil 1 and that has also
made an incremental but useful improvement to engine performance.
In Hockenheim this week, we evaluated a number of further
aerodynamic improvements, some of which were plain to see,
and it’s rewarding to see just how far we’ve already
pushed development of the 23. While we have already started
looking in greater detail at our 2009 package, there are currently
no plans to ease up on seasonal development of this year’s
car.”
Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
At Hockenheim the second half of this season begins. What
can we expect?
“There have been four different winners from three different
teams in the first nine races; two drivers, Lewis Hamilton,
who will come to Hockenheim as the championship leader, and
Felipe Massa have won three races respectively. Massa and
Kimi Räikkönen are tied on points with Lewis, and
fourth placed Robert Kubica is two points behind. Following
Heikki’s first Formula 1 pole position and Lewis’s
outstanding victory at Silverstone the team comes to Hockenheim
with the intention to maintain this trend. Lewis’s success
with an advantage of more than 68 seconds was the most dominant
win in Formula 1 for 13 years when in 1995 Damon Hill won
the Australian Grand Prix by a margin of two laps.”
Ten years ago McLaren Mercedes won at Hockenheim
the last time. Where do you take your optimism from?
“Two pole positions but only two podium positions and
one fastest lap in the last two races at Hockenheim are naturally
not what we and the fans will be expecting at the second of
the team’s two home grands prix. At the tests before
Magny-Cours, Silverstone and during this week at Hockenheim
we have further improved the MP4-23 mechanically and aerodynamically,
and the drivers are happy with the balance of the car. There
are great challenges for drivers and cars at Hockenheim. In
2006 the average lap speed during qualifying was 222kph, 69
percent of a lap are run under full throttle; both figures
are above the average of all other Formula 1 circuits. Consequently
Hockenheim is a so called ‘engine circuit’, and
that certainly suits us. Five times per lap the drivers reach
280kph and more, the longest full throttle part – before
the hairpin – is 1100 metres corresponding to 15 seconds
of full throttle. This season so far Lewis has led for most
laps compared to the competition, 179 from 571 in total that
is 31 percent, a little less than one third of all laps and
kilometres that have been completed. It would be nice if he
would add one more leading lap at Hockenheim – the last
one of the race.”
What is the significance for Mercedes-Benz of this
‘home’ grand prix at Hockenheim?
“As already at Silverstone there are many spectators
on the grandstands who also come because of us or even especially
because of us. Among them are several thousand Mercedes-Benz
employees who have bought tickets to watch Lewis and Heikki.
We have prepared a special programme for the spectators with
surplus value without additional charge at the Mercedes Grandstand.
New this year is the ‘Kangaroo TV’ which will
be offered by us for a special price and keeps you informed
so that you don’t miss anything during practice, qualifying
and race. Additional highlights of the programme are the visits
of Lewis, Heikki, test drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett
as well as all the Mercedes-Benz DTM drivers from Bernd Schneider
to Ralf Schumacher. Also present will be Formula 1 double
World Champion Mika Häkkinen. In addition to this there
are co-driving opportunities in the Safety Driving Centre
close to the grandstand. We don’t forget that the most
important work will take place on the track, however we do
everything to make the race a terrific experience also apart
from simply the sporting spectacle.”
VODAFONE McLAREN MERCEDES STATISTICS
Lewis Heikki Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Race Starts 26 26 639
Race Wins 7 0 159
Pole Positions 8 1 136
Points 157 54 3231.5
Podiums 17 2 424
Fastest Laps 2 2 135
HOCKENHEIM TRACK INFORMATION
Circuit length 4.574 km / 2.842 miles
Race distance 306.458 km / 190.433 miles
Laps 67
Number of corners 17
Inaugural German GP 1951
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