After one year abstinence we’re finally back there. I’m looking forward obviously a lot to race there this weekend.“ A virtual lap at the Hockenheimring with Sahara Force India F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg.
Tag: hockenheim
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German Grand Prix Dropped From 2015 F1 Calendar
For the first time in since 1960 the F1 calendar will feature without a German Grand Prix after it was confirmed today by the FIA that it was being dropped from the 2015 Formula 1 Calendar.
The German Grand Prix alternates between Hockenheim and the Nurburgring each year. It was revealed in January that the Nurburgring’s new owners did not have a contract in place to host the 2015 German Grand Prix and that they could not afford to pay the hosting fee.
Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said in January that Hockenheim is the only alternative to host the German leg of the F1 Championship but at the Australian Grand Prix he was quoted as saying “The German Grand Prix is dead at the moment. It won’t get replaced if it doesn’t happen. As with any race, if it is cancelled it is cancelled. There’s not much we can do.”
This was confirmed earlier this week after Hockenheim boss Georg Seiler told BILD that it was too late to step in at this point.
This resulted in the FIA dropping the race from the 20 race calendar leaving just 19 races for the season and with a gap during the summer period.
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Hockenheim to Host 2015 German Grand Prix
Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that the German Grand Prix will take place at Hockenheim and not the Nurburgring due to financial reasons.
Hockenheim alternates with the Nurburgring each year to host the German Grand Prix but due to financial reasons the Nurburgring is unable to host this years race.
The date for the German Grand Prix was confirmed on the FIA calendar but no venue was set. Speaking to Reuters, Ecclestone said that they need to change the dates on the contract for Hockenheim. “It’s going to be at Hockenheim,” he said. “We just have to amend the years of the contract. It was alternating with Nurburgring so we’ll just take that out.”
The Nurburgring, as a host venue was cast into doubt in 2012 when the venue experienced financial difficulties and almost filed for bankruptcy. It looks as though Ecclestone and the new owners of the Nurburgring could not come to an agreement to host this years German Grand Prix.
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Hamilton’s Qualifying Exit at Hockenheim Explained by Brembo and Mercedes
Brembo and Mercedes Benz AMG Petronas F1 Team have released a statement detailing Lewis Hamilton’s brake failure issue in qualifying for the German Grand Prix. Brembo have revealed that it was the interaction between the brake material and mounting that caused the front right brake failure of Hamilton’s W05
Included below is the Mercedes and Bremo statement in full:
‘Following extensive joint analysis of the previously unseen failure mode experienced by Lewis Hamilton during Q1 at the German Grand Prix, Brembo and MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS have reached definitive conclusions concerning the cause of the failure.
‘First of all, both parties can now confirm that the quality of the disc material was not a contributory factor.
‘Instead, extensive analysis and experimentation has demonstrated that the specific interaction between the structure of the brake material in question and the brake mounting on the F1 W05 Hybrid was at the root of the failure.
‘Countermeasures have already been applied to both the disc geometry and the mounting to ensure there can be no repeat of the failure.
‘These developments allow the team to once again run Brembo brake disc material, should it choose to do so, in race conditions.
Thanks to the close technical relationship between Brembo and MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS, we have been able to collaborate to objectively analyse, diagnose and resolve the failure, and we remain committed to a close working relationship in the future.’
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Roman de Beer strong in the midfield at the Hockenheimring
Article by Reynard Gelderblom
South African single seater sensation Roman de Beer competed in the fourth round of the 2014 GP3 Series at the Hockenheimring in Germany over the weekend of 18-20 July, 2014. The fourth round took place as a support category to the 2014 Santander German Formula 1 Grand Prix and consisted of two races – the first on Saturday afternoon and the second on Sunday morning.
Nineteen-year old Roman De Beer, driving for Trident, impressed during practice by setting the ninth fastest time – beating both his team mates Mitchell Gilbert and Victor Carbone in the process. In qualifying De Beer built on his earlier pace by qualifying twelfth – 0.691 seconds off the pace of pole sitter Marvin Kirchhofer (ART Grand Prix). Gilbert qualified sixth and Carbone twenty-sixth.
The races saw De Beer having to make the best of the available grip and his fast-degrading Pirelli tyres. In the sprint race both De Beer and Gilbert lost out as a result of this with De Beer finishing twenty-first and Gilbert fourteenth, with Carbone finishing twenty-third. De Beer finished the race 41.959 seconds behind the winner Kirchhofer.The feature race saw De Beer cross the line in seventeenth position – 29.522 seconds behind race-winner Jann Mardenborough (Arden International). On route to finishing the 18-lap race, De Beer also held off Santiago Urrutia (Koiranen GP) and also finished the race as the highest placed Trident entry with Carbone finishing twentieth and Gilbert retiring after 12 laps.
After the fourth round, Roman De Beer is ranked fourteenth in the championship with 8 points behind his name – his highest finish this season being a fourth place at the Red Bull ring in Austria during the sprint race.
The fifth round of the GP3 series will take place at Hungaroring in Budapest on the weekend of 25-27 July, 2014 – in support of the Pirelli Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The GP3 Series was initiated as a feeder category for the GP2 Series, although former competitors such as Jean-Eric Vergne, Valtteri Bottas and Daniil Kvyat have made a transition straight to F1 from GP3 in recent years.
Photo credits: GP3 Series
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F1 2014: German GP – Relentless Rosberg Scores Home Victory
Life happens to be pretty good if you’re name is Nico Rosberg. Not only has he extended his Mercedes contract but he’s gotten married in-between races, secured a comfortable pole position on Saturday and wrapped up a dominant home grand prix victory to boot.
The battle for supremacy between the Mercedes teammates was dealt a severe blow as Hamilton was exiled to 20th place on the grid following a brake disc failure in qualifying and a subsequent gearbox change.
Nico Rosberg was completely in control of the 67 lap German GP as he led fellow front-row starter, Valtteri Bottas, to the chequered flag for his first victory on home soil. The Finn delivered yet another stunning drive to hold off a recovering Lewis Hamilton for his third consecutive podium. Even though Williams’ biggest target is to finish ahead of Ferrari in the constructor’s championship their ability to keep one Mercedes at bay is, on merit, is a tremendous result.
McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen’s inexperience was telling as he collided with the Williams of Felipe Massa into turn one. Massa’s car was flipped onto its roll-bar before coming to rest on the tarmac run-off area of turn one. The Brazilian was uninjured but suffered his second retirement in three races.In fairness, Magnussen should have yielded the corner to Massa as he was out of the Williams driver’s sight. The incident was mopped after a short safety car period and the race re-started with Rosberg in the lead.
Lewis Hamilton unleashed a determined drive from the back of the field but it wasn’t without a few risky moments. There was slight contact with Kimi Raikkonen at the hairpin as he passed both the Ferrari driver and Daniel Ricciardo. Later on a rather dicey attempt at overtaking Jenson Button into the same hairpin resulted in a damaged front-wing endplate. A three-stop strategy meant that Hamilton ran the last two stints of the race on the quicker supersoft tyre. However, despite his clear pace advantage he was unable to overtake Bottas for second place. Hamilton’s rather glum face after the race showed his disappointment with the third step of the podium. Some may take exception to Hamilton’s body language but it tells of a driver for whom winning is the only acceptable result.
A spin by Sauber’s Adrian Sutil on the main straight gave rise to a contentious moment in the race. The stricken Sauber was parked
horizontally on the straight which would ordinarily prompt an appearance from the safety car. Surprisingly, the race director chose to forego the safety car and opted for marshals to recover the car under double-waved yellow flags. Any situation in which marshals are required to venture onto the circuit is a safety risk which makes this decision controversial.Behind the podium finishers the rest of the field put on an exhilarating show of wheel-to-wheel racing at its finest. Sebastian Vettel got the better of Fernando Alonso in a fabulous fight for fourth before Daniel Ricciardo continued a thrilling battle with the Spaniard. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button. Kevin Magnussen recovered to ninth after his collision with Felipe Massa while Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten positions.
While all twenty-two Formula 1 drivers have by and large respected the rules and each other there have been too many instances in the past where the fear of a penalty curbed their eagerness to take the fight to each other. As a result the exhilarating fights throughout the field at Silverstone and in Germany are a direct result of the steward’s announcement that they would take a more lenient stance on dishing out penalties.
Daniil Kvyat’s race came to a fiery end as the rear-end of his Toro Rosso was engulfed by flames. Lotus Romain Grosjean’s difficult season continued as the Frenchman was forced into retirement with a suspected power unit issue.If Lewis Hamilton was unsure about the prowess of his teammate before it is definitely not in doubt any longer. An unrelenting Nico Rosberg has extended his championship lead to fourteen points and what is particularly threatening is that he appears to have done it with disturbing ease.
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2014 Formula 1 Santander German Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference
DRIVERS
1st Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2nd Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)
3rd Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Kai Ebel)
Nico, how sweet is the taste of the home victory champagne?
Nico ROSBERG: It’s fantastic. It’s an amazing feeling for me to win here at home. A very, special day for me. Thank you for all your support here this weekend.
Valtteri, three time on the podium now but how hot was the breath of this guy [Hamilton] on your neck?
Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, I feel really happy again being third time in a row on the podium. These guys were too quick today but really happy that we at least managed to keep one of them behind. It was not easy, it required all the info from the engineers, what to do with the engine modes, and from my side pushing hard but I really want to say thanks to all the say thanks to all the fans. I also see many Finnish flags here so, thanks Finland.
Lewis, lots of fans in for you here. King of overtaking, 17 places, fastest lap, damaged front wing, so how much racing fun was that for you as a racer?Lewis HAMILTON: I had great fun. It was great to see how many fans we had here today, thank you so much for the support. I did as good as I could today. It was very hard to get through the pack safely. I had a little bit of a collision with Jenson. I honestly thought he was opening the door to let me past, he’s been a bit like that in the past race for example, so my bad on judgment there. It’s very hard to overtake at the end, they were so fast on the straights but I’m very happy I got some points today.
Thanks Lewis. Coming back to you Nico. Lots of points for you but not much time to celebrate as the next race is coming up next week already.
NR: Yeah, well definitely we’ll be celebrating a little bit tonight, I hope you [the fans] will as well, it would be great to continue the soccer world championship spirit today a little bit. I look forward to the next race in Hungary. With the car that we have at the moment… I’m very, very thankful to Mercedes for the car that they’ve built us, it’s really a pleasure at the moment. Hungary will be good.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: So Nico, your fourth win this year, I think your first on home soil – and which of the great things that have happened to you this week has given you the best feeling?
NR: That’s getting married. That’s definitely the case. That was the best feeling. But of course everything has been special. Really fortunate, just had a great… many positive things happening in the two weeks, or week and a half. Been really enjoyable, and also this weekend with pole and the win. Just awesome. Very, very special day today.
Q: Valtteri, something of a defensive master class at the end, defending from Lewis in the final laps. Tell us a little bit about what was going through your mind, the way you positioned the car in those final laps, particularly given the state of the tyres after a very long stint.
VB: Yes, big enough the last stint. I was already close with Lewis but he stopped and at that point there was still twenty or so laps to go. I knew it was going to be really close in the end. With a new set of tyres, 20 laps to go, he can make up the pit loss, and he did and he was riding my tail the last few laps. For me it was just really, really important to always get a good exit for the DRS straights, so out of Turn One and out of Turns Two-Three, to get as good an exit as possible and brake always as late as possible for the hairpin at the end. Also from the team, we were communicating and I got all the support from the engineers to get the right engine modes for defending – so thanks for that.Q: Lewis, from 20th on the grid to third at the end and so much to deal with, so many changes as well, you were on a change of strategy at the end there where you were going to do two very attacking stints on the super-soft of 13 laps. They obviously changed that after the Sutil spin, brought you in a bit earlier, so you had to do a bit longer final stint. I wonder though how much the damage of the front wing in the Jenson Button incident hurt your chances of doing more than third today.
LH: I couldn’t tell you. The car was a little bit different but nonetheless to still get some points today, I’m grateful and very happy with the car today that Mercedes provided us with and congratulations to Nico. It’s fantastic for him on his home soil and also for Mercedes-Benz. So I’m glad I could add some points today.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) Valtteri, is second place today the maximum for you, is second place the maximum for your team or can you do more?
VB: We always aim for more but for now we need to be happy with these points. Of course we were unlucky with Felipe again, we didn’t get both cars in a good position but I think today was the maximum result. We did everything perfectly and managed to keep Lewis behind in the end which got us an extra few points but in the future, we are definitely aiming for more and this is not the maximum.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, your target for this year was a podium; now you’ve got a hat-trick of them. How surprised are you with this success, because it’s not so usual for Finnish drivers to get three podiums in a row?
VB: OK…
NR: I got three in a row.
VB: Yeah, of course I feel really lucky also to be part of this. Last year we could not have expected to be three times in a row on the podium but we now… This is the package we have and it’s all down to hard work and we need to always keep aiming for more, like I said before. Of course, it feels really good to be (on the podium) for a third time in a row but I think we’re aiming for more than that now. We know Budapest might be a bit difficult for us but hopefully we get some updates.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, do you see the glass of your race more half full or half empty?
LH: Well, I don’t really know how to answer that really. I came from last, so to get on the podium is quite an achievement, so perhaps half full.
Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Lewis, you’ve got an incredible record in Hungary – seven races, four wins. What is your secret there and what are your feelings in general about next week’s race?
LH: I don’t really have any secrets there, just been very… If I’ve ever had any… Just been fortunate in that race, great support there as usual with the fans and a circuit I really enjoy. It’s a circuit where you can really attack, it works for an attacking driver like myself so perhaps it suits my driving style a little bit more than some others, maybe.
Q: (Udo Doering – Darmstaedter Echo) Nico, are you a little bit surprised to win so clearly and when you saw the car of Sutil standing on the track, did you fear another safety car?NR: Yeah, definitely I’m a bit surprised because in qualifying the Williams were quite close so didn’t really expect to have such a big advantage in the race. And yes, I definitely got a bit worried when I saw Sutil’s car out there because I was sure there was going to be a safety car and that would have obviously made it a lot more difficult
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Hamilton Takes 5-Place Grid Drop Ahead of German Grand Prix
The Mercedes Formula 1 Team confirmed early on Sunday morning that they have changed Lewis Hamilton’s gearbox ahead of today’s German Grand Prix
This comes after Hamilton crashed in qualifying at the Sachs hairpin after front brake disk failure on his car. The team was not sure of the extent of the damage to Hamilton’s car and no doubt made the discovery this morning.
The gearbox change will result in Hamilton dropping 5 places on the grid to start in P20. There is still no word from Mercedes as to whether Hamilton will start from the pitlane as they’ve decided to change Hamilton’s brake discs as well. It looks very likely that he will start from the pitlane.
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F1 2014: German GP Qualifying – Rosberg Secures Home Pole
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has secured pole position for the German GP.
The major talking point of the qualifying session was the crash of Lewis Hamilton during the first session of qualifying. A brake disc failure pitched the Brit’s Mercedes into the wall and out of qualifying. Hamilton appeared to be uninjured after the incident but was taken the medical centre for checks. Hamiton’s crash momentarily brought out the red flag as marshals tended to recovering the damaged Mercedes.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen missed the cut in the second part of qualifying and will start the race in 12th position. Sergio Perez starred for the Force India team as he secured a spot in the top-ten shootout with seconds remaining on the clock. Jenson Button also failed to advance to the final part of the qualifying session.
Nico Rosberg appeared to be in firm control but still had to ward off the Williams of Valterri Bottas. The German was able to secure pole position with a relatively comfortable margin but not improve in his second run in Q3. The Finn will start tomorrow’s race on the front row of the grid after missing out on pole position by only two tenths of a second. Brazilian Felipe Massa will start 3rd and shares the second row with McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen.
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Rosberg leads the pack in final practice
Nico Rosberg topped the time sheets during the final practice ahead of qualifying for the German Grand Prix with a time of 1:17.779.
Rosberg’s time is a surprising 0.601 clear of his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Despite a spin in at turn eight halfway through the session, Fernando Alonso recovered to set the third quickest time of the practice session, a mere 0.004 down on Hamilton.
The Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas led much of the practice session on prime tyres, but ended up fourth and fifth respectively after the supersoft runs.
Kevin Magnussen finished sixth after setting the pace during the opening stages of final practice, with Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen behind him.
Raikkonen switched to options very early on, but was unable to continue in the final stages of practice due to a problem with his fuel pump. The Ferrari team are working ferverishly to change the fuel pump before qualifying gets underway.
Red Bull’s performance was either lacklustre, or one big sandbag as reigning world champ Sebastian Vettel parked his car in ninth place.
Nico Hulkenberg took the last spot in the top ten for Force India.
Jenson Button had much complaining about understeer and problems with his braking during practice, most likely a result of no longer having FRIC suspension. None of the teams will be running FRIC this weekend after it was deemed illegal by the FIA earlier this week.
Full timesheet for the session is below. Please join us on Twitter @F1_Madness for qualifying later this afternoon at 14h00 GMT +2.
Photo credit: Mercedes
