Just days after an exciting and incident-strewn British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Formula One heads high into the Eiffel for the German GP. The teams will regroup at another of the sport’s ancestral homes with F1 resuming at the Nürburgring for round nine of the 2013 FIA F1 World Championship.
Opened in 1984, the Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit doesn’t present quite the challenge offered by the revered Nürburgring-Nordschleife but over the years it has proved itself to be a stern examination of a Formula One car and its driver. The narrow, flowing circuit demands a compromise in set-up: the twisty, low-speed first sector contrasts the high-speeds reached later in the lap, while the chicanes demand soft suspension to allow drivers to really attack the kerbs.
True form ahead of the race is difficult to predict given that the German Grand Prix comes after a series of atypical circuits and – in the case of Silverstone – an atypical race. That the Nürburgring demands a little bit of everything frequently ensures it is a race that finds out any weaknesses in the technical package. Car performance can be rendered less-relevant, however, by the stormy weather that often afflicts the region – though the forecast is currently predicting a dry German Grand Prix.
After 14 consecutive scoring finishes, Sebastian Vettel’s race-ending gearbox malfunction denied the World Champion a likely 25 points at Silverstone. His failure to score, combined with a gutsy drive to third from Fernando Alonso sees the Drivers’ Championship battle intensify, with Vettel (132), having his lead over Alonso (111) cut to just 21 points. Meanwhile, in the Constructors’ table, Mercedes (171) has moved ahead of Ferrari (168) and is closing on championship leaders Red Bull Racing (219).
Schedule
Friday July 5, 2013
Practice 1 – 08:00 GMT
Practice 2 – 12:00 GMT
Saturday July 6, 2013
Practice 3 – 09:00 GMT
Qualifying – 12:00 GMT
Sunday July 7, 2013
Race – 12:00 GMT
Facts
- The GP Circuit at the Nürburgring has held grands prix under three different names: in 1984, 1995-96, 1999-2007 it hosted the Grand Prix of Europe; in 1985, 2009 and 2011 the German Grand Prix and 1997-98 the Grand Prix of Luxembourg.
- Johnny Herbert’s final F1 victory came at the Nürburgring in 1999. It was the first and only win for Stewart Grand Prix. After being sold to Jaguar and then Red Bull Racing it won at the circuit again in 2009. That victory was Mark Webber’s first in F1.
- Triple World Champion Sebastian Vettel has a rare blind spot when it comes to his home race. He has yet to win a German Grand Prix. He also has yet to win in Hungary and the United States. At the season start Canada was the only other race on that list, and Vettel won that comfortably in June.
- Finishing fifth in the British Grand Prix last week established a new record for Kimi Räikkönen. The Finn has now scored points in 25 consecutive races, beating the 24-race run Michael Schumacher set between the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2001 and the Malaysian Grand Prix of 2003. Räikkönen’s last failure to score was the Chinese Grand Prix of 2012. It is his only failure since coming back into F1. His record, however, has been set in an era where points are awarded down to tenth. Schumacher’s sequence started with points to sixth, and finished with points to eighth.
- Ferrari have an impressive German Grand Prix record with a mighty 21 victories, well ahead of nine wins for Williams and eight for McLaren. Perhaps surprisingly, Ferrari’s longest winning sequence was three consecutive races between 1951-53: two for Alberto Ascari followed by a final F1 victory for Nino Farina.
- Michael Schumacher, with four, has the most German Grand Prix wins of any driver in the F1 World Championship era. Schumacher’s victory in 1995 was the first for a German national at his home grand prix since Rudolf Caracciola’s final win. Caracciola won the German Grand Prix six times between 1926-1939. Five of Caracciola’s wins came on the Nordschleife. The first, however, was on the AVUS circuit.
- In the World Championship era, the race was held at AVUS in 1959. That apart, the Nürburgring-Nordschleife (1951-54, 1956-58, 1961-69, 1971-76), Hockenheim (1970, 1977-84, 1986-06, 2008, 2010, 2012) and the Nürburgring GP Circuit (1985, 2009, 2011) are the only circuits to host the Formula One World Championship German Grand Prix. In 1950 and 1960 the German Grand Prix was a Formula 2 race (the latter held on the Nürburgring-Sudschleife circuit), and there was no race in 1955, following the Le Mans disaster. Officially there was no German Grand Prix in 2007. This was the first year of the race being alternated between Hockenheim and the Nürburgring and for legal reasons it retained its former title as the Grand Prix of Europe.
F1 Community
Visit the
F1 forums for more Formula 1 news, videos and discussions.
Source: FIA and Caterham F1 Team
