German GP: Hockenheimring - Track Check

Timo Glock of Germany and Marussia, Mark Webber of Australia and Red Bull Racing and Nico Hulkenberg of Germany and Force India, (L-R front) Nico Rosberg of Germany and Mercedes GP, Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull Racing and Michael Schumacher of Germany and Mercedes GP attend the drivers press conference during previews to the German Grand Prix at Hockenheimring on July 19, 2012 in Hockenheim, Germany.

The 10th round of the 2012 Formula 1 season brings us to Germany for the German Grand Prix to be run at the modern Hockenheim ring. The current track layout is the result of a complete overhaul of the legendary run-through-the-forest Hockenheimring. The track was redesigned in time for the 2002 German Grand Prix, and the revised layout came under a lot of criticism for being too homogeneous and similar to the modern circuits, taking away from the distinctive technical challenges and the unique character of the original layout. It still retains the stadium section as a tribute to the old track.

Sector 1

Sector 1 is made up of just one straight punctuated by a fast right hander and a right handed hairpin. The lap starts with cars going almost flat out through a tightened ‘Nordkurve’. During the race it is a drop from 6th to 4th gear. The kerb at the exit here is pretty tricky, and known to catch some people out. Good rear end grip out of the corner is important as it leads on to the first straight, reaching speeds of over 310 kph before braking hard for the 2nd gear hairpin bend at turn 2. The new section of the track begins here. The hairpin lies where the old track used to run off into the dense forest towards what used to be the ‘OstKurve’. Exit out of turn 2, through the right-left kinks at turn 3-4, and we’re through sector 1.

Sector 2

The cars exit turn 4, flying out onto the ‘Parabolika’, a turn only in name, as from the driver’s perspective, it feels like a gentle left bend, taken at full throttle, accelerating all the time. It will also double up as the DRS zone. This is the first time DRS is being used at this track. The Parabolika leads straight into the slowest point on track, the ultra tight right handed hairpin at turn 6. This is the best overtaking opportunity on track, even without the DRS zone. With the DRS zone, we might just get to see people being re-passed due to missing the braking point, a very common mistake here. Rear end traction and sheer horsepower again come to the fore as the cars rocket out of turn 6, going through the right handed kink at turn 7, flat out in 6th gear before braking hard for a tight left hander at turn 8 that doubles up on top itself, and connects to the turn 9 apex in front of the Merceds Benz stand, which has become an indentity of the modern Hockenheim. A 90 degree right hander at turn 10 brings us to the entry of the stadium section and back onto the old racetrack.

Sector 3

The stadium section is still probably the most challenging and trickiest part on the track. On the old layout, the cars needed to be setup for ultra low downforce due to the very high speed nature of the ring-like track, and finding the right compromise through this twisty section was a tough problem. That has been simplified a bit due to the relatively higher downforce requirements of the current layout, but they’re still pretty low downforce settings. So, the sector begins with the cars in 5th gear, lifting off slightly and dropping to 4th through the right handed turn 12, blasting down towards the Sachs curve, a tight 2nd gear left handed hairpin. The exit leads out onto a very fast left-right chicane at turns 14-15 leading into the double apex right hander at the SudKurve, which leads us back onto the start finish straight. The altitude changes dramatically in the braking zone between turn 15 and the first apex of the SudKurve at turn 16, making it tricky to get the car stopped, and the gap between the two apexes makes it that much trickier to get a proper slingshot onto the start finish straight.

The German Grand Prix always sees a lot of support for German drivers, and this time there are 5 on the grid. The reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel, the 5 time world Champion Michael Schumacher, his teammate Nico Rosberg, the up-coming talent Nico Hulkenberg and Timo Glock who has tasted some success here in his Toyota days. Whether any of them will prevail after 67 laps of the Hockenheimring on Sunday remains to be seen. The championship leader Fernando Alonso will be looking to extend his lead, while Mark Webber would be looking to set the record straight [his best finish here is P6 with Jaguar] and cut further into Alonso’s margin. Lewis Hamilton would be keen to repeat his victorious performance en route to the 2008 title. Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean are still looking for the illusive race win that has been so nearly theirs on multiple occasions this year. The weather here is usually hot and sunny around this time, which would as we all have come to expect this season, favour the Lotus cars. However, the predictions are for rain on Saturday and cloudy skies on Sunday. Well, we wouldn’t really mind a Silverstone encore now, would we!