The Evolution Of F1 Circuits, by Leasing Options

As we roll on towards the latter stages of the Formula 1 calendar, Leasing Options thought it'd take a moment to delve into the history of some of the circuits on the calendar that have been raced on for decades to see how much they've changed since they were built.

1958 German Grand Prix review for Motor Sport Magazine

Terry Whalebone from Bolton, UK [CC BY 2.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

My latest classic Formula 1 race retro review for Motor Sport Magazine's website has landed. That for the forthcoming German Grand Prix.

I look back at a classic. An incredible Nurburgring comeback win, chasing down the Ferrari pair from a seemingly impossible deficit to prevail. But it's not Juan Manuel Fangio, it's F1's forgotten genius Tony Brooks.

Twelve months on from Fangio's finest hour, Brooks took an about-as-brilliant 1958 German Grand Prix victory in his Vanwall.

You can check out the story via this link: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/history/f1/tony-brooks-greatest-victory-forgotten-genius-win-1958-german-grand-prix

Which Nations Dominate F1 and WRC?, by Select Car Leasing

We're all familiar with the greats of the sport, but which countries can boast the best record on the track? Select Car Leasing has analysed how many drivers from each country have taken part in F1 and WRC and compared that total to each nation's population size, per every 1 million citizens. The stats revealed some big surprises.

Key Findings

-       The UK loves the track...with the second-best F1 participation rate, behind only Switzerland

-       Just five nations have won a title in both F1 and WRC... which are the UK, Finland, Italy, Spain and France

-       The UK and US represent almost half of the total motorsport participants since 1950... featuring a combined total of 418 drivers

-       The F1 bug hasn't yet reached China and India... Despite a combined population of 2.7 billion citizens, they've had just two F1 drivers

-       Where winter bites WRC is popular... Estonia, Sweden, Norway and Finland lead the line for participation

-       Estonia falling at the final hurdle... despite huge participation, the country is yet to win a professional WRC title

Which Nations Dominate F1 and WRC?, by Select Car Leasing

We're all familiar with the greats of the sport, but which countries can boast the best record on the track? Select Car Leasing analysed how many drivers from each country have taken part in F1 and WRC and compared that total to each nation's population size, per every 1m citizens. The stats revealed some big surprises.

Key Findings

-       The UK loves the track...with the second-best F1 participation rate, behind only Switzerland

-       Just five nations have won a title in both F1 and WRC... which includes the UK, Finland, Italy, Spain and France

-       The UK and US represent almost half of the total motorsport participants since 1950... featuring a combined total of 418 drivers

-       The F1 bug hasn't yet reached China and India... Despite a combined population of 2.7 billion citizens, they've had just two professional drivers

-       Where winter bites WRC is popular... Estonia, Sweden, Norway and Finland lead the line for participation

-       Estonia falling at the final hurdle... despite huge participation, the country is yet to win a professional WRC title

German GP Report - Hamilton rains on Vettel's parade

We never learn. Despite constant reminders. Despite everything.

Lewis Hamilton took an unlikely win
Photo: Octane Photography

F1's mantras are familiar - that anything can and does happen; that it's not over until it's over; that no points are handed out until the chequered flag is waved. The trouble is we don't abide by them. Not even in this season which has contained more shifts - between and within weekends - than likely just about any other.

The German Grand Prix weekend at Hockenheim was but the latest reminder of the mantras' efficacy. And the sternest one. Sebastian Vettel took a crushing pole position in his Ferrari - Mercedes spoke of the Italian car having a half second advantage on the straights alone. And moreover Vettel's title foe Lewis Hamilton started 14th after a qualifying hydraulics failure on his Mercedes. Worse for him the suggestion floated that it was his error that caused the failure. Sure enough the arithmetic started about how much Vettel would extend his title lead by.

But once the points were handed out things could hardly have looked more different. Vettel was in the wall and Hamilton, somehow, had come through to win. His title lead was not only reclaimed but healthy looking at 17. In a season of turns this was its sharpest.

German GP Betting Preview - Home where the hurt is?

We again start our betting preview with a lament. The usual one that F1, particularly at the front, has lately been both close and unpredictable. Even in the last round, at Silverstone, where we thought that it was obvious Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes country. It didn't work out that way.

Sebastian Vettel looks well poised - but his record
at Hockenheim is poor
Photo: Octane Photography

This time for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim taking place this weekend we can add the lament that it's been two years and one major regulation change since F1 cars were last here. So there's not even much useful previous when seeking to identify betting value.

Still if recent rounds have taught us anything it is that Ferrari will be in the mix pretty much anywhere. It's gone well recently on similar tracks to this one, made up mainly of straights separated by short and sharp turns (such as Montreal and the Red Bull Ring). It possibly has the strongest engine these days too which will matter here as a large proportion of the lap is full throttle

There's only one problem, that homeboy Sebastian Vettel's record here is weirdly poor - his best (official) Hockenheim result is third and he's only ever led three laps at this circuit.

Hockenheim Preview: Back in the old routine

This year's F1 calendar has something of a throwback look. We're in the midst of an extended (welcome) and crammed (less welcome) European season, as two 'prestige' rounds have returned. The French Grand Prix is back after a long absence, and the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim - the latest of which is this weekend - is back too, following a year off.

F1 returns to Hockenheim after a year away
Photo: Octane Photography

The absence in the case of the German race has a different explanation as well. This Grand Prix used to alternate between Hockenheim and the Nurburgring, but the latter fell into financial bother and dropped out. And rather summing up the modern F1 host's absurd predicament Hockenheim didn't step into the resultant breach as it didn't fancy making its loss from staging the race every 12 months rather than as it currently stands every 24...

So we now have a German race every other year. And in another typical characteristic the event's future seems to linger under permanent doubt; its current contract expires this year.

The modern Hockenheim circuit is mostly about braking and traction as it doesn't really have corners that are quick or long, instead being made up of straights separated by short and often sharp turns. It's also something of a power track as a high proportion of the lap is full throttle. Although the modern tendency is to lament the new Hockenheim in comparison with the old version used up to 2001, in these senses the new place chimes with the old.

German Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - Destroyed in seconds

All Nico Rosberg had to do was go, and go well. If when the red light went out to start the German Grand Prix Rosberg's launch had been good, or even decent, his weekend likely would have been a perfect one. Topping all practice sessions and looking on imperious as he did so, then bagging pole position in considerable adversity. Then, presumably, winning.

Photo: Octane Photography

But no, his launch wasn't good or even decent. It was a stinker. He in a blink was in fourth place, with his team mate and chief rival Lewis Hamilton now leading. Both of their days were framed. Both finished in the place they'd ended up in at turn one. And in a weekend where it looked for the most part that Nico would re-claim his long-held championship lead before the summer break, now we all go on our hols with Lewis's lead looking positively comfortable.

All pivoting on the start.

You can read my take on it all in my latest Motor Verso race review, which is here: http://www.motorverso.com/german-gp-2016-review-destroyed-seconds/

Do check out the Motor Verso site too; you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out week-long test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

German GP Report - The hunter gathers

It often feels trite to say such things, but F1 is indeed a lot like life. And in this game just as in the world around it, you can spend however long building something up layer by layer, to the point of appearing rather imposing indeed, but it remains so that it can all be brought crashing down in seconds.

Lewis Hamilton won out yet again
Photo: Octane Photography

This was Nico Rosberg's German Grand Prix. From the moment Hockenheim running started on Friday morning he was on a plateau it seemed. Topping every practice session; even further ahead on race runs. Throughout proceeding around the circuit with graceful ease. Out of the car he beamed - accepting questions left, right and centre; lapping up the local support he was receiving (and the local turnout was noticeably larger than in the previous visit here). He also won an amazing pole, and did it by overcoming considerable adversity.

And topping it all off on Saturday after qualifying his team mate and chief antagonist Lewis Hamilton - who reckoned pole was his but for his own errors - appeared floored by it all. Introspective, distracted as well as, um, economical in his prose. That way we're all familiar with when he feels he's let himself down. It seemed impossible that we wouldn't be entering the summer break after this one without Nico having checked Lewis's astonishing and long-lasting momentum, as well as having re-established his long-held 2016 title lead in so doing.

Hockenheim Qualifying - Enigma machine

Somehow, almost no matter what, everything adds up to ensure the enigma that is Nico Rosberg.

Nico Rosberg, one way or another,
bounced back to claim pole
Photo: Octane Photography

It seems just when we think we have clarity of where he sits in the scheme of things, something happens almost immediately to confuse the matter anew - and this has been the way for years.

This for Nico comes in the form both of for good and for ill, but in this German Grand Prix meeting thus far we have had just our latest case of when we all thought we could conclude confidently that finally he is in firmly Lewis Hamilton's shadow, he leaps straight back into the spotlight. We never learn either. Perhaps none of us - least of all him - would have it any other way.

Following the Hungarian race last weekend indeed in which his previously-towering championship lead was chopped down to a deficit - the culmination of a devastating run of form from Lewis - we thought that was that. That last weekend and this he has rather been at the centre of controversy, double yellow flags and all, hardly will help, we thought. But not so. As ever when tracking Nico's trajectory as the adage goes we started out confused and ended up confused on a higher level.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Kimi Raikkonen Finally Wins Something

Kimi Raikkonen finally won something - the 'Driver of the Day' in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Did Max Verstappen's fans vote for him as a 'thank you' gesture for not overtaking their driver again? And of course, we applaud Lewis Hamilton's perfect race start - one that took him nearly 10 races to master. Not to forget, his 'international hand gesture' to a lesser known Esteban Gutierrez.

Nico Rosberg’s third (or fourth?) consecutive date with the FIA Stewards? Did they pull him up three hours after qualifying because they didn’t have better Saturday night plans? We tell why it is brave of Mercedes and Nico Rosberg to extend their contract by two full seasons. Pascal Wehrlein might not be the only one; the news of their extension has upset a hopeful Pastor Maldonado too.

Max Verstappen vs. Kimi Raikkonen, yet again. Martin Brundle termed Verstappen's defence against Raikkonen as 'junior formulae' like. Then we wonder why watch Formula 1 if 'junior formulae' racing can be this much fun! Also, Formula 1's ticket sales grew 6% in 2015. That's also the year Max Verstappen started racing - just saying!

P7 and applaud for Fernando Alonso's consistency. Are McLaren-Honda the best of the rest really? Anyway, who will have the last laugh - Alonso or Vettel? They've differed in their bets on Ferrari being THE team to beat Mercedes in the near future.

Ferrari's desperation in wanting to win in Formula 1 shows in their approaching Ross Brawn. We'd love to see them reunite and re-work their magic, but it seems highly unlikely. And will Williams sign Red Bull Racing's to-be-fired Daniil Kvyat?

It seems that the FIA tend to get more ridiculous each time we point our their ridiculousness. So its best we leave aside the recent 'radio rules' clarification, much like we did so to the 'elimination based' qualifying format or the double points system.

Our heart goes out to Bernie Ecclestone's family in the wake of the news of his mother-in-law (who is by the way younger than him) being kidnapped in Brazil. We try and wonder who these kidnappers could be - on a lighter note only.

Nico Rosberg and Mercedes' home is the upcoming German Grand Prix. While they will win, will he? We've got the second half of the season ahead of us and all to play for. Game on!

(Season 2016, Episode 25)

Hockenheim Preview: Back in the old routine

Nothing really about modern F1 should surprise you. And the modern F1 calendar has desensitised us more than just about anything else apparently. Really, that there has been no French Grand Prix for near enough a decade, and that there is little sign of its return, should seem like something from a farce. But it's reality, almost to the point of being habitual. The British Grand Prix was about as absurdly in Bernie Ecclestone's cross-hairs for a while. These days even grand old Monza is under threat of being exiled.

After two years away, the German Grand Prix -
and Hockenheim - are back
Photo: Octane Photography

And it afflicts the German Grand Prix too, which last season became the latest to drop from the calendar with a conspicuous clunk. A wealthy and populous country, with a vast and prestigious car industry. A country that provides four current F1 drivers, one of whom has won four titles and another led the world championship table until last weekend. It also is the home race of the world champion constructor, which also just so happens to be a glittering motorsport and motoring marque. But disappear the race did. Only in F1, you suspect.

Now though after a year away it returns, back at Hockenheim. The gap came about due to that one of the alternating hosts, the Nurburgring, fell into financial bother. Rather topping off the absurdity the other host, the very same Hockenheim, didn't fancy stepping into the breach as it didn't want to make its financial loss from staging the race every 12 months rather than every 24...

Latest episode of A Racer's Experience - the British Grand Prix

Here is the latest A Racer's Experience episode in which Matt Nicholas and I discuss last Sunday's British Grand Prix at Silverstone. In addition to the long overdue entertaining race we discuss the rumours that Aston Martin is to enter the sport with Red Bull, the future of Lotus as well as the absence of the German round this season and look ahead to the Hungarian Grand Prix.

You can have a watch below, our slot begins at about 8:25.

The episode also features Adam Alexander talking about the NASCAR Xfinity and Sprint Cup weekend in Daytona.

Reflections on Hockenheim - missing Schu?

A German manufacturer dominating an F1 season, one of the dominant drivers is German, as is the world champion (of the last four years) in addition to two other drivers, and the German economy despite the calamity around it remains itself rather strong. This all should add up to a healthy turn out at the German Grand Prix?

Much of the Hockenheim running was in front of
sparsely-populated grandstands. Here's qualifying.
Photo: Octane Photography

Well, no actually. Apparently only somewhere in the region of 50,000 was in attendance for the race, way short of the Hockenheim's track's vast capacity of 120,000. Running on Friday, even on Saturday, had a grandstand backdrop that looked a lot like there'd been some kind of evacuation. Though F1's declining following ain't a new issue, this seemed to slide things over a cliff edge.

As intimated this isn't new, therefore plenty of theories as to what is driving it all didn't require much dusting down. High ticket prices, dissatisfaction with the regs and/or the sport's creeping gimmickry, the lack of competitive competition in turn related probably to the skewed financial distribution, the TV coverage disappearing behind paywalls, while some of course still haven't been able to resist bringing out what already seems like an old chestnut of engine noise.

German GP Report: Everything's coming up Rosberg

You are Nico Rosberg. You are young; handsome; devastatingly intelligent. You also are a very fine Grand Prix driver. You're sitting atop the Formula One World Drivers' Championship standings, driving a mighty fine - nay untouchable - car brought to you by a prestigious German marque. In the past two weeks you've got married, your country won the World Cup and the said prestigious German marque has extended its contract with you.

Once again it was Nico Rosberg spraying the
champagne as victor
Photo: Octane Photography

And yesterday you won your home Grand Prix, easily, from pole. This extending your title lead by ten and adding a little more to the creeping sense that these months we are living through are your time in the sun.

Yes Nico, life's pretty good for you right now.

Indeed, the German race at Hockenheim wasn't really a race; not for first place at least. It was a lot like qualifying the day before, with his one rival in team mate Lewis Hamilton well dealt with Nico had something of an open goal. But again he volleyed the thing straight into the back of the net with some elan to emerge in P1. Some (including Rosberg himself) thought in advance that the mighty Valtteri Bottas-Williams combination might give Nico something to think about. But no - Nico smoothly and almost quietly moved clear lap after lap so that by his first pit stop after 14 racing tours he was ten seconds up the road. And untouchable.

Hockenheim Qualifying: Let's twist again

F1 in 2014 is the year of the plot twist it seems. Thought that Silverstone last time out had shifted the momentum? Wrong, as yesterday in Hockenheim's qualifying session it shifted back.

Nico Rosberg triumphed again in qualifying
Photo: Octane Photography

Whatever you may think of Lewis Hamilton, it's hard to deny that in the intra-Mercedes battle for the drivers' title this campaign he's had rather the bigger share of the bad luck. Two weeks ago, with Nico Rosberg dropping out in the Silverstone race leaving Lewis to help himself to a 25 point swing, seemed to go a long way to tilting the balance back.

But in Hockenheim qualifying the balance rebounded. There seemed little to choose between the two Merc pilots on pace for most of the weekend, and we all settled down for another close, edgy scrap for pole. But it ended quickly, as a racy looking Hamilton had a front brake disc fail on him at the Sachs Kurve in the first session, sending him into a violent smash in the barriers that left him sore in more than one sense. He already had a strong lap time but being unable to compete in Q2 or Q3 meant that P16 (which converted to P15 thanks to someone else's penalty) was his maximum.

German GP Betting Preview - Nico to bounce back at his 'home' Grand Prix, by Andy Morgan

After fantastic results for @F1BetPreview, including four winners out of six this year, the teams head to Germany at the midpoint of the season with rivalries heating up throughout the leaderboard.

FRIC or no FRIC, Mercedes is set to dominate again
Photo: Octane Photography

In the constructors' order the two points gained by Jules Bianchi in Monaco for Marussia are still enough to hold Caterham and the disappointing Sauber off in ninth position. Lotus and Toro Rosso are fighting closely for seventh while a fascinating scrap for third continues: McLaren, Force India, Ferrari and Williams are within touching distance of each other and the difference in prize money between third and sixth will motivate the teams in their persistent development of their cars.

Red Bull is the only team, other than the dominant Mercedes, relatively on its own but in the drivers' fight the four time German world champion Sebastian Vettel will not want to be beaten by his new teammate Daniel Ricciardo who sits 28 points ahead.

Hockenheim Preview: Differences and similarities

Things change, clearly. Including stuff that's already happened.

If that sounds silly then I assure you history is a living thing; never is it settled. That's because it is dependent on interpretation, and the perspective of that interpretation, what it's compared with, can change as time passes. And so it is with the Hockenheimring, scene of this weekend's German Grand Prix.

We're very much in the era of Hockenheim mark two, and while it would have been an absurd thing to say for a long time the previously-used Hockenheim mark one layout is these days viewed with something resembling widespread affection. As an example, in 2012 I recall stumbling across one circuit guide describe the current version as 'scarcely a shadow of its former great self'.

The revised Hockenheimring divides opinion
"Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg Luftbild" by Schlurcher
(talk) - Own work.
 Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Modern day Hockenheim is quintessential Tilke, with short medium-to-low speed turns predominant, as well as a lengthy straight book-ended by slow turns, designed to promote overtaking (which it is often successful at, to be fair).

Yet the cuddly tenderness common now wasn't at all the prevailing view of Hockenheim mark one in its own time either. For much of then it was considered a circuit without a soul. Little on or off the track quickened the pulse. Nothing much seemed to happen there, least of all in the races. Its prized image is one that has grown almost entirely in hindsight.

Further thoughts on the German Grand Prix

The big picture
Christian Horner was right to say that the victory of his charge Sebastian Vettel in the German Grand Prix wasn't a knockout blow to his rivals in the championship fight. But yet, it does feel like his opponents are very much on the ropes.

F1 in 2013 is entering something of a hiatus now, with only the Hungarian race in the next seven weeks, before the start of a slalom run of nine rounds in the second half of the season. A good opportunity to take a look at the big picture, in other words. Yet even at this relatively early point, with 250 points still available, it's rather difficult to see how the Vettel-Red Bull combination can be scuppered.

Can anyone deprive Vettel and
Red Bull of the ultimate honours?
Credit: Ryan Bayona / CC

Not only does Seb have a 34-point lead in the table, well more than a race win, we also enter the point of the year wherein historically he and Red Bull have really got into their strides. The Milton Keynes team is excellent at in-year development, its upgrades regular and close to seamless it seems. More generally, the RB9 has been quick just about everywhere, Seb is on top of his considerable game (errant gearboxes aside he has finished in the top four in every round) and from now on only in Monza can you envisage the car not being near the pace, given the Renault engine's comparative lack of top-end grunt.

And it's also not easy to see where an external threat is coming from. The Nurburgring confirmed that there will be enough rounds wherein the Mercedes won't keep their tyres together to presumably preclude a title charge for either driver; Lotus improved in that race but there yet remain question marks over its ability to sustain competiveness race-by-race, not least via its iffy qualifying speed and occasional strategy lethargy. Which leaves the Ferrari in Fernando Alonso's hands. Placed second in the table this pairing seems the most likely to deprive Seb and Red Bull of the drivers' championship. But it's a relative term, it still doesn't seem all that likely. Not for nothing, Alonso commented on Sunday after the race: 'to recover (the points deficit) you need to win two or three races, at the moment it seems that we are not able to do so...'.

Further thoughts on the German Grand Prix

Massa's endgame?
F1 matters move on very quickly. And if you need recent evidence of this you need look no further than to the curious case of Felipe Massa. It seems no time since, earlier in the year, we were declaring Felipe as finally being back to his best. He looked confident out of the car and quick in it, and had out qualified his haughty team mate Fernando Alonso four times in a row. Some of the excitable started to talk about his 'getting under Alonso's skin'.

Felipe Massa - not waving but drowning?
Credit: Mark McArdle / CC

Yet before we know it we seem almost back to where we started. Massa's in the doldrums again, his last four race weekends have each featured at least one accident or spin (and he's scored but 12 points in this time), including in the latest race in the Nurburgring where he spun off after four laps, which the man himself admitted subsequently was a driver error. And equally suddenly the wolves are at Massa's door regarding his 2014 Ferrari future - in poor timing the slump has coincided with the point that moves to firm up drivers for the following year gather pace.

Admittedly Massa was running ahead of Alonso at the time of his latest misdemeanour. But, if we're to be brutal, that's always been the way with Massa: that he is capable of going quickly but also that mistakes never seem too far away. These have been his traits going right back to his early days at Sauber (traits which led to Jacques Villeneuve describing Massa as 'probably the worst driver out there' in his debut year of 2002). He seems a very reflexy sort of driver, one that asks a lot of his car, but the flip side is that he never seems to offer himself much of a safety margin, and also that he doesn't appear to know any way other than to push. If he has a car that is ultra-planted, as he had in 2008, then he might broadly get away with it, but even in that season - viewed very much as Massa's personal tour de force - there were errors, most notably in Malaysia when he spun away an easy second place, discarding points that would have comfortably tilted the title in his favour as things transpired.