After all of the fuss over exploding tyres at the British Grand Prix I’m sure Pirelli and the FIA will be looking forward to a nice quiet German Grand Prix, although from a fan’s perspective it was probably the most exciting race of the year. Will Pirelli’s new kevlar-belted tyres save the day? We’ll have to wait and see, but with the drivers threatening to boycott the race at the first sign of any tyre problems we’d better hope that Pirelli have figured out a solution.
Hockenheim takes a side step in favour of the Nurburgring as the F1 circus returns to Germany. Last year we saw Fernando Alonso dominate the weekend, grabbing pole position in qualifying and taking full advantage to guide his Ferrari to a race win, denying Sebastien Vettel a victory on home turf. Ferrari will be keen to repeat that success and with partners Shell they’ll be looking to grab any advantage they can.
What you might not have realised is that the Nurburgring circuit is at a higher altitude than most other GP circuits. At 320 metres above sea level the thinner air around the Eifel mountains can cause the engineers some headaches as they try to limit the loss of power caused by the lower air density.
Ferrari work closely with Shell to find the solutions to such problems, and the short video below gives you a taste of the many factors they have to consider in the build up to race day.
