The summer break is fast approaching as we head to the Rhine Valley and the famous Hockenheim circuit for round 11 of the 2019 Formula One World Championship. This weekend’s German Grand Prix marks the opening instalment of the back-to-back double header which brings the curtain down on the first half of the season.
Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer: Hockenheim offers a challenging mix of corner types, some of which are especially quick. As a result, teams typically run quite high downforce set-ups despite the straights. Braking can be reasonably tough with little opportunity to cool the brakes from T11 to the end of the lap, and often a tailwind into T2 & T6. The track surface is normally quite smooth, and this can make warm-up of the tyres tricky in qualifying. Pirelli bring their C2, C3 & C4 compounds, which are the middle of their range, and one step softer than we used in Silverstone.
We brought some test items to the car in Silverstone and were happy with their performance, which helped Robert and George achieve our best result of the season so far. We will continue to test further items over the coming races, including this weekend in Germany.
Robert Kubica: It’s been a long time since I have driven at Hockenheim. It is a challenging track with a mixture of low and high-speed corners. I am looking forward to driving there and to test new items on the car. We hope to gain some pace and if the car handles well like it did at Silverstone, then we will have some fun.
George Russell: I am looking forward to going back to Germany, it’s a circuit I enjoy driving at and I haven’t raced there for three years. I have special memories there as it was the first time I had a meeting with the team about my 2019 seat. We have some test items that are coming to the track which should hopefully give us a good indication of the direction we need to head in for the remainder of the year.
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