Track Torque: Is it Deutschland uber alles yet again?

HOCKENHEIM started sadly when Jochen Rindt ended as the only posthumous world champion in 1970.

Hockenheim was built in 1970, and the German Rindt won there that year. Sadly, he died during practice at the Italian grand prix in September that year.

The 44 year old circuit, although truncated, is still very fast with the lap record of 1:13:8 set by Kimi Raikkonen in 2004.

Let us see whether Kimi himself can beat his 10 year old record with his latest turbo car.

News from the net in particular is the discussion around 18 inch low profile tyres that are proposed for future F1 cars.

Because current cars run on old fashioned, very high profile tyres, with about 80 percent aspect ratios (height to width), this will mean a very big technical challenge for the teams.

Currently, the tyres provide more than half of the suspension movement in the side walls themselves while a low profile tyre will provide less than 10 percent of suspension travel.

This means that springs will have to become more progressive and initially very soft, hardening up with travel.

It also means that there will be a lot more room for brake ducting and bigger brakes if the rules allow it, plus any other aerodynamic games that the designers get up to.

It’s very interesting to contemplate but not likely to be introduced before 2016 – to give teams enough time to build the correct changes into their cars.

The Germans should do particularly well at Hockenheim, with huge home support from factory and fans.

Mercedes will be going all out to please their masters and must be absolute favourites with patriot Nico Rosberg even more motivated than normal to beat British teammate Lewis Hamilton.

They are bound to have the very latest updates on their cars but will also take a conservative route to make sure that reliability is paramount for a rock solid home performance, probably a 1-2.

The other German, Sebastian Vettel will be pedalling harder than ever with his slightly under-powered Red Bull Renault.

He will be kept honest by fiery teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who is maturing into a top-notch driver.

I expect the Williams pairing of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas to give us another exciting showing from the British cars with Mercedes machinery.

Ferrari should not be too far behind, with Fernando Alonso leading the attack in his prancing horse, while we can only hope that Kimi Raikkonen is sufficiently recovered from his nasty Silverstone shunt to give it a full go in his red blooded missile from Marenello.

Next in line and maybe ahead of the Ferraris should be the McLaren Mercedes from Woking.

The cars are improving race by race and they have a healthy mix of flair and experience in Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button.

Either driver is capable of a podium spot or even a win if conditions and car performance allow it.

I also expect Lotus to perform better in their quest to beat Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez.

Romain Grosjean is a very polished driver and Pastor Maldonado deserves a change in luck.

Sauber Ferrari have been disappointing this year so far and they have recently admitted that there is a major problem with the car that they are working on.

I do hope that this can be resolved speedily as this is a motivated, compact team with two capable drivers in Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil.

The last of the front-runners has to be Toro Rosso, powered by Renault this year instead of Ferrari, but with two exciting drivers in Jean-Eric Vergne and Russian Daniil Kyvat.

Sunday’s race should be hot and dry, but we could have showers and excitement if the weather decides so.

Despite Renault being slightly below par on power this team continues to punch above its weight.

Either way it will be a great race at a great track with a huge crowd supporting the German entrants.

Qualifying is 2pm this Saturday and the race is at 2pm this Sunday.

Is it Deutschland uber alles yet again?