"I really enjoy racing at Magny-Cours as it is a really flowing circuits which the drivers generally enjoy," he notes, "The track has a mixture of high- and slow-speed turns and the high-speed changes of direction between turns four and five and seven and eight are particularly challenging."
Despite the attrition in Indianapolis, team-mate
Jenson Button only finished twelfth, leaving
Honda pointless for the seventh straight race. However, like Barrichello, the Briton is looking forward to racing in France.
"The Circuit de Nevers is quite tricky to get your lap absolutely right, but it is a lot of fun to drive - and very fast," he explains, "The start is particularly important, regardless of what side of the grid you are on, and you have to position yourself well for the first two corners to get a good run down the straight to the Adelaide hairpin. This is really the only place on the circuit where you can have a real chance of overtaking."
BMW Sauber – Nick Heidfeld (#9), Robert Kubica (#10):
As the last two races have shown, even the most impressive formbook means little if you don’t get both cars across the finish line, and a crash and a retirement saw the BMW Sauber team leave North America feeling decidedly short-changed, even if Nick Heidfeld did manage a podium in Canada.
The German, who was forced out of the USGP with a rare hydraulic problem, is keen to get himself back into the points in France, and is confident that the
F1.07 will remain a potent force at Magny-Cours.
"Although we only picked up a single point in the USA, it’s clear that we are still making progress," he insists, "In terms of pure performance, our car was the second-best at Indianapolis - I could have qualified third and also finished third in the race.”
Another pre-race medical examination will determine whether Robert Kubica is fit to return to the cockpit after his shunt in Montreal and, having been ruled out of the USGP - where he was replaced by the point-scoring
Sebastian Vettel - the Pole is eager to get the go-ahead to race.
