Toyota – Ralf Schumacher (#11), Jarno Trulli (#12):
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BMW, Panasonic Toyota Racing will be on home ground this weekend, with the Nürburgring located just an hour's drive away from its factory in Cologne. With a large turnout from base expected at the circuit, the team is determined to take more points after another promising, but ultimately frustrating, race weekend at Silverstone, where Ralf Schumacher showed the potential of the TF107 by qualifying a season-best sixth, but neither he nor team-mate Jarno Trulli finished.
After the high-speed corners of Magny-Cours and Silverstone, the Nürburgring represents a return to medium downforce specification and, as with most races this season, the team brings an upgraded car to the race weekend, with small aerodynamic improvements fitted the British Grand Prix.
"At Silverstone, our level of performance was good - the best so far this season - but, obviously, we struggled to deliver a race result which corresponded to our level of our performance and that was disappointing," admitted senior general manager Pascal Vasselon, "We definitely hope to show the same level of performance at the Nürburgring. It's always nice to have our home race, we can feel the pressure and encouragement from our supporters in the grandstands and this is an additional motivation for the race team. Our goal for this weekend has to be to score points and see our drivers fight for the top six again.
"The track character is different because Silverstone is an extreme track in terms of tyre severity and average cornering speed. Nürburgring is more average in all aspects - in terms of downforce, as we will run medium downforce, in terms of braking stability and tyre usage. You have a bit of everything - you can be traction limited and front end limited. It is an average track but it doesn't mean that average is not interesting - it's a challenging track but without the special character of
Silverstone."
Both Schumacher and Trulli have naturally said that they want to consign Silverstone to history, but keep the level of performance that they showed in qualifying.
"Silverstone was a weekend to forget to be honest," the Italian admitted, "We had a good opportunity to score points because the car was quick, as you can see from Ralf's great performance in qualifying. It was a shame that, on my car, I had no grip and was sliding a lot in the race.
F1 is about many little things, so we have analysed the data from Silverstone and we will work on improving the set-up when practice starts on Friday. I am still optimistic for this weekend because I think the car definitely has potential and everyone is working very hard to get the best out of it."
Red Bull Racing – David Coulthard (#14), Mark Webber (#15):
Red Bull Racing's up and down year begins its second half with a trip to the equally rolling Nurburgring with the team still trying to get to grips with its reliability problems.
Fifth place for David Coulthard in Spain and seventh for Mark Webber in the US remain the only scoring finishes despite decent pace from the RB3, as gearbox gremlins continue to plague the Adrian Newey-penned car. Team principal Christian Horner has not given up on further top eight results, however,
"The RB3 has shown genuine pace, for example in both Monaco and then in Canada, and David had a competitive race in Barcelona finishing fifth and Mark got his first points of the season in Indy after a solid run to seventh," he reflected, "These performances have shown the potential of the car, but [the season] has been marred by a depressingly high number of retirements.
