"Ever since I can remember, the Nürburgring has meant something special to our family," he said, "My grandfather used to take my father on trips there from Austria to watch the races on the Nordschleife, so there was always lots of talk about this crazy racetrack in our family. The new track layout requires a neutral set-up and, as a driver, you need to find a good rhythm in order to get the best lap time. It’s going to be a great race and I hope that in the post-Schumacher era the German fans will still be as excited about
Formula One as they were before."
Technical director Sam Michael is hoping that the current
Williams chassis shows the sort of potential it has displayed on other 'medium speed' tracks in an effort to move to the front of a close-fought group including
Red Bull,
Toyota and
Renault.
"Nürburgring is a track at which we are looking forward to seeing the performance of the FW29," he confirmed, "With such sustained lateral loading on the car, the tyres always get a hard time around this track, but the
Bridgestone Potenza tyres we will have in Germany will be the medium and soft versions, two tyres that we have plenty of experience with. The gap between everyone is now so close that every half a tenth really counts."
Scuderia Toro Rosso – Vitantonio Liuzzi (#18), Scott Speed (#19):
Scuderia Toro Rosso were the subject of some subtle rumours regarding their future plans in
Formula 1 with increasing pressure on Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi to start delivering.
With the likes of
Sebastien Bourdais and
Ralf Schumacher having been linked with their seats, Speed and Liuzzi will not have enjoyed suffering their second double retirement in a row and their fifth in nine races. Indeed, only twice have both cars seen the chequered flag this season, something team principal Franz Tost is desperate to improve upon as the Formula 1 season heads into its second-half.
