It will also be interesting to see how
Nick Heidfeld and
Robert Kubica get on as there is a massive battle going on between those two drivers within the team. That has been great to watch, but could be disruptive to the team.
Red Bull Racing capitalised at the Nurburgring, with
Mark Webber third and
David Coulthard fifth, and that should have given the team a boost. It is great for morale there and it is also great for Webber to get another podium.
Both Webber and DC are experienced drivers, and took on board what was going on with the conditions. They have been there many times before and they made sure they capitalised.
Red Bull will now go into the next race healthier, with a lot more points racked up and a lot more confidence in the camp. Whether that will pay out into performance on the circuit, we will have to wait and see.
The other point scorers were Williams’ Alex Wurz, who was fourth, and
Heikki Kovalainen, who took eighth for
Renault.
The
regie’s strategy at the end was definitely confusing and I don’t really understand why they decided to take such a big gamble, especially when it looked like Heikki would get very good points. I was not convinced by the merits of that.
Kovalainen was still quite encouraging though, and so too were
Williams. Alex had a good strong drive and again experience proved useful – as it did for DC and Webber - as he used his ‘data base’ to get the best result that was available.
Of the rest, Markus Winkelhock deserves a mention as he was definitely thrown in at the deep end. He had no prior testing as such and was just put in the car and had to try and get on top of it. That is not easy and, so, in that sense, his debut was very solid.
He made no big mistakes and didn’t damage the car. He also led his first grand prix in his home country, thanks to the conditions - what more can you ask for? It must have been a dream come true for him - it certainly wasn’t a disgrace.
