Questions from the floor:
Q: (Heinz Prüller –
ORF)
Gentlemen, can you tell us when you first raced here in Hockenheim, and your best and worst memories here?
Nick Heidfeld:
My first race here must have been in '94 with Formula Ford 1600, and I think I won that race. It was on the long track, which I enjoyed a lot more than the new one. I think the new one is good but the long one was spectacular. It was great fun, especially in Formula Ford because we didn't have much horsepower, so slipstreaming took ages but there were a couple of overtakings happening on each straight, so it was great fun. And probably one of my worst memories was in Formula 3000 in '99, I think. I think I already had the chance to clinch the title here – I was lying second, trying to overtake the first placed guy and I think it was on the Ost-Schikane and I was too close in the slipstream and went off. That was my worst memory.
Nico Rosberg:
My first race here was actually on the small track, just the stadium and round again, and it was Formula
BMW. I actually won both races that weekend as a rookie, which was really a great experience and great fun at the time. Worst experience? I'm not sure, probably two years ago in
F1 when I went off the track on the first lap.
Adrian Sutil:
My first race was in Formula Ford in 2002. It was quite funny because on the Saturday I did the Formula Ford race and won it, and on the Sunday I got into a Formula BMW car and I won this race as well, so I have good memories of this weekend. The worst one, I think, was in 2004. It was a good opportunity to get into a Formula Three car in a winning team at the end of the season. I was able to put the car on pole position and I was leading the race for the first time and then I had a technical failure and had to stop, so it was a really disappointing end to the season but one of my main steps in the direction of
Formula One.
Sebastian Vettel:
OK, my first race here was in 2003, so not too long ago, in Formula BMW and it lasted only four laps and then I had a retirement, so very much like this season. I started off with a retirement. The best memory was probably when I won here in F3, so that was quite a good memory. It was already very special at that time with friends and family around, so it was a very unique feeling. The worst memory was probably when I did a qualifying session in F3, I don't remember which year, and it was raining like hell. We were aquaplaning everywhere. You were accelerating down the straight going to the hairpin and even then you started to slow down, even though you were full throttle, because there was so much water. I think everybody got wet during that qualifying, but I don't think it was only water at the end of qualifying which made me wet! It was quite a unique qualifying session.
Q:
Too much detail!
SV:
You asked for it!
Timo Glock:
My first race here was in 2000, Formula BMW as well and the best memory, I think, was over two years: 2003 when we had a difficult year in Formula Three and I won the race when I started from 17th. I think there were three guys on slicks, everybody else was on wet tyres and I was the only guy who survived and I won the race on the last lap at the last corner, overtook five guys on the last lap I think and the last guy, Alexander Margaritis, in the last corner. That was a really good race. Also in GP2 in 2006, the Sunday race, which I won on the last lap against Lopez. I think that was the best memory. The worst memory in a race – not really, because I had really good results here – but a really bad moment was in 2000 when I had to do the Sunday race in Formula BMW and I was a bit late and I woke up when the engines were already started, so that was quite a tough moment. I think I only woke up when I jumped in the car.
Q: (Jürgen Kemmner –
Stuttgarter Nachrichten)
Nico, it is said that you could join McLaren-Mercedes next year. What about it?
NR:
I'm sorry, I don't want to comment on things like that at all.
