Jul 21, 2011
Is Silverstone, home to the British Grand Prix, twinned with the town of Nurburg? When towns are twinned across Europe, it’s usually because they have something in common and in the case of these two venues, it seems to be the weather.
In fact, according to the forecast for the Nurburgring, our wet weekend in England two weeks ago was just a dress rehearsal for what the Eifel mountains could have in store for us, starting with heavy showers this afternoon. With Nurburgring and Hockenheim alternating as hosts for this race, we will have some interesting days ahead of us, given that last year’s technical data, which is usually referred to before any event, will be seriously out of date. In particular, there is no reference point on the tyre front, as Pirelli were not yet on board the last time we came to the ‘Ring.
For most of us, tomorrow will be the first time we hear the sound of an F1 engine for a while, but not for Sébastien Buemi. Our Swiss driver was driving a car at a show run in Russia last weekend and he really enjoyed his first ever visit to the country. “I was in Sochi with Red Bull Racing and there were also cars running from the Renault Lotus and Marussia Virgin teams,” he explained. “Sochi is on the Black Sea and is due to be the venue for the first Grand Prix in Russia in 2014 and the city will also host the Winter Olympic Games. The purpose of the show run was to give the people a taste of what Formula 1 is all about and there was a very big and enthusiastic crowd there to watch us. The people seemed very knowledgeable which I guess is down to the ‘Petrov Effect’ and the fact the races are now shown on TV over there. I have seen the designs for the race track and the Olympic facility and it looks very impressive. One thing that surprised me was that it was really hot in Sochi, close to 40 degrees, which makes me wonder how they can host Winter Olympics! But I’m told the mountains are very close and also there is a very big climatic change from summer to winter. Anyway, it seems there is a great interest in our sport in Russia, because on the same weekend, other teams were also involved in a show run in Moscow’s Red Square. From a personal point of view, I really enjoyed myself on what was my first ever visit to Russia.”
Credit: Toro Rosso (www.scuderiatororosso.com)
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