Another week, another race - this is a busy time in F1, and the next two weeks will see another two Grands Prix; bringing the season onto the start/finish line: After the Hungarian Grand Prix on August 6th, only five races are left of the 2006 season.

But first the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim on July 30. With Nurburgring and Spa-Francorchamps (when it is in the F1 calendar!), Hockenheim is one of my local circuits; only some 800 kms from Denmark. It is only a short, 1,5 hour flight to Frankfurt and then an even shorter blast down the Autobahn to Hockenheim.

Until a few years ago, Hockenheim was one of the >specials< in the F1 calendar - as unique as Monte Carlo but for very different reasons: Hockenheim was a serious high-speed circuit, with the classic “motodrom” around the start/finish followed by long straights though the woods around the circuit. Top speeds were close to 350 km/h and it took little more than 75 minutes to complete the race distance of 300 kms.


All that changed in 2002 when the circuit was modified. It became shorter, slower and in my opinion also too uniform: Before, Hockenheim was always a special occasion; the only true high-speed circuit left in the calendar apart from Monza. Today, Hockenheim is just another modern circuit, and it is interesting to note, that while the new, shorter layout was meant to be more spectator friendly, the crowd figures have actually gone down in the last few years; creating rumours that this could be the last German Grand Prix at Hockenheim before the race starts alternating with the Nurburgring (currently the host of the European Grand Prix, but with several new races lined up to join the calendar, many people feel two races in Germany is one too many).

Until 2002, the cars were configured for minimum drag, and hence for low downforce in order to be quick on the long, fast straights that characterised the circuit - sacrificing performance in the motodrom section. Today, the circuit requires a medium downforce and that means that the motodrom is faster than ever before: While the motodrom with its many corners was somewhat tricky with the low downforce of yesteryear, it is now much faster with the medium downforce set-up. The motodrom section used to take almost 25 second with low downforce set-up but the medium downforce of today has reduced this to around 20 seconds. BUT - overall the German Grand Prix has become considerably slower: The last Grand Prix on the old circuit lasted one hour and 18 minutes but last year´s winner Fernando Alonso only saw the chequered flag after one hour 26 minutes.

Panasonic Toyota Racing´s Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli had another strong race in France last week (but also an unlucky one for poor Jarno!). There should be more points and even maybe a “podium” in store for the team at Hockenheim, and I will be back with news from the opening practice session on Friday.

The first practice day for the German Grand Prix was a strange affair with very hot temperatures and a bit of rain before and during the second session. When I arrived here in Hockenheim yesterday the temperatures were around the 35 degrees C mark, and today they are down to 31 degrees C. Not a big difference but still enough to make the conditions just a little bit more pleasant. Travelling to countries like Brazil, Bahrain and Malaysia with the F1 circus I am obviously used to high temperatures, but even though the temperatures are sometimes much higher in these countries, yesterday in Hockenheim felt hotter and more unpleasant. The weather forecast promises more of today´s mixture between sun and rain tomorrow for qualifying, but at the moment Sunday is expected to be hot and dry.

Panasonic Toyota Racing did their usual Friday thing with Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher only running very few laps in the morning session (none of them were actually credited with a lap time!), but in the afternoon they were 12th. and 13th respectively with Jarno doing 13 laps and Ralf 14. Both Jarno and Ralf were little more then a second away from the fastest of the regular drivers (Michael Schumacher), so this looks like another strong weekend for the team.

My weekend here in Hockenheim kicked off with a great dinner last night. Panasonic Toyota Racing invited the “Formula One Photographers Association” (FOPA) to the famous restaurant in the Heidelberg Castle. This dinner has become a tradition by now, and every year we also have a photo contest, where the best photos of the season are awarded. Each FOPA member is invited to enter a photo, and we all vote to find the top-three pictures of the year. As the “judges” are colleagues (or “competitors” depending on how you look at it) I have been very proud to win the contest a couple of times in the last few years, and yesterday I took another prize in the “Panasonic Toyota FOPA Photo Contest”: A very nice Panasonic mobile telephone was my reward for second place.

During the dinner I sat next to Panasonic Toyota Racing press officer Fernanda Vilas-Boas, and we talked about a lot of things. For some time I has had the feeling that both Jarno and Ralf would continue in the team, and when I asked Fernanda about the 2007 line-up, she smiled: “Ralf will stay because his current contract runs for another year. And I think we have also agreed a new deal with Jarno, but before it is signed, we cannot announce anything. But I think it is close” she said.

One of the first people I met this morning in the paddock was Fernanda, who was busy distributing the official press release announcing Jarno would stay with Panasonic Toyota racing until 2009.

“Jarno signed the new contract this morning - I told you it was close,” she said with a smile.

Qualifying for the German Grand Prix here in Hockenheim saw Kimi Raikkonen take pole position ahead of Michael Schumacher. Panasonic Toyota racing driver Ralf Schumacher was eighth fastest after a small shunt with Pedro de la Rosa. Ralf´s team-mate Jarno Trulli was 13th. fastest but will start from the back of the grid after an engine change.

One of the official FIA press conferences here was a very “local” affair with Germans Michael Schumacher, Nick Heidfeld, Nico Rosberg and Panasonic Toyota Racing´s Ralf Schumacher. It took place in very hot conditions, and most of the journalists attending the press conference probably just wanted to get back to their air-conditioned hotel rooms. The end result was probably the shortest official press conference in F1 history - it was all over after 12 minutes!

Still, Ralf managed to offer some interesting information about the Panasonic Toyota Racing team and the 2006 season. The first question to Ralf was about the season so far - from the outside, Panasonic Toyota Racing seems to be a team on the way up with the performances getting better all the time. BUT - there have always been a few things going wrong in the last few races. Does Ralf agree?

“Well - we do what we can!,” Ralf confirmed with a smile. “The last few races we had a very good performance and are making a good trend. But we had also had some technical issues – they have been pretty minor, but they stopped us finishing races. It’s not one thing either – it has always been something different. I guess we’ve just been a bit unlucky.”

Ralf went on to say that he thinks the team can continue the promising trend: “That’s what we hope, but we’ll have to wait and see. We think we had a very good tyre in Magny-Cours and that was obviously an advantage.”

Here in Hockenheim Panasonic Toyota Racing announced that they will be supplying the Williams team with engines from next season onwards. Exactly how this will affect the Panasonic Toyota Racing remains to be seen, but Ralf seems certain that the partnership with Williams will be an advantage: “Yes - I’m sure it will be a help to have another competitive team alongside us, just as a comparison for us.”

With this, the questions to Ralf moved onto next season. After the strong showings in the past weeks, is it realistic to think about Grand Prix wins or even the World Championship in 2007?

“There are still a few races to go this year so let’s finish this season first. But it would be nice to get a podium and we’re still waiting for the victory, of course. So we’ll do a lot of laps before we think about next year!”

67 of those laps will be called the “2006 German Grand Prix”. It takes place tomorrow, and I will be back with more news shortly after the chequered flag.

The German Grand Prix here at hot Hockenheim produced a fine win for Michael Schumacher. Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher both had a difficult weekend but still managed to finish seventh and ninth respectively.

Panasonic Toyota Racing was “in action” at both this weekend´s FIA press conferences. Yesterday I told you about Ralf and today I will let you know what Toyota Motorsport president John Howett had to to say when he attended the second FIA press conference (with fellow team principals Norbert Haug (Mercedes), Mario Theissen (BMW) and Christian Horner (Red Bull).

One of the most discussed subjects in the paddock during the Hockenheim weekend was the proposed “freeze” on engine development. This is aimed at reducing the costs of F1, but it has been difficult to get agreement from all the teams. Here is what John had to say about the “freeze”: “I think we are a competitor and we have a view which I think is in the general interest of Formula One, to maintain a degree of technical challenge and at the same time have a reasonable cost base which doesn’t make engines prohibitively expensive for smaller teams. But overall, in the end, somebody will decide what the future direction is, and I think the position has been clarified, and we’re just waiting for a final decision to be reached.”

At Hockenheim, Panasonic Toyota Racing announced a new deal, which will see Williams run Toyota engines from 2007 onwards. As you know, Midland has been running Toyota engines for the past two years, and John was asked if the team would supply both Williams and Midland in 2007. “No,” John said. “I think our decision was to supply one team two years ago. Williams obviously will probably be a more demanding team, in terms of the volume of engines and the amount of support services that they expect. For us, that will be enough of a burden because we also intend to improve our own performance as a team. So, we will support one team and that’s all.”

John also confirmed that Panasonic Toyota Racing and Williams will run identical engines in 2007: “The spirit of the agreement is that we will supply and make our absolute best endeavours to give them the same equipment that we have, so that’s the spirit and the intent of the agreement that we have.”

And finally - mass dampers. This has been a hot subject in a very hot paddock here: Some teams have used this “aerodynamic device”, but it was outlawed by the FIA before the weekend. The stewards here in Hockenheim then decided the mass dampers were legal, and it has all been quite a mess with the FIA deciding to take the stewards´ decision to their International Court of Appeal. BUT - for Panasonic Toyota Racing the “mass damper affair” was a non-starter:

“We don’t use one!” John said. “I think in the end, the teams have to push the regulations to the limit and the regulator, in the end, needs to define the limits to what we can operate. Whether we have a view or not is immaterial, somebody has to define whether or not mass dampers are in fact against the regulations or not and then it’s up to the teams to decide whether that will enhance the performance of their car or not.”

With these words from the president it is “Auf Wiedersehen” from Hockenheim. But my preview to the Hungarian Grand Prix next weekend will be on-line in a few days.