German GP – PREVIEW
Formula 1 is ready to arrive in the country of the World Champions in charge coming back, two years later, to the Hockenheim Circuit.
It will be a Grand Prix with several unknown elements, starting from the tyres. Pirelli, which has not run here since two seasons, will have the Soft and SuperSoft compounds that, in the previous appointments, contributed to make more uniform the performances of the competing cars, reducing the difference between Mercedes and non-Mercedes power units. After the last tests, Ferrari seems to have made some progresses, even if at the team they are still keeping their feet on the ground.
We expect a battle at the top between the two Mercedes drivers, with Lewis Hamilton almost forced to stand in front of Nico Rosberg, who recently renewed his contract. The English driver will have to try to cause problems to the team-mate before the team takes internal decisions. Behind them, the outsiders will try to consolidate positions by exploiting the only weak points of the “German Army”, related to reliability. On the front line there will be the “branch” of Mercedes, in other words Williams, with Bottas and Massa. Precisely the Finnish driver could be a bothering rival for Lewis, considering that his manager is Toto Wolff, who is also a shareholder of the British Team. This strategy, as it happens at Red Bull’s with Toro Rosso, should give origin to a reflection also at McLaren’s and Ferrari’s. It’s almost of vital importance to have a “satellite” team, in order to try and test new technical solutions, engineers and pilots.
The “back office” of the race will be very hot because there are several important seats that “burn”, such as Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso. In my opinion, Fernando will weight in the balance mainly the technical guarantees. Knowing him, he’d like to win his third title precisely with the team of Maranello.
In Silverstone, fifteen days ago, we saw a thrilling due between Vettel and Alonso. We hope that this will happen again, regardless of the first consolidated positions. We’re talking about a mixed-fast circuit where the weather could play an important role.