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Since Monaco, Michael have been faster than Nico in all races, wet or dry. The problem is that he still struggles in qualifying. I also want a wet race because this way he can fight with Mclarens and Ferraris, something very unlikely in a dry track

I don't know. Michael was very poor at Valencia, and the pace at Silverstone was irrelevant if you're going to give yourself a penalty.

Rosberg absolutely destroyed him last year. Then we have the fan boys saying "oh, 2011 will be different because they'll design the car around Schumi." Annnnnd he's still being beaten. Or driving into everything. Definitely looking better than last year, but not looking like a 7 times champion.

Schumacher never was a good racer. Sure, he was fast on his own putting in fast laps to jump someone through the pitstops or just cruising away at the front in the dominant car. But when he really had to fight wheel to wheel it ended in contact in many cases, or in a bad chop putting the driver behind on the grass or almost in a wall.

I'm hoping for rain, the racing is normally not as good at the Nurburgring in the dry, at least not since they put that new first couple of corners in which I hate.

Which one is the DRS zone?

Please be the front straight.

DRS zone will be before the NGK chicane, including the kink.

Unfortunately I heard it will be from turn 11 to 13.

Why is that bad? The cars should be able to pass on the front straight without the DRS, it was always more difficult at the chicane.

I love watching them pass at the chicane. It's nice and narrow along that part of the track. So much better than the boring wide Tilke front straight into hairpin. That's another thing that sucks about new circuits. Why so wide?

The circuit has always been wide on the front stretch. The only difference now is instead of tightening into a chicane as was the case pre-2002 it opens up into a hairpin, which seems wider due to the initial tarmac run-off before the gravel. Seems like your complaining for the sake of it.

F1Fanatic's Keith what-ya-ma-call-him released his rankings of the drivers this season.

[spoiler]Here is the overview as list (WDC position and difference between ranking and WDC position in brackets).

1. Sebastian Vettel (1; 0)
2. Fernando Alonso (3; +1)
3. Lewis Hamilton (4; +1)
4. Jenson Button (5; +1)
5. Nico Rosberg (7; +2)
6. Mark Webber (2; -4)
7. Felipe Massa (6; -1)
8. Kamui Kobayashi (11; +3)
9. Heikki Kovalainen (22; +13)
10. Timo Glock (24; +14)
11. Sergio Perez (14; +3)
12. Michael Schumacher (10; -2)
13. Sebastien Buemi (15; +2)
14. Nick Heidfeld (8; -6)
15. Paul di Resta (17; +2)
16. Adrian Sutil (12; -4)
17. Rubens Barrichello (16; -1)
18. Jaime Alguersuari (13; -5)
19. Vitaly Petrov (9; -10)
20. Pastor Maldonado (23; +3)
21. Pedro de la Rosa (18; -3)
22. Vitantonio Liuzzi (20; -2)
23. Jarno Trulli (19; -4)
24. Jerome d’Ambrosio (21; -3)
25. Daniel Ricciardo (26; +1)
26. Narain Karthikeyan (25; -1)[/spoiler]

People's thoughts? I think Button should be ahead of Lewis. Rosberg, Massa and Webber are too high. I'd put Kamui ahead of the lot of them.

I have the felling they would just fly by the car in front in the other straight. Like in Turkey. Hopefully I'm wrong.

I had a look on distances and I think back straight (incl. kink) and front straight have about the same distance.

I did prefer the old chicane at the start, but it was more of a moan at the new circuits. I assume there are rules that they have to be super wide or something. I do like the Nurburgring, maybe I do just like to complain.

Interesting list there. I feel Webber and Massa are a little too high. Good to see Kamui and Heikki rated highly. I think the Renault and Force India drivers should maybe be a little higher as well, but then it's hard to say who should be down the bottom.

Tom Kristensen is the driver steward for the weekend.

He's been a busy boy!, racing in Imola a few weeks ago, came down to New Zealand to launch a new Audi and is now back in Europe

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3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

why was the first chicane changed into a whole complex in 2002? Was it for 'safety' or for the fear of a too short lap time?

Had the chicane stayed as it was until 2001, I have no doubt Nurburgring would be one of my favourite circuits on the calendar.

they wanted more overtaking and general race excitement

And more place to put spectators. And these spectators can see the cars longer.

Don't know if they eventually built new grandstands.

No.

The problem with the old first chicane was that as second part (left-hander) was tighter driver who went through the gravel and came back could cause chaos.

This F3000 crash shows and example


Btw, that's Fernando Alonso in yellow Telefonica car.

The startline has been moved 240 m forward to turn 1 this year...well this is quite a lot if you ask me. The rundown to turn 1 at the start will be pretty short...