Memories from Hockenheim

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Principessa
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Joined: 12 Aug 2005, 14:36
Location: Zottegem Belgium

Memories from Hockenheim

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Hi everyone,

Here follows a little thing that I will call "Memories from Hockenheim" with pictures from our trip to Hockenheim and some of our 'adventures' :wink:
I will add some things day by day, so keep posted :wink:

Thursday July 27

Our Hockenheim trip started really early as Tomba and I drove to Sinsheim first to visit the Auto - & Technikmuseum. There was a collection of F1 cars, American Dream Cars, airplanes, bikes...all you can think of that has to do with technical stuff.

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(Mika Hakkinen's 1997 car)

As we were walking in the F1 section, we noticed that some of the cars that had to be there were missing, but we discovered them at the circuit of Hockenheim.

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(Williams FW12 from 1989)

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(Jean Alesi's Red Bull Sauber Petronas C18 from 1999)

As I said before there were airplanes as well. This is a picture of the first Concorde :wink:

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Tomba took a look inside the aircraft, but the stairs to the plane where a bit high and since I don't like hights I stayed with both feet on the ground.

After the visit to the museum in Sinsheim we drove back to Hockenheim for the pitwalk. It was very hot, but still the security took away all the bottles of water in the bags of the f1 fans.

After waiting for half an hour to be able to cross the track to the pits, it was finally our turn to go and take a peek in the garages of the teams.

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(Mark Webber's car is ready to be weighed)

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The garage of the safety car is just next to our first stop: Renault's garage

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Renault seemed ready for a good weekend, but to bad for us, Renault fans, that wasn't the case.

McLaren disappointed the fans as they covered up all the cars with black sheets and only showed this:

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Than we came along Ferrari's garage, but with all the Ferrari/Schumacher fans present at Hockenheim, you had to push a bit to take some pictures.

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The engineers are preparing Trulli's car.

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In the meantime, Webber's car is pushed back to the Williams garage through the crowd

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Honda prepared themselfs for their 300th Grand Prix

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We also saw Rubens Barrichello and have some pictures of him, but they aren't really clear as there was an army of fans and photographers in front of the box.

BMW had a horrible weekend as none of their drivers was able to cross the finish line.
Their vertical wings have been removed from the car as requested by the FIA.

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Midland was setting up the car as usual. Sunday evening, the drivers will be disqualified because of too flexing wings.

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Christijan Albers was going true some technical things with his engineers.

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And than all of a sudden Tiago Monteiro came jogged in the pit, just next to me :wink:

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The F1 podium and the big Mobil 1 bottle

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Than it was time for the BMW cars to be weighed. I was following them through the whole pitlane and have a lot of pictures. One of the mechanics pushing the car found it funny and was making jokes about me stalking them :P

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Than Fernando Alonso's car rolled by me and again...I followed as far as I could :wink:

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And after that Honda F1 Racing's car came by.

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And than one of the coolest moments of our weekend: Tomba and I entered the pitbox of both Red Bull and Midland for a few minutes!

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Toro Rosso's car was rolled out to be weighed as well and again me and Tomba were on the right spot on the right time :wink:

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A quick look on the Williams of Wurz as he was jacked up and than we were 'removed' from the pit as the pit walk came to an end.

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One of the next days I'll put the second part of our trip online in words and pictures :wink:

manchild
manchild
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Joined: 03 Jun 2005, 10:54

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Nice pics and very nice of you to share your impressions with forum visitors. You've really seen a lot of cars up-close!

BTW, any pics of Bugatti Royale from that museum? It is one of the most impressive and also one of the rarest cars ever built. I think only 6 Royales exist in whole world and that museum where you were has one :wink:

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Principessa
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Joined: 12 Aug 2005, 14:36
Location: Zottegem Belgium

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I'm sorry I think we missed that one. It was a very big museum :oops:

The rest of the photodiary will follow later :wink:

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Tom
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Joined: 13 Jan 2006, 00:24
Location: Bicester

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You lucky devils. I might be there next year, if I can drive, get cash and puseude my parents to let me drive abroad.
Murphy's 9th Law of Technology:
Tell a man there are 300 million stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.

DaveKillens
DaveKillens
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Joined: 20 Jan 2005, 04:02

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Thank you very much for sharing. I was just at the Toronto Champcar race and was also able to gain the same kind of access. Of course, it's not as big buck or prestigous as F1, which makes my mouth water to see you guys got so close to the cars.
It's nice to see pics taken by avid fans, I was able to pick out a few things that commercial photographers usually ignore.
Imagine if JV had wandered by while Princepessa was stalking the BMW. I wonder who would have had the redder face....... :roll:

RH1300S
RH1300S
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Joined: 06 Jun 2005, 15:29

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Great pics - thanks

Anyone spot the Williams crafty ruse for weighing? 10kg exhaust plugs :twisted:

Mikey_s
Mikey_s
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Joined: 21 Dec 2005, 11:06

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Fantastic pics - definitely reminds me of why I love F1 - the cars are truly works of art, the attention to detail on the aero design is fantastic - goodness only knows how the engine covers are made in such incredibly complex shapes.

Nice also to see the cooling vents on the Toyota at the botom of the engine cover... I wonder why Button's steering wheel is at an angle when the car wheels appear to be in a straight line... perhaps that's what made him go so fast this weekend!

I had the same observation as Dave regarding the exhaust plugs... curious to see them in place if the car is beng weighed, the Honda also had the plugs in. And why were there intermediate tyres on Wurz's car... it was pretty hot at the weekend wasn't it?

Thank for posting Principessa - looking forward to some more.
Mike

manchild
manchild
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Joined: 03 Jun 2005, 10:54

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RH1300S wrote:Great pics - thanks

Anyone spot the Williams crafty ruse for weighing? 10kg exhaust plugs :twisted:
Hahaha... I thought of that too - slim at the beginning but fat and heavy inside :lol:

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Principessa
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Joined: 12 Aug 2005, 14:36
Location: Zottegem Belgium

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Mikey_s wrote:And why were there intermediate tyres on Wurz's car... it was pretty hot at the weekend wasn't it?
They were changing the tyres. I think that they just used it for the set-up and changed it afterwards. There was a little bit of rain before the second practice session on Friday and there were some of the third drivers who had intermediate tyres since the track was wet. :wink:

I'll try to put some other pictures online this afternoon or tonight :wink:

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mep
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Joined: 11 Oct 2003, 15:48
Location: Germany

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Nice to see you enjoing a trip to Baden Würtenberg.
As I also was on the race I'll also post some of the pictures I have taken.
Unfortunately I had my camera on a low resolution what I noticed
just as it was to late. But I think its Ok anyway.

I was at the Nordtribüne and saw the start the pits and the first corner.

The pictues I'll post are taken in the ParcFerme after the race.

[img][url=http:1024:768]http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/876/ ... ontdp9.jpg[/img][/url][/img]

[img][url=http:640:480]http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8426/r ... ionhf4.jpg[/img][/url][/img]


[img][url=http:640:480]http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2048 ... ingtd6.jpg[/img][/url][/img]
Notice the slats at the rear wing endplates and the airbox wing,
which has a profile to create downforce by it selfe and has no
big angle of attack to guide the air down to the rear wing.

[img][url=http:1024:768]http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/829/ ... ingqc7.jpg[/img][/url][/img]
The airbox wing at the red bull has a more symetrical profile
and a big angle of attack to guide the air down to the rear wing.

[img][url=http:640:480]http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/649/to ... ingvq1.jpg[/img][/url][/img]
Toyota has the first wing with profile to produce downforce and the
second with symetrical profile and no angle of attack.

[img][url=http:640:480]http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/1280/t ... ng2la7.jpg[/img][/url][/img]

Notice also the little parts near the rear wheel I think they are realy
interresting.
[img][url=http:1024:768]http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/7997 ... rtsoh9.jpg[/img][/url][/img]

Maybe I'll post some more later.

manchild
manchild
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Joined: 03 Jun 2005, 10:54

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Nice pics mep! High res or no high res but they look good to me. :wink:

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Principessa
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Joined: 12 Aug 2005, 14:36
Location: Zottegem Belgium

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Yes Mep, very nice pictures. We didn't made it to the Parc Ferme. Everybody was storming on the circuit, it was really crazy. We were sitting on Innentribune C, in the Sachscurve.

I'll put new pictures from Friday online tonight if I get back home :wink:

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Principessa
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Joined: 12 Aug 2005, 14:36
Location: Zottegem Belgium

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Friday July 28

After a short night, Tomba and me drove back to Hockenheim for the first day of F1 action. First the GP2 had their Qualifying session and then the F1 engines started to roar for the first practice session of the German GP.

Alexander Wurz had a very busy day...
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Just like the other test drivers
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(Robert Doornbos)

[img]http:640:480]http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8858/img4928zs1.jpg[/img]
(Franck Montagny and Anthony Davidson)

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(Neel Jani)

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(Markus Winkelhock)

Of course they did the most laps during the first free pracitce session. Pictures of the second one I'll put online tomorrow.
:wink:

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Principessa
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Joined: 12 Aug 2005, 14:36
Location: Zottegem Belgium

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Some pictures from the afternoon session on Friday. There was a bit of rain in the beginning of the session so a lot of cars stayed in until it stopped raining and the track was dry.

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(Jacques Villeneuve)

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(Taku Sato)

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(Jarno Trulli)

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(Kimi Raikkonen)

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(Fernando Alonso)

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(Felipe Massa)

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(Michael Schumacher)

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(Giancarlo Fisichella)

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(Jenson Button)

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manchild
manchild
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Joined: 03 Jun 2005, 10:54

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If I was so close to the track and Schuey passing by... :twisted:

Just kidding, nice pics and your location seams to be good to hear car decelerating and accelerating with nice side view to the car. Did you wear earplugs?