Barrichello and Button relish ’Ring race

Featuring the full mixture of slow through to high-speed corners, the Nürburgring always demands the most from F1 drivers. The circuit also features a lot of undulation change, which is unusual for most modern circuits. What’s more, as the venue is situated close to the Eifel Mountains, weather can often play a major role in the outcome of races.

"I always enjoy going to the Nürburgring, particularly as it is one of the tracks where I achieved a win, in 2002,” enthuses Rubens Barrichello. “It is a challenging circuit for the drivers and has some interesting characteristics like great high-speed corners and interesting undulations. It's normally very cold when we go there so we are expecting all the efforts that we have made on our tyre-warming issues over the last few tests to pay off. We also worked really hard at Silverstone this week on the set-up of the car, and seeing the results, we are hoping for a strong performance at the Nürburgring."

Team-mate Jenson Button also arrives in the Eifel region with high hopes of a strong performance. "We had a positive test at Silverstone in which we made good progress and took another step closer to the competition,” he reports. “Apart from a podium at the Nürburgring two years ago, I haven't had that much success at this track. It's a very low grip circuit with a lot of corners off-camber so when you arrive into the corner, it's vital to get the correct line. I think we are starting to see our race pace improve relative to our strong qualifying pace and we should feel positive as we head to Germany."