Hockenheim, 20 July

Whether one believes it is down to Global Warming, or the coming of a second Ice Age, it cannot be denied that, for much of Europe, this is one of the wettest summers on record. Hockenheim, normally one of the hottest and stickiest race venues on the F1 calendar, has followed the trend we saw in Silverstone two weeks ago, with plenty of rain falling on the Baden-Wurttemberg region, especially this afternoon. The 90 minutes in the morning was run mainly in the dry, but even then, there were sporadic rain showers to interrupt Scuderia Ferrari’s busy programme. Aerodynamic updates, experimental Hard tyres from Pirelli and other work all coming on top of the usual Friday tasks, meant that a wet track was definitely not wanted. However, nothing is ever wasted in F1 and, as there is a chance of more rain for tomorrow afternoon’s qualifying, then at least Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were able to evaluate these conditions too. And one should not forget that the conditions are the same for the eleven other teams.

With two tyres for a wet track, the two usual slick ones – Medium and Soft – as well as an experimental new Hard that Pirelli brought for teams to try, evaluating the relative performance between cars and drivers today was even harder than usual on a Friday. This explains why Fernando could be third fastest in the morning and then down in twentieth spot in the afternoon, while Felipe was eighth and then twelfth. Hockenheim can hardly be considered a new Formula 1 venue, because it is a part of the very fabric of Grand Prix racing, however it is true that the teams have not been here since 2010, as the venue alternates with the Nurburgring in hosting this race. That means existing data is less relevant than at some other tracks, given we have never raced here on the current Pirellis, nor has DRS been available. Therefore, once again, it looks as though the remaining one hour of free practice tomorrow morning will see a lot of track action, at least if it’s dry.