Formula One News — July 2006

Meine Damen und Herren, Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies and Gentlement! Willkomen, Bienvenue, Welcome to the Michael Schumacher Cabaret at Hockenheim - with a supporting cast of Felipe Massa and, um, well that's about it really.

It has been announced in Australia that the V8 Supercars will not be supporting the Australian Grand Prix next year. The Grand Prix Corporation is blaming a clash of TV stations as the V8s recently did a new deal with Channel Seven, while the Grand Prix is covered by Network 10.

There was a busy weekend of action away from Formula 1 last weekend with Helio Castroneves winning another victory for the Penske team in the Indy Racing League race at Michigan International Speedway.

The question of mass dampers is in the spotlight this week after the appallingly poor showing of the Renault team in Hockenheim. Much of this loss of performance has to be put down to the decision not to run mass dampers.

ART driver Alexandre Premat has been given a 10-place grid penalty in Hungary for crashing into Hiroki Yoshimoto in the GP2 race at Hockenheim on Sunday. Premat had a poor race on Saturday and started only 19th on the grid on Sunday and found himself fighting with Yoshimoto.

Adam Carroll has announced that he is not going to continue with the Honda F1 team. Carroll asked to be released from his deal with Honda and the team did not try to stop him leaving - which is an interesting reflection on attitudes within the operation.

For some weeks now, Formula 1 has been assuming that Alex Shnaider was on the verge of selling his MF1 Racing operation to a Dutch consortium. With each passing week, however, that sale seems less and less likely.

Our spies at Red Bull tell us that the Austrian drinks company has signed deals with all four of its current drivers for the 2007 season. There is still some work to be done with the test drivers.

The Williams team has decided not to take up the option it had on Mark Webber. The option had to be taken up by the end of July but it seems that the team and the Australian driver decided that it would be a good idea to give one another a little bit of space and see what opportunities are available.

German GP - Race Notes

The two Midland-Toyotas have been excluded from the German Grand Prix for running flexible rear wings. The cars were found to have "excessive flexibility" in the lower rear wing elements.

German GP - Sunday Photos

German GP - Sunday Press Conference

German GP - Sunday Team Quotes

German GP - Race Incidents

German GP - Race Results

Timo Glock won a super victory in the GP2 race on Sunday morning at Hockenheim, stealing the win from a dozy Jose-Maria Lopez on the last lap of the event. Lopez had taken the lead at the start after poleman Clivio Piccione made a mess of the first lap and ended up parked in the wall

Kimi Raikkonen surprised everyone with pole position at the German Grand Prix, the first such achievement this year by a McLaren, and while it would be logical to suggest that perhaps this had something to with the fact that Hockenheim is not a million miles from Mercedes-Benz headquarters.

Lewis Hamilton started eighth on the grid for the GP2 race at Hockenheim but thanks to mistakes by his competitors was able to finish second and extend his lead in the championship after another impressive drive.

German GP - Saturday Photos

German GP - Saturday Press Conference

German GP - Saturday Team Quotes

German GP - Qualifying Results

German GP - Practice 3 Report

German GP - Practice 3 Results