Villeneuve no fan of the new Hockenheim

No smiles
By Phil Huff (26/07/2003)
July 26 2003

The F1 circus heads to Hockenheim next weekend for the German Grand Prix, and opinions of the new layout is mixed, even within Lucky Strike BAR Honda.

Last year saw the introduction of the revised Hockenheimring, which meant the removal of the fast woodland straights and the inclusion of a new fast sweep leading into a slow, wide hairpin. The result was a modern, high-downforce circuit featuring mostly slow and medium-speed corners. Although overall speeds have been reduced slightly, there are still opportunities for overtaking.

Jacques Villeneuve's not positive about the new layout, saying "I am not a big fan of the new track and didn't really enjoy racing on it last year. It's not a low downforce track anymore and it's like many of the circuits we race at."

Reminiscing about the old circuit, with it's long forest straights, he says "I have quite good memories of racing on the old track in the past." Villeneuve has finished on the podium three times at Hockenheim, most recently in 2001 for BAR.

It's not all doom and gloom though. "There are a few overtaking opportunities though, which should make for an interesting race," says Jacques. "Our new car is definitely an improvement and the engine worked really well during the race last weekend, so I am optimistic for Hockenheim."

"Silverstone showed that we have made some good steps forward with the overall car and engine package and I had a very good race," says Jenson Button, "so I am definitely looking forward to Germany and hoping to pick up where we left off."

"The new circuit has a good overtaking opportunity at the end of the back straight and although the old track was very spectacular," he continues, "At least the revised version retains the Stadium Section which is pretty special to drive through."