This is part 3 of the European Grand Prix mini history series - years 1996 and 1997.

In 1996 European Grand Prix returned to Nurburgring for the second year in a row. Yet again it turned out to be a significant race - the future champion won his first race here.

Williams were the team to beat those days and so it came as no suprise that Damon Hill and the new arrival from American racing Jacques Villeneuve booked themselves the front row on the grid. Behind them lined up Schumacher (Ferrari), Alesi (Benetton), Barrichello (Jordan) and Coulthard (McLaren). Confident Hill however made mess of his start and Villeneuve took the lead. Coulthard came out of nowhere in struggling McLaren and found himself 2nd challenging for the lead. Barrichello moved up to third ahead of Schumacher, Hill and Hakkinen.

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F1Wolf

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After reading all that has been written about Fernando Alosno since his not that good German Grand Prix performance, a question popped up in my mind. Which way will his career go from now ?

Same as two former champions Alonso left his title winning team to try his luck somewhere else. After winning his first title in 2005 he signed for McLaren from 2007 season. He did manage to win his 2nd title in his final (?) season with Renault, but not much went right for him since. When he arrived in McLaren he found his rookie team mate to be the next big thing in F1. He had a car able to challenge for race wins and for the title, but the expected number one status was nowhere. Not able to bite the bullet he did not manage to keep his mouth shut and found himself out of the team not long after the end of 2007 season. (Seems like Heikki has learned the lesson ). With nowhere else to go he returned to Renault, now no longer a front running team. Despite all the PR talk he clearly struggles with the uncompetitve car and his performances seem to start to reflect his unease. There is not really anywhere else to go for him next year. Unless he forgets about Ferrari and signs longer term deal with another team he is stuck with Renault for a while … How will these few fruitless years affect his future career ?

Will he do Schumi or will he do Jacques ?

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F1Wolf

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Summer is traditionally time for some changes. I only went back as far as 2004, but there hasn’t been summer without drivers being dropped and replaced.

2004 - After German GP in July Cristiano da Matta was replaced by Ricardo Zonta in Toyota

2005 - After British GP in July Patrick Friesacher was replaced by Robert Doornbos in Minardi

2006 - After US GP in July Juan Pablo Montoya was replaced by Pedro de la Rosa in McLaren, later that month after German GP Jacques Villeneuve had to make way for Robert Kubica in BMW Sauber.

2007 - Early July Christijan Albers lost his seat to Marcus Winkelhock (replaced after one race by Sakon Yamamoto) in Spyker, later the same month Scott Speed got fired by Toro Rosso and Sebastian Vettel came in …

We haven’t seen any changes this year so far. But it is July now, who will be out and who will be in before July ends ?

Photo: Daimler Media

F1Wolf

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There are no North American drivers on Formula 1 grid this year and it is hard to see anyone joining anytime soon. The United States GP has been omitted from calendar this year and at the moment does not feature on 2009 calendar either. Except for few sponsors the Canadian GP remains the only connection between North America and Formula 1. Here is a brief overview US and Canadian contribution to Formula 1:

1) First of all America created some chaos in F1 statistics . In the early days, between 1950 - 1960, the Indy 500 race was part of the world championship. European drivers usually did not take part in that race. Also the drivers and teams that raced at Indy did not take part in the European F1 races. The race was therefore pretty much irrelevant to the F1 World Championship. The Indy 500 winners from those years however feature in Formula 1 history charts.

2) Including the Indy 500 drivers mentioned above Canada and USA have supplied Formula 1 with 163 drivers. Three of them - Phil Hill, Mario Andretti (both USA) and Jacques Villeneuve won the F1 drivers titles.

3) The North American drivers claimed 50 race wins (11 of them are the Indy 500 wins), 54 pole positions (11 are Indy 500 poles), 53 fastest laps (again 11 of them are from the Indy 500 races) and 165 drivers made it to podium (here 36 came from Indy 500 as drivers could change in the cars those days). In total US drivers collected so far total of 998 points, Canadians 342 points.

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F1Wolf

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The 2008 Formula 1 drivers preview continues with BMW Sauber team.

Nick Heidfeld - Germany
Born: 10 May 1977
In F1 since 2000, 2000 Prost, 2001 - 2003 Sauber, 2004 Jordan, 2005 Williams, 2006 - 2007 BMW Sauber
Best Result: 5th 2007
Career wins: 0
Pole positions: 1

Nick Heidfeld is the guy who lost the quest for McLaren seat to Kimi Raikkonen back in 2002. After that he spent few years in midfield and lower midfield with Sauber and Jordan. When he finally got his break and moved to a top team, Williams in 2005, Williams was no longer a top team … After BMW left Williams for Sauber, they took quick Nick with them. He might not have expected that at that time, but it looks like he finally found himself in a competitive car. Perhaps against the general expectations he outclassed his team mate Robert Kubica in 2007. Chinese GP was the only race in 2007 he finished outside top 6 (not counting those 3 he did not finish). He is one of the drivers who are happy the traction control is now thing of the past. But the life may be tougher for him this year. BMW may not be the isolated ones between the top 2 and the rest. The competition for 5th and 6th in each race will probably include more drivers than just Robert Kubica. If BMW closes the gap on top 2, with a bit of luck this season may bring a maiden win for Nick Heidfeld. But he may as well find himself outside of points more often than last year.

Robert Kubica - Poland
Born: 7 December 1984
In F1 since 2006 BMW Sauber
Best Result: 6th 2007
Career wins: 0
Pole positions: 0
Podium Finishes: 1 (Monza 2006)

Robert Kubica jumped into the BMW Sauber race seat with 6 races to go in the 2006 F1 season. Jacques Villeneuve was sacked after 2006 German GP and so only after few months of test driver duties with the Swiss/German team Kubica found himself on the F1 grid in Hungary. He almost scored 2 points on his debut. But his inexperience and failure to “collect” enough rubber on the way back to pit lane resulted in his car being 2 kg underweight. Kubica was disqualified and Michael Schumacher promoted to 8th. His “bad luck” continued in Monza. He scored an amazing 3rd place finish. However nobody paid much attention to him as after the race all the attention turned to Michael Schumacher and his retirement… Many expected Kubica to be the better one of the BMW Sauber drivers in 2007. It somehow did not happen. Nick Heidfeld raised his game while Kubica struggled with the Bridgestone tyres early on in the season. Two highlights of his 2007 season were the massive terrifying crash in Canada and then the great fight with Felipe Massa in Japan. Towards the end of the season however there was not much between Kubica and Heidfeld. Winter tests suggest that may also be the situation at the start of the 2008 season.

F1Wolf’s prediction for BMW Sauber drivers in 2008:
It will be very tight between Heidfeld and Kubica but for no particular reason I think Heidfeld will finish the season with few points more than Kubica.

2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Ferrari
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - McLaren

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Drop out no 1 - The looser

Jacques Villeneuve - Has been dropped by the Bill Davis Racing NASCAR team after hitting a wall and causing a multi-car accident during a qualifying for the Daytona 500. (reported by grandprix.com)

Drop out no 2 - The winner

Ralf Schumacher - After 11 years in the Formula 1 World Championship, Ralf Schumacher (32) will race this year with the Trilux AMG Mercedes C-Class in the DTM, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport announced today. Ralf Schumacher’s DTM debut will take place at the season opener in Hockenheim on 13th April 2008. (Daimler Media)

F1Wolf

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It has been announced yesterday that the F1 teams will be testing slick tyres during the upcoming test in Jerez. So the slicks are returning to the place where they featured last time, 10 years ago at the European Grand Prix 1997 in Jerez. And what a race it was… It was the final race of 1997 season, with Schumacher leading Villeneuve by 1 point …

Famous qualifying - 3 drivers recorded identical time in qualifying for the first time in the F1 history - Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen

Famous win - Mika Hakkinen won his first F1 race

Famous incident - Michael Schumecher hit Jacques Villeneuve during Villeneuve’s overtaking attempt and later got disqualified from the whole season

The race was won by Hakkinen, ahead of Coulthard (both McLaren) and Jacques Villeneuve (Williams). The 3rd place was enough for Jacques Villeneuve to claims his first and only Formula 1 Drivers Title.

Check the rest of this post for the video highlights from 1997 European Grand Prix in Jerez

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F1Wolf

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