Hi and congrats to Remy and Paul for winning and second place in Hockenheim.
Thx to all drivers for the fair play during the start and race.
I enjoyed driving the 66 cars at H67 very much and I believe that our first race with the new physics was pretty successfull and satisfying.
The first 5 laps where really exiting and I cant remember closer racing in the past. 4-5 drivers in one second and manouvres that let my hair stand up
again and again. I recommend to watch lap 5 when Stuart overtakes Jeroen and me on the inner line of Ostkurve.
Never was so amazed in a situation of been overtaken by another driver, but this was eye candy at it's best. Unfortunatley Stu lost motivation after he lost control in the Motodrom and Paul seems to have too much gap on pos 1 .
I also got a big gap behind the whole field after two unlucky accidents.
In lap 6 at the end of the long straight back to Motodrom Jeroen was driving in the middle of the track. I thought there would be enough soace on the left side for my braking manouvre , but Jeroen also had to hold his speed as long as possible to block Paul who got the tow from Jeroen and seems to pass him on the right hand. I thought Jeroen would stay on the racing line to prevent prevent Paul's attack, but he came back on the groove just in the moment I
started to brake . Too late for us. Both cars hit the concret and went off the track. A shame for the exiting race we had , but maybe a typical race accident !? Sorry for my part of the accident.
We got back on the track and I followed Jeroen through the Motodrom when he suddenly lost speed in the Opelkurve ( now I know he wanted to enter the pits for shift_R). But in that situation I was totally surpriced and hit him again. Now the whole grid had passed me and as I tried to speed up my Ferrari to follow the pack , my engine lost power
and I had to do my lap with very low speed. Back in the pits for a shift_R I was overtaken by Jeroen again and now I had to close a gap of some 12 or 13 seconds.
The 246 ran fantastic and I could manage a couple of fast laps, but it seemed to be endless to reach the tow of another car.
Lap by lap around or under 2:00 the gap was getting smaller and after 3/4 of the race I caught a first tow by someone.
At the end Jeroen on the important 3. place was one or two seconds in front of me. I tried to stay cool without pushing too
early.
My last lap was the fastest race lap when I had tow on both long straight. This was my plan finally. You have only one chance in a situation like that. Passing the opponent when no slipstreaming is possible anymore.
Racing the new 66 cars with their improved slipstream physics was a new and exiting experience. I believe that we will have more of the awesome first 5 laps when we've learned to handle the new mod.
Hockenheim with the Division II cars was the right choise IMHO.
The stronger 3 L cars together with the slipstream effect on a track like that could have been to much of the good things at this early stage of our abilities to handle so much new features.
Congrats again for Remy's victory ! Even if the Cooper V12 might have some advantages on high speed tracks, Remy had to overtake the whole grid after some trouble during the first laps. Nice race Remy ! You've made Your points on the right track. Lets see what Le Mans Bugatti will bring us. This certainly will be a question of lightweight and handling and I am not sure to take the 3L Ferrari .
Remember the race is free for 3L cars , but that doesn't mean we
must use them. Instead of Remy, he has no lightweight version of his car ! Nevertheless he will be the one to beat at Bugatti...
So long ,
Wolfgang.
