Nurburgring 1995 - German Siberia

The Eifel Grand Prix will be held on the 11th October this year at the Nürburgring.

There has been a grand prix held there in October before, in 1995, as the European Grand Prix.  It has been strong in my memory for reasons I will explain later.

The 1995 European Grand Prix took place near the end of a long fight between Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill. They had famously crashed at Silverstone at the British Grand Prix and again at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.  Schumacher went into the European Grand Prix ahead and with the added motivation of a second “home” race. David Coulthard was on pole, with Hill second, locking out the front row for Williams. Schumacher, the championship leader, was third in his Benetton.   A win for Schumacher would have put him in an almost unassailable lead.  Berger was fourth in the Ferrari with Eddie Irvine inserting his Jordan in front of the Ferrari of Jean Alesi for 5th and 6th on the grid.

The conditions were cold and damp.  The rain had just about stopped, but the track was still wet enough for wet weather tyres.  These were the days of refuelling and the cars all had different fuel tank sizes. The pit stop strategy had to take into account both the tyres and refuelling.  The Ferraris and the McLarens risked starting on slick tyres but all the other cars, including Hill and Schumacher, started on the wets.

The start was interrupted by Max Papis stalling his Footwork Hart at the start of the warm up lap, causing a 5 minute delay and a restart, with a reduced race distance down to 67 laps.   Roberto Moreno then stalled in his Forti but the car was removed, not delaying the start any further.

Damon Hill got a terrible start, dropping to 4th behind Coulthard, Schumacher and Irvine.  He got past Irvine on the first lap but was still a long way behind Schumacher and Coulthard.

On lap 5, Alesi on his slick tyres, overtook Herbert on his wets.  He was still slower than the leaders but it was an indication that the track was drying out.  Meanwhile Hill had caught up with Schumacher at the front.  Coulthard was building a lead.

Barichello stopped first and changed to slicks on lap 10. By the end of lap 10 Coulthard, Schumacher and Hill were less than a second apart.  Alesi went fastest on his slick tyres, triggering pit stops by those who were on wets.   Schumacher and Hill stopped together, re-joining behind Herbert and Berger, respectively.  Coulthard pitted and re-joined ahead of Schumacher and Hill.  

Hill, however, was stuck behind Berger, letting Coulthard and Schumacher pull away again.  Alesi was in the lead, not having needed to stop.

Hill overtook Berger as they started lap 14 and had closed down Schumacher once again.

On lap 17, Hill made a clean overtake of Schumacher but was overtaken by the German again by the end of the lap.  They almost came together a few corners later, but Schumacher just kept in front, moving across a little rudely. Fortunately, they both continued intact!

On lap 20, Hakkinen in his McLaren held up the leaders and allowed Schumacher to get by, leaving Coulthard in front of Hill.

Coulthard and Hill got past Hakkinen on the next lap, but Schumacher had pulled away. Coulthard did not feel the need to move over for his team mate.

Berger pitted and Hill managed to get by Coulthard and once again, set off in pursuit of Schumacher.  Alesi continued in the lead setting fastest laps.  By lap 29 the Ferrari driver was over 40 seconds ahead and coming up to lap Herbert in 7th place.  By lap 32, he had passed them as Herbert made an optimistic move on Irvine, sending both into a spin.

Schumacher and Alesi both stop on lap 34. Alesi makes a full refuelling stop and gets away, still in the lead.  Then Schumacher made a quick stop, implying that he would need to make another fuel stop before the end of the race.

With just about 30 laps remaining, Hill had caught Alesi’s freshly fuelled Ferrari. Hill tried to overtake Alesi and failed, losing his front wing in the process.  He had to pit and replace his nose cone but dropped behind Schumacher again.

By lap 45 Alesi is still ahead in the Ferrari with Schumacher in second, Coulthard third and Hill fourth. Berger had retired his Ferrari on lap 40 with engine problems.

By lap 50, Schumacher had closed down Alesi to about a second. It flattered to deceive, however, as Schumacher needed another fuel stop.  He had plenty of time to pit and re-join the race in second place on lap 53.

With 10 laps to go, Schumacher was once again closing down on Alesi. Hill was catching Coulthard.

On lap 58, however, Hill ran wide over the curb and spun out and ended up in the wall.  Race over.  Possibly the championship was over.

Two laps later, Alesi went off going wide to avoid Brundle. He returns to the track but with a much reduced gap back to Schumacher.

With 4 laps to go, Schumacher was on Alesi’s rear wing.

The next lap, Alesi brilliantly held off Schumacher. At the end of lap 65, however, Schumacher gets through, round the outside and pulls away.

The final two laps were a victory parade for Schumacher in front of his home crowd. 

He was joined on the podium by Alesi in 2nd and Coulthard in 3rd.

The Grand Prix of Europe was a championship winning drive for Schumacher.

The reason this grand prix has always stood out in my mind, however, is not because of the race but the venue.

Vettel won the last race at the Nurburgring for Red Bull in 2013.

Sebastian Vettel said recently that the Nürburgring is in a region nicknamed German Siberia.  

Not only was there heavy rain on the day of the race but the temperature barely reached double figures at 10°C at the start of the race.  The main reason it sticks in my mind is that when my team returned, my boss, Harvey, remarked that not only had it been very cold, but when they first arrived, there were actually patches of snow on the ground.

When you re-watch the race it is not just cold and wet, but also foggy. It was not foggy at ground level, but in the surrounding mountains – or as commentator, Murray Walker, described it: helicopter level.  If the fog is as low as that this year it would call the event into doubt if a medical helicopter could not take off.

The grand prix is scheduled for 11th October; this is even later in the year than the 1995 race.  

Let us hope that the Formula One Management have not misjudged things badly with the weather and have the situation covered.

Let us hope for a crisp, clear day in the mountains. Assuming the race does go ahead, it will make a change from the scorching track temperatures Formula One is used to and hopefully this will provide an interesting race.

Clare Topic