Grapevine: News from the Paddock - German GP

Schu New Tattoo

World Champion Michael Schumacher looked like he was already prepared for Formula One's three-week summer break when he arrived at the Hockenheim paddock in dressed down beachwear - and with a new tattoo. The German driver wore knee length Bermuda shorts and sported a pair of red sandals as he strolled into work but most noticeable was the new black dragon emblem on his right forearm. But Schumacher has not gone all rock and roll permanently - because the new tattoo is understood to be only temporary.

Driver Development

Formula One drivers have become recluses in recent years and Australian Mark Webber is determined to change all that with his new 'meet and greet' policy for his peers. Working with the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, he has managed to help organise pits walkabouts for fans and autograph sessions and, in Schumacher-mad Germany, the public have been given a real treat. The Hockenheim circuit proudly promoted its first public pitlane walkabout last year and have extended that to a full programme of events this year.

A total of 9,500 fans enjoyed the pit walkabout on Thursday then, the following day, drivers from Williams, Minardi, Renault, Toyota and McLaren all turned up at the motorsport museum for a signing session. And to top it all off, Michael Schumacher agreed to 'present' FAN TV - the track television feed - talking live to the spectators.

Power and Precision

Sunday's pre-race events will be a mix of pure power and precise performance. Following the support races, there will be a dragster demonstration with super-accelerating vehicles lighting up the German track. Then, once the noise dies down and the fumed float away, the German national anthem will be played by famous violinist Andre Rieu.

Lucky Charm

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher can look forward to another winning weekend after being reunited with a lucky charm he lost 10 days ago at Silverstone. "It's a lucky piece from my wife and it's obviously quite meaningful to me because it has all the initials of the family on there," the six times Formula One champion said before his home German Grand Prix.

"It is not highly valuable but it has a personal meaning to me and I was lucky that a good guy found it and actually returned it to me today," added the father of two. Schumacher, who could seal Ferrari's sixth constructors' title in a row on Sunday with his own record-equalling 11th win in 12 races, said the blue and gold amulet had been found in the paddock at Silverstone.

"It was apparently somewhere close to our motor homes where I was running. A little clip came undone somehow and that's why it came off," he said. "It's lucky I got it back. It's now in my pocket."

The ceramic talisman, which Schumacher wears around his neck at every race, caused a commotion once before this season when the German left it in his hotel before the Bahrain Grand Prix. That time a team member had to rush to bring it to him before the start of the first race in the Middle East, which he won. Schumacher later said the amulet had made "perhaps the decisive difference".