Brunner: No Surprises Expected Due to New Track

Toyota's technical director Gustav Brunner is confident the team will have no surprises when their cars hit the new Hockenheim circuit, stating the newcomers are well prepared for the challenge after running extensive computer simulations.

"The race track's architect, Hermann Tilke, gave us detailed documents with all the relevant data that we put immediately into our simulation programmes," Brunner said, ahead of this week's German Grand Prix. "Therefore, we have a good idea how to set up our cars for this race."

"There will be no surprises," Brunner added. "We will have the track under control from the first practice session. Due to the computer simulations new tracks don't hide secrets any more."

Brunner believes the most problematic part of the new layout will come from the 90-degree left-hand bend, in front of the Mercedes grandstand. "The changing of direction in combination with accelerating nearly always leads to understeering," he explained.

The Austrian, who previously worked for Minardi before he was poached by Toyota last season, expects the new layout to demand more of the drivers and car, and minimize the requirements of engine power, singling out "three hard breaking points" on the new track.

"The car should be more important than the engine now," he said. "Driving itself becomes more crucial. In some places the drivers need to have a lot of feeling for the car."