Postcard from Nurburgring

The new Nurburgring has never been the most enthralling place to visit, and this year the European GP suffered from a case of bad timing. Just how could you follow Monaco?

We had a superb weekend in the principality, and the thrilling race was just the icing on the cake. Even Williams and Ferrari folk admitted they had enjoyed the race, even if their own results had been disappointing. It was, everyone agreed, a great advert for F1.

Most people flew home from Nice on Monday morning, and by Thursday they were already back at the airport and on their way to Cologne or Frankfurt en route to the 'Ring. The consensus was that it was a little too early to be heading off to another weekend, especially as Monaco is such a draining event. In other words, poor Nurburgring is suffered from a sort of hangover effect. Nobody really wanted to be there.

It's a shame, because had it fallen a little later in the schedule we might have been quite glad of the trip to Germany. It may be in the middle of nowhere, but it's not an unpleasant place when the sun is shining, and there's a good atmosphere in the local hotels and guesthouses.

The first three days of the meeting passed without too much excitement, although an interesting qualifying session livened things up a bit. As for the race itself, Sato and Williams first corner collision aside, normal service was resumed as Schuey romped home yet again.

However, the real action didn't involve F1 cars. A praiseworthy initiative from the 'Ring promoters saw the drivers giving lucky punters circuit rides around the track on Thursday and Saturday evenings. Most of the teams gave it their full support, although Ferrari could provide only tester Luca Badoer, and it seems they forgot to invite Minardi.

The car makers associated to each team supplied the transport, and a remarkable variety of vehicles was assembled, although some drivers (and fans) were luckier than others. Juan Pablo Montoya (who took his missus around), Ralf Schumacher, Mark Webber, Christian Klien, Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli had sporty cars from their respective manufacturers' ranges, while Jenson Button and Takuma Sato had to make to with a humble Civic apiece. But unluckiest of the lot was Giancarlo Fisichella, who had the Sauber team's Subaru Legacy Estate...

Some marques had pushed the boat out a little. Mercedes had an AMG C55 with full rollcage for Kimi Raikkonen (there was no DC, and Pedro de la Rosa deputised for the Finn on Thursday), while Toyota dug out a pair of itty bitty Yaris one make racers for Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta. Not very quick, but at least you could say you'd been round in a racing car with an F1 driver.

However, full marks were due to Ford Europe. Apparently they were unable to find standard cars for the Jordan drivers, and instead the big boss sourced a pair of V8 Mondeos of Belgian Procar origin. These 330bhp NASCAR style monsters were quite quick, and incredibly some of the other manufacturers got a bit precious about it all and complained, presumably because they felt they were being upstaged. How pathetic. And to think this was supposed to be a bit of fun to promote our sport...

On Thursday Nick Heidfeld had a great deal of fun ducking in between colleagues who had to make do with rather more mundane machinery (he won't be passing Jarno, Jenson or Juan Pablo very often this year). Alas that created waves, and much to his frustration by Saturday he'd been told that there was to be no passing. He made up for that by hanging back at the one-by-one rally style start, and allowing himself some track space. 'I thought the whole point was to show the people beside me at least some idea of the limit,' he rued...

It was all great fun, if a little chaotic, and once out on the track the guys inevitably indulged in some hooligan antics. The big test was to come through the last corner as sideways as possible in order to impress those still waiting on the grid.

By the end of the air hung heavy with the smell of burning brakes, and the poor company PR staff who had to drive the shagged out road cars home were no doubt in for a shock the first time they encountered a traffic light. What a shame the guys weren't let loose on the old circuit...