German GP Preview: Facts & Stats

As we approach the final third of the 2006 Formula One World Championship, the circus visits Germany for the second time this season, with Hockenheim again playing host to the German Grand Prix.

Surprisingly, Germany did not feature in the inaugural championship of 1950, although it was included in the calendar 12 months later. It was the first of 22 races to be held on the fearsome 14-mile Nurburgring Nordschleife, the second-longest track ever used in championship history (behind Pescara, used only in 1957).

Alberto Ascari was the winner in '51, taking both his maiden win and maiden pole position. He repeated the victory in 1952 as part of a Ferrari 1-2-3-4, and that win is unique in F1 history as the only race won by a car with a three-figure race number. Ascari's Ferrari carried the number 101 that afternoon.

The 1953 event featured 33 starters, the most ever for an F1 championship race - although it was actually at a time when the championship was ran to F2 regulations. F2 was regularly used to swell the field at the Nordschleife, as the long lap length meant backmarkers were not much of a problem.

This produced a very odd statistic concerning Bruce McLaren, who finished fifth at the 1958 event in an F2 Cooper, on his debut appearance in an F1 race. F2 cars were not eligible to score points, but he then went on to finish in the same position at the 1959 Monaco GP, his first race in an F1 chassis. He is, therefore, the only man to score points in two different championship debuts.

Juan Manuel Fangio's 24th and last victory came at the 1957 German GP, in what many regard as his greatest ever drive. After a pitstop left him behind the Ferraris of Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn, he lapped as much as eight seconds quicker than his pole position time in catching and passing the British duo.

One statistic that Michael Schumacher is unlikely to ever approach is Fangio's wins-to-starts ratio of one win every 2.125 starts. If Michael had the same strike rate, he would now have 113 victories, rather than his 'measly' 88.

The race briefly ventured away from the Nurburgring in 1959, when Berlin's AVUS Autobahn circuit played host, complete with its high-banked final corner. To this day, it is one of eleven circuits to have held one world championship race, although Istanbul is about to disappear from that list. Tony Brooks won for Ferrari, on a weekend overshadowed by the death of Frenchman Jean Behra in a support race.

Like his erstwhile teammate Fangio, Stirling Moss took his last F1 win at the Nurburgring, guiding his Rob Walker Lotus to victory in 1961. It would be the first of six German GP wins for British drivers in the 1960s, although only John Surtees (1963-64) was a repeat winner. Jackie Stewart's victory in the 1968 event came with a mammoth lead of 4:03.2 - the second-largest time gap ever (behind Jim Clark's 4:54.0 margin at the '63 Belgian GP).

An overlooked statistic from the 1968 race was Jacky Ickx's pole position - at 23 years and 215 days old, he was the youngest ever pole-sitter at the time, eclipsing Eugenio Castellotti's mark from the 1955 Belgian GP.

In 1970, the race again moved away from the Nordschleife, as the circuit underwent safety modifications. Hockenheim was the temporary replacement, two years after it was the scene of Jim Clark's fatal accident in the Deutschland Trophae F2 race, an event in which future FIA President Max Mosley was also a competitor.

Jochen Rindt (Lotus 72C Ford) 1st position leads Jacky Ickx, Clay Regazzoni (both Ferrari 312B's) in the 1970 German Grand Prix © LAT

The '70 race was a true classic, a one-on-one duel between Jochen Rindt and Jacky Ickx. The lead changed hands 13 times during the race, with Rindt making the decisive move on lap 48 of 50, and leading home the Belgian by just 0.7s. It was Rindt's fourth consecutive win of the year, and set up his championship success, which was confirmed posthumously in the aftermath of his death two races later at Monza.

Ickx was also to take his final F1 win in a German GP, when he won at the Nurburgring in 1972, while Jackie Stewart's 27th and last win came at the '73 event. In total, ten drivers have scored their final victory in this event.

Niki Lauda's accident in the 1976 race spelled the end for the Nordschleife, and so nearly cost the Austrian his life. August 1st marks 30 years to the day since Lauda cheated death at the Bergwerk left-hander.

He took his only German GP victory a year later, when the race again relocated to Hockenheim. The organizers faced embarrassment when it transpired that Hans Heyer, who had originally failed to qualify, managed to sneak on to the back of the grid and start the race illegally!

Having lost Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder, a turbulent 1982 season got even worse for the Ferrari team when they got to Hockenheim. Didier Pironi slammed into the back of Alain Prost in the wet final qualifying session, causing career-ending injuries. The team did not withdraw him, thus Pironi's pole position slot was empty on race day. Villeneuve's replacement Patrick Tambay took a popular first win, one of only two in his 114-race career.

The modern-day Nurburgring held the race for the only time in 1985, and qualifying produced a first pole for Teo Fabi, Toleman and Hart engines. Michele Alboreto's victory in the race was the last for Ferrari for over two years thereafter.

Since 1985, every German GP has been at Hockenheim. Beginning with the first of Ayrton Senna's three Hockenheim wins in 1988, the race was won from pole position seven years in a row, a run that included the 51st and final win for Alain Prost in 1993 (a victory gifted to him when leader Damon Hill suffered a puncture on the penultimate lap), and Gerhard Berger's 1994 victory for Ferrari, ending another win-less streak for the Scuderia, this time one that had lasted since the 1990 Spanish GP.

Spain 1990 was again a point of reference in 1999, as Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo finished 1-2 for Ferrari - the only time since Jerez 16 years ago that a Ferrari 1-2 has not involved Michael Schumacher.

Rubens Barrichello established a record at the 2000 race, when he took his first Grand Prix victory at his 124th attempt, the longest wait for any winning driver. He managed it despite starting 18th on the grid, but he used the onset of rain and several safety car periods to his advantage.

Further down the field, Gaston Mazzacane finished an unassuming 11th, but it would prove to be the last time a Minardi would ever finish on the lead lap of a Formula One race.

The final race on the "old" Hockenheim was in 2001, when Ralf Schumacher took a home win. His older brother had a chaotic day, triggering a barrel-rolling crash for Luciano Burti at the start, causing a red flag, and then suffering a rare Ferrari mechanical failure. He did not have another one until the 2005 Bahrain GP.

2001 German Grand Prix winner Ralf Schumacher (Williams FW23 BMW) © LAT

Michael only won on the old layout once (1995), but he has won twice on the new layout, in both 2002 and 2004. By stark contrast, the very mention of racing in Germany must send a shiver down the spine of Kimi Raikkonen. He has never finished a German Grand Prix, and retired from both the Hockenheim and Nurburgring events last year while in a comfortable lead, being the only mechanical-based retirement in both races.

Whatever the casual fan's opinion on Hermann Tilke's modern-day Hockenheimring, it does seem to promote good racing. At the last three German GPs there has been a driver on the podium who started outside the top 9 on the grid (Coulthard from 10th in 2003, Button from 13th in 2004, and Montoya from last place in 2005).

Until Michael Schumacher appeared on the F1 scene fifteen years ago, there wasn't much for German F1 fans to smile about. Wolfgang von Trips came agonizingly close to winning the 1961 world title for Ferrari, but he perished in the last-round decider at Monza, along with a dozen spectators, in a crash on the first lap.

Von Trips was the first German to win an F1 race, and between the time of his death and the debut of Schumacher thirty years later, only once did a German driver take an F1 win, and even that was tragedy-laced. Jochen Mass took a win at the 1975 Spanish GP, as yet again a German driver crashed into the crowd - this time Rolf Strommelen survived, but several onlookers did not, and the race was stopped.

Probably the most talented German driver to emerge in the pre-Schumacher era was Stefan Bellof, but he too died before his obvious potential was realized, in a crash in the 1985 Spa 1000kms sportscar race.

Prior to that, Bellof competed in 20 Grands Prix for the Tyrrell team, and despite being handicapped by a Cosworth DFV engine in the era of turbo dominance, he produced some great performances, most notably at the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, where he was in third place when the race was stopped due to bad weather.

Unfortunately for Bellof, history has largely forgotten his brilliant drive for two reasons: first of all, Tyrrell were later disqualified from the entire 1984 championship for technical irregularities, meaning that Bellof's name no longer appears in the results column for that race.

Second of all, the German had the misfortune to drive the race of his life on the day that Ayrton Senna announced his talent to the world, finishing one place ahead of Bellof in the unfancied Toleman.

Of course, these past few years the German fans are somewhat spoilt for choice, with the Schumacher brothers, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Nick Heidfeld all regularly at the sharp end in recent years.

It is an irony, then, that Michael Schumacher had such indifferent form on the old Hockenheim circuit, winning just once, although that win in 1995 was the first for a German driver in his home event.