The German GP - Ferrari or Redbull ?

Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles yes it’s time for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, hurrah.

This year it’s a double header with the Hungaroring next weekend before the circus shuts down for its August holiday. This is going to be a make or break race for McLaren and to a certain extent Lotus too, as things have all gone a bit wobbly for these two and they need to head into the summer break with a podium at the very least.

Ferrari and Redbull look to have cars that can win with either driver, yes even Massa could get win this year, right time, right day and a bit of luck. Alonso is firing on all cylinders whilst Webber and Vettel look to have a car that can carry the speed into the corners like the good old days last year.

 Apparently there was a crisis meeting at Woking last week with plenty of table banging and a few choice words on the state of development and pit work.  They had held off on upgrades at Silverstone and suffered for it, so this week they have a whole bunch of new bits and bobs to bolt on.  

 I don’t won’t to bandy around word like, “last roll of the dice” and “B spec car”, but that’s what it sounds like to me. With new side pods front to rear and a myriad other detail changes this is going to decide the course of the remaining season for Lewis and distantly Button.

Hamilton is 37 points behind the leader, Webber, while Button is a whopping 79 points behind. Given how well the Redbulls and Ferraris are going i personally don’t see him coming back from there.

The other worry for McLaren is, just what is Lewis going to do next year? Now Webber has signed on for another year and Vettel isn’t going anywhere that only leaves Massa’s seat at Ferrari, which Massa seems determined to hang onto now! Which is fine, but McLaren just don’t seem to be able to deliver the results Lewis is capable of getting. They must fear that another two results like Silverstone and their prodigy is going to up sticks in disgust and head to Lotus just to get away from the chaos.  I doubt he would, but more pit lane clowning around could see the threat. The contract negotiations will start after Hungary, McLaren and Lewis will be prying there’s a shiny new trophy on the shelf as they sit down.

“But what about Lotus?” You cry. Well, on a shoe string budget they have almost delivered a race win to a returning Kimi and handy number two Grosjean. And that’s the problem, ”almost” and not “actually”. All the hoo harr over the name and the lotus brand and who was in charge and Dany Behar playing fast and loose with the expenses account (allegedly) means that their eye just hasn’t been on the ball game. Yes Kimi is in 5^th place with 83 points, but he could have had so much more, they are not collecting points due to poor type choice or the wrong strategy or not giving Kimi enough space for his ice lollies.  

 At the start of the season those in the know where saying it was just going to be a matter of time before Lotus won a race, right now i don’t think they will.

 But they just might, what do you think ?

Update your predictions in before Friday and good luck