Sam Michael gives a debrief of the German Grand Prix weekend which saw the team fail to add to their points tally.

Sam Michael, Technical Director Q&A

QQ: How did the inclement weather on Friday and Saturday morning affect your preparations for a dry race?
SM: It did have some bearing in that we had some new parts that we wanted to test but couldn’t due to the bad weather. We will now run them in Budapest. Everything else, including work on set-up, tyres and cooling, was covered off in Friday afternoon’s session.

Q: The FW32 featured more updates at Hockenheim. What were they and how did they affect performance?
SM: We had revised diffusers on both cars this weekend. They worked well and demonstrably improved both drivers’ lap times.

Q: For the second time in three races you had both cars in Q3, but neither could match their Q2 times. Why was that?
SM: Both cars had great runs in Q2. Off the back of that, we thought we could achieve 7th and 8th in Q3. However, both Rubens and Nico’s Q3 times were compromised by too much understeer towards the end of their fastest laps, so we only managed 8th and 10th places.

Q: Both drivers made poor starts. Was that simply down to being on the dirty side of the grid, or did they have technical issues?
SM: It was a combination of the two. Both drivers were on the dirty side of the grid while our overall ability to get off the line was impeded. We didn't have any technical issues per se, so we need to work hard to improve our starts.

Q: Nico stayed on the super-soft tyre until lap 34. How did the rubber hold up and, in
hindsight, was it the best strategy for him?
SM: Nico did a long opening stint, perhaps a couple of laps too long. We had nothing to lose running him on that strategy because he was going to drop out of the points anyway. We took the risk of a longer stop in case of a safety car event, which would have benefited him, but that never materialised.

Q: Looking ahead to Hungary, what can we expect from the FW32?
SM: We have some further upgrades for Hungary. The team are working hard to bring continual improvements to the cars for each and every race. We will have the same target that we’ve had all season – both cars in the top ten in qualifying and points for both at the end of the race.

Championship Tables After 11 of 19 Races

Drivers
1 L Hamilton 	157
2 J Button 		143
3 M Webber 	136
4 S Vettel 		136
5 F Alonso 	123
6 N Rosberg 	94
7 R Kubica 	89
8 F Massa 	85
11 R Barrichello 	29
17 N Hulkenberg 	2

Constructors
1 McLaren 	300
2 Red Bull Racing 	272
3 Ferrari 		208
4 Mercedes GP 	132
5 Renault 		96
6 Force India 	47
7 AT&T Williams 	31
8 BMW Sauber 	15
9 Toro Rosso 	10
10 Lotus Racing 	0