The German Grand Prix will sadly not be a part of the real F1 season in 2015 (and its long term future is in doubt too), but here on the Wii game diary, it remains a fixture – in real life the 2010 German Grand Prix would be held at Hockenheim, but the game cannot replicate the alternating fixture system, so it’s back to the Nurburgring.
The track has 15 corners, most of which are quite fast, and the track also has several fast straights, making it a circuit for speed more than anything else. In practice I wanted to see how the tyres held up (for the 2009 season this race was crucial in affecting my long-term tyre strategy from Hungary onwards), so I did prolonged stints on the soft tyre to test its durability.
I decided that the soft tyre could manage around 15 laps, so in a 60-lap race that would translate to 45 laps on the soft tyre, and only one mandatory 15 lap stint on the hard tyre. However, by 15 laps the soft tyre (especially the front tyre) was starting to seriously degrade, hampering my lap times considerably, so I had to come up with something else.
The result was to 21 laps on the hard tyre, and then shorter runs on the soft tyre after that. This would also mean less fuel for each soft tyre run, increasing my overall speed.
In qualifying I did overcook things a few times going through corners 8 and 9 (you don’t want to catch the kerb!) and the chicane (turns 13 and 14) would also offer up a challenge if you hit the brakes too late.
Nevertheless, when I got a good lap in, it was enough for pole position.
The race itself saw me slip down to third at the start (I just cannot get good starts) and trailed Trulli (the surprise leader) and Button for several laps, though thankfully not by much. I would close them down eventually, and would also pull away quite well from fourth-placed Rosberg.
I took the lead briefly when the first two pitted, then came in for my first stop, and slipped back down again, but this time, I was on the soft tyre, and would catch the leaders again swiftly. I wasn’t able to quite get away in first at the second stops but by the time we all pitted for the third and final time, I had built up enough of a gap to rejoin in the lead, where I would go on to close off the race and take a seventh win in nine races. Traffic, as usual, helped me to catch those ahead of me (the AI just can’t handle backmarkers) and also helped me to open up a good lead. I was some 28 seconds ahead of Button at the end of the race, and now have a 15 point lead in the championship race, whereas after Germany last time, I was 3 points behind.
The next race in the 2009 season started a good run for me. I won in Hungary, Belgium and Italy last season, so provided I keep composed, I should be able to extend my championship lead still further. Will have to wait and see.
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