By Michelin Sport
July 19 2005

This weekend's German Grand Prix will be the 53rd to count towards the world championship - and the seventh of Formula One's glut of eight mid-season races in the space of 11 weekends. The race was first added to the calendar in 1951, when it took place over 20 laps of the classic, 14.150-mile Nurburgring Nordschleife. Present host Hockenheim - famous for its vast, lively, spectator-filled stadium - staged its first world championship race in 1970 and became the German GP's regular home in 1977, after F1 abandoned the original Nurburgring on safety grounds. The race has since been held elsewhere only once - in 1985, when it took place at the updated, shorter Nurburgring (nowadays the GP of Europe's customary base).

Hockenheim, which lies close to the cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg, underwent a radical change of its own in 2002, when the circuit's long, forest-lined straights were axed in favour of a more compact, 2.842-mile layout.

Since its introduction to the world championship, the German GP has only once been staged away from Hockenheim or the Nurburgring: in 1959 it took place at Avus, near Berlin.

Michelin has won the event three times - in 1984 (Alain Prost), 2001 (Ralf Schumacher) and 2003 (Juan Pablo Montoya). In last season's corresponding fixture, Jenson Button was Michelin's highest finisher. He charged through the field to take second place after starting 13th.

"With a number of quick corners and its slower, slippery stadium section, Hockenheim is a track that tends to heat up rear tyres fairly quickly," explains Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director, "although the same is true of all high-speed circuits. This is something we have to keep a very close eye on - and it is quite hard find to strike a good balance. The nature of the track and the high temperatures - always a factor in July - would take their toll on softer tyres, so our partners focused on compounds from the middle sector of our range during pre-German Grand Prix tests.

"Since the beginning of the season, our tyres have been competitive whatever the weather, warm or cool. This weekend, we hope our partner teams will once again have tyres ideally suited to the conditions."