F1 | Toro Rosso, Hartley ready to return to the car after the Silverstone accident: "Hockenheim is a great track"

Everything is ready at Toro Rosso for the German Grand Prix, the eleventh round of the 2018 Formula One World Championship. After the latest missteps committed by Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley, with the latter responsible among other things for a very bad accident in Great Britain, the Scuderia di Faenza is ready to relaunch itself on the Hockenheimring track, an event which, at least on paper, should favor the technical characteristics of the STR13. The objective will be to bring both cars back into the points, so as to shake up the situation regarding the constructors' classification.

Here are the words of Pierre Gasly: ​​“It was nice to be able to rest. I returned to Rouen, the city where I was born, and there I was able to watch the World Cup final in front of the barbecue. I watched the match with great interest, I was really tense, almost as if I were playing myself or like before leaving for an F1 race! We managed to put the second star on our shirt, I'm very happy! After the match we went into the city to celebrate with all the French fans and seeing all those people singing in the streets and enjoying the moment was great. I think it was the first time in my life in front of all those people in my city, it seemed like the population had suddenly doubled!”

“After three intense weeks, it was great to be able to spend a weekend with my friends and family, it gave me the opportunity to recharge to face the next two races in succession”, he continued. “At Hockenheim I ran my first Formula Renault 2.0 race, where I qualified second, on the front row next to Stoffel Vandoorne. The last time I raced there was in GP2, in 2016. I was having a good race, but my fire extinguisher opened on the straight, flooding the cockpit with smoke and, for safety reasons, I was disqualified. Up to that point it had been a good race."

“The Hockenheim track has a lot of history behind it. The stadium section is the one I like the most, it's very technical and really fun to ride. I would like to go and see the old part of the track, with those long and impressive straights and the chicane that led back to the pits"he concluded.

Here are the words of Brendon Hartley: “It was nice to have a few days off after three races in a row and I hope all the other team members were able to switch off a bit too. I spent a couple of days mountain biking in the UK, enjoyed the weather, but soon it was time to get back to work, with a day in the simulator to prepare for the German Grand Prix."

“I raced at Hockenheim in the Formula 3 Euro Series, I have to say it's a nice track. I like returning to these classic circuits which have a lot of history, even if we no longer race on the two very long straights in the middle of the forest. I would have loved to try this experience! The final part with the grandstand in the Motodrom section has a fantastic atmosphere when it is full of fans. The track has a bit of everything: Turn 1 is tackled at high speed and also uses the curb, while the final sector is very technical, where there is also a banked section, a rarity in modern Formula 1 circuits. The combination of the very fast and technical parts makes every lap really interesting.", he added.