f1buzz.net

No other Formula One driver has had to wait so long to score their first Grand Prix victory.  Rubens Barrichello took 124 starts, Jarno Trulli, 117 and Jenson Button, 113.  For Mark Webber it took 130 races and eight years but he finally did it.

And boy was he relieved.

We get a lot more of the radio communications being broadcast now and it’s always interesting to hear the conversations that go on between the teams and drivers.  During the race we hear drivers argue about whether to pit or not or give advice on which tyres to use next.

After the race the director always switches to the winning driver.  Usually there will be much congratulating between team and driver, perhaps with the occasional shout of victory, but of course it is being broadcast live so you can never be sure exactly what is going to be said.

For Mark Webber, as Martin Brundle commented, there was nothing scripted about his reaction to claiming his first Grand Prix victory and becoming only the third Australian ever to win in Formula One.

Best.  Radio communication.  Ever.

Image: Red Bull/Getty

As we posted last week, Nick Heidfeld is wearing a special helmet design for his home Grand Prix this weekend but he is not the only German on the grid and he is not the only one who brought a new helmet to the Nürburgring.

There are five German drivers and three of them will be wearing new lids.

Sebastian Vettel, who seems to like changing his helmet design, is wearing a new silver version while Heidfeld’s helmet was designed by a fan who won a competition on his website.

Timo Glock’s design came from a rather younger fan, though.  Panasonic ran a ‘Kids School’ competition to design a helmet for Timo to wear at the German Grand Prix and at the British Grand Prix, Glock studied the entries and selected a winner; six-year-old Tom Luca Hoffmann from Bad Lippspringe, around 400km north east of the Nürburgring.

Tom’s design features Glock driving his Toyota past cheering fans.  Glock said:

I was very impressed with Tom’s drawing because it is quite detailed even though he is only a young kid; that’s why I chose it. I’m looking forward to racing with it in front of my home fans and hopefully it will be a lucky charm!

Both Heidfeld and Glock will be auctioning their helmets for charity after the race.

The German Grand Prix, to be held at the Nürburgring on Sunday, will be the home Grand Prix for five drivers.

There are more Germans on the Formula One grid than any other nationality and this got me wondering how successful different countries have been in Formula One.  Which country has produced the most World Champions and which nationality has won the most races?

If we look at the number of Drivers’ Championships won then Britain tops the list with thirteen Championships won by nine different drivers.  Brazil comes a distant second with eight Championships split between Nelson Piquet (3), Ayrton Senna (3) and Emerson Fittipaldi (2).

Third and fourth places are each the result of a single driver that dominated their time in the sport.  Juan Manel Fangio won the Drivers’ Championship five times between 1951 and 1957, a record that stood until Michael Schumacher broke it on the way to his seven World Championships.

Drivers’ Championships won by nationality

Looking at the total number of races won, the Brits are even more dominant with almost twice the number of Grand Prix wins than the Germans in second place.

France moves up into fourth place and many more countries make the list, including Mexico.

Races won by nationality

This Mexican racing car driver was Pedro Rodríguez. His brother, Ricardo, also raced motorbikes and cars and the two of them were known as “The Little Mexicans”.

Pedro’s first F1 victory came in only his ninth race, in South Africa in 1967 and he went on to win again in Belgium in 1970.  He was a great all-round driver, competing in CanAm, NASCAR, rallies and even ice racing.  He won at Le Mans in 1968 in a Wyer-Gulf Ford GT40.

In 1971, when he was just 31 years old he was killed in a Ferrari 512M at the Norisring in Nuremberg, Germany.

The first hairpin at Daytona International Speedway is named the Pedro Rodriguez curve, and the Mexico City autodrome is named after him and his brother, who was also killed while practicing for the 1962 Mexican Grand Prix.

Continuing the tradition of drivers wearing special helmet designs for their home Grands Prix, Nick Heidfeld has chosen one of over 9000 designs fans submitted to his website to wear at the German Grand Prix next week.

At the British Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button both commissioned special helmet designs for their home race, although it didn’t seem to bring either of them much luck on the day.

The design by Hungarian fan Tamás Simon is made up entirely of circles and impressed Heidfeld and his helmet designer Jens Munser.  Heidfeld said:

This helmet stood out from all the rest. In fact, as soon as I saw it, I thought that it was a likely winner. My immediate impression was…’Wow!’

You can see Nick’s top 11 here.  As Heidfeld explains:

In the end, it was very difficult to limit the finalists to ten. That’s why we decided to go for a shortlist of eleven.

Thank god he didn’t choose the one with ears or the one with the big picture of his bearded face on the side.

After the race, the helmet will be donated to German television station RTL who will auction it off with proceeds going to the ‘Wir helfen Kindern’ charity.

You can submit bids by e-mail to auktion@spendenmarathon.de.

Despite all the off-track politics, we shouldn’t forget there is still a race on this weekend.

It could be the last British Grand Prix at Silverstone for some time and both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will be wearing special helmet designs for their home Grand Prix.

It is the first time Lewis Hamilton has altered the design of his famous yellow crash helmet for his home race since starting his grand prix career in 2007.

The design shows the top of his helmet peeling away to reveal a British flag underneath.  Hamilton said:

I’m really proud to be a British driver in a British team racing in front of the British crowd. I wanted to choose a design that not only showed that I am a British sportsman but, more importantly, recognised all the support I get from the fans at Silverstone.

Jenson Button, on the other hand, has a tradition of wearing a different helmet design for the British Grand Prix.  This year’s design was the result of a competition to give Jenson’s fans the opportunity to design a helmet that incorporated a British theme and Bernie Zobl’s ‘Push The Button’ design was the one chosen by Jenson.

Button commented:

For the last few years, it has become something of a tradition for me to have a special British themed helmet and this year is no exception. I wanted my fans to be involved so we ran a competition on my website www.jensonbutton.com and chose the winning design by Bernie. What I loved about Bernie’s design was its unique take on the Union Jack flag and how he had incorporated it into my own Button logo. The helmet looks great and I can’t wait to wear it at Silverstone this weekend.

More pictures of Jenson Button’s helmet are below.

Images: McLaren, Brawn GP