Beleaguered Williams looking for a boost at Hockenheim

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The struggling Williams team is hoping that this weekend's German Grand Prix will give their fans something to cheer about.

Currently, Williams is at the bottom of the constructors championship with just four points courtesy of Lance Stroll's top ten finish in Baku.

With the pressure on at Grove, some success at the Hockenheimring on Sunday would be a huge boost to the team.

"I like this track, and it should suit our car better than other tracks have done," insisted the team's Russian rookie Sergey Sirotkin, who is yet to finish in the top ten this season.

"It will be exciting to see what our recent upgrades can bring us before the summer break," he added. "It will be an important weekend for the team and I am looking forward to it."

Because the German Grand Prix was missing from last year's calendar, this will be Lance Stroll's first Grand Prix at the iconic circuit. However, he has raced here before in junior categories.

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"This is a cool track that has a great flow and I know it really well," he said. "I have very fond memories of driving there and it has always treated me well.

"I have won three races there in the past and our Formula 3 car always worked pretty well there.

"I have not seen an F1 race there, but I’m told that the atmosphere in the stadium section is electric," he added.

"The town itself is not much of a place and usually there is not much happening there. But I am sure that will be very different when the F1 fans get back there after not having had a German race for two years!"

The team's chief technical officer was also looking forward to getting back to Hockenheim this week.

"It’s a place we enjoy racing," he said. "It's an important circuit in Formula 1 history, as well as being the home of our partner Mercedes.

"It produces some great racing, so I hope we can put on a good show for the fans.

"The German fans always come out in force, which gives the stadium section a great atmosphere come race day."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.