From the twisty German Nurburgring circuit the teams head straight to Magny Cours in France for their second race in successive weeks, and that in itself will make the challenges at the French Grand Prix even more difficult to cope with. Atlas F1 Technical Writer Will Gray previews the tenth event of the season.

Click here for a track map of Magny Cours

From the twisty German Nurburgring circuit the teams head straight to Magny Cours in France for their second race in successive weeks, and that in itself will make the challenges at the French Grand Prix even more difficult to cope with. Fly-away races are one thing, but at least there is time to return to the factory, analyse the results from the last race, perhaps test somewhere in Europe, and then move onto the next circuit.

But after last weekend's European Grand Prix there has been no time to return the cars to the factory for their usual strip-down, clean, parts replacement, and re-build. Much of that had to be done in the Nurburgring garages last Sunday night and Monday morning - so the mechanics had little time to relax after the race.

The garage conditions made things more difficult for the teams as although the trucks and garage set-ups are a virtual home away from home, there is no substitute for the race bays in the factory to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

Once overhauled, the cars had to be loaded back into the trucks and driven down to Magny Cours where they will be unloaded again, and any spare parts that had to be flown in from the teams' respective countries will have arrived to allow the mechanics to get to work once more.

The whole process sees the usual six days which mechanics have to get their cars prepared for a race crammed down into two, and it does not create the perfect start to a Grand Prix weekend for them. But equally, the engineers' jobs are also detrimentally reduced in time, and after flying back to their respective factories on Sunday night there is no time in Formula One engineering for a break - especially in back-to-back races! The engineers have just four days to study the data from the last race, solve any problems, and prepare set-up plans for the French event.

However, the teams have tested their current machinery at Magny Cours almost a month ago, and that will have helped them gauge their set-up ideas well before even heading out to the Nurburgring, so there should be little difficulty in arriving in France with a reasonably planned set-up.

The time schedule is also difficult for development between races and one team which will suffer from this is Benetton. They have been awaiting their much anticipated improvement step since virtually the start of the season, and finally it will arrive in Magny Cours in the shape of a major engine development. However, the team was only able to evaluate a few of the improvements at the last test, at Silverstone before the European Grand Prix, and the first time they will see how this major step affects their performance will be in the first practice session in France on Friday.

Magny Cours itself is a circuit heavily based around fast flowing chicanes and slow to medium speed corners, so the teams will be expected to reduce the downforce on their cars from the high levels required for the Nurburgring. It should also benefit teams with strong engines and Williams could, therefore, be well up the front once again.

The surface is smooth and that allows the aerodynamics to work more consistently and ensures the teams can maximise their mechanical grip with spring and damper settings requiring less compromises to allow the tyre maximum road contact throughout the lap.

Michelin are looking good once more, having had a successful test at the circuit last month, and that will once again put the Williams cars in a prominent position, but the strategy in qualifying could be an extremely important factor in deciding the weekend's winner. That is because the grip around the smooth circuit is heavily dependant on the temperature and, in consequence, the cloud cover, and the timing of runs during the qualifying session will be of utmost importance as the variation throughout the hour could be extremely significant.

However, the race strategy is also going to be critical as there is little opportunity for overtaking manoeuvres, unless you are brave, other than into the hairpin at the end of the long back straight. That hairpin, however, provides an excellent opportunity to sneak in the inside and has seen some classic moves in the past, so watch out for some brave lunges down there.

In the last event, the lap times were significantly faster - Michael Schumacher was some 2.5 seconds faster than the pole position time from last year's Nurburgring qualifying. But that was down, in part, to the change in date which saw the race move towards the warmer German summer months.

There should not be such a significant decrease in times around the Magny Cours circuit this weekend, but keep an eye on last year's pole position time of 1:15.632, as if the conditions are right and the Michelins are as good as their teams are predicting, then that could be falling further on Saturday. The race lap record of 1:19.479 could also be in jeopardy, but Nigel Mansell's race lap record of 1:17.070, set in 1992, looks a tough one to beat.