After years of working in F1, Ann Bradshaw knows very well a home Grand Prix can make a local driver or team go from zero to hero as well as viceversa. In this week's column, Ann looks at the heroes and villians of last weekend's European Grand Prix

A home Grand Prix is a very special event. Nigel Mansell always reckoned the home crowd was worth about a second a lap and that people power would propel any driver across the finishing line. In many ways the pressure is so intense that you cannot help but feel sorry for the drivers who have the pressure of expectation from the crowds of home fans.

Anyway, I do not feel sorry for Michael Schumacher because if he felt the pressure on Sunday he certainly did not show it. He did what he had to do in front of his home crowd and won the European Grand Prix on the German Nurburgring's track. He never looked threatened and from the moment the red lights went out to the moment the chequered flag appeared he drove a text book race. "I made a good start and then basically brought the car home safely," was perhaps the understatement of the race. Easy is a word that springs to mind, but then if you do things the right way then they should be easy.

However, if you get things wrong at your home Grand Prix then rather than just being seen as another bad day at the office, your mistakes seem to be magnified a hundred times. Expectations are high and if you get a home goal or foul up in front of the home fans they can turn on you in a second. If you win, you are their hero; if you mess up in a big way, then you are the villain of the day.

I am sure both BMW and Mercedes, two very German companies, are feeling like villains today. Mercedes managed to get through more engines over the weekend than Michael did visor tear off strips, while the two drivers with BMW power behind them managed to run into each other at the first corner.

While the Williams team's debacle in turn one that saw Ralf Schumacher retire and Juan Pablo Montoya pit for a new nose cone can be considered as unfortunate in the best light and foolhardy in the worst, the fact that both Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard retired with a plume of engine smoke out of the back of their McLaren cars can only be described as a total disaster for the engine manufacturer. This was even more unfortunate in the light of the fact David had to start from the back of the grid after his car had yet another engine failure in the first qualifying run.

I often hear the ITV race commentators say they have been told off by a Mercedes person for getting retirement reasons wrong. They are often told firmly that certain retirements were not down to engines, but it was another totally unrelated reason. I remember McLaren having this problem in the days of Peugeot engines. They had the most unreliable gearboxes I can remember in the sport, or so we were led to believe. I have not seen any newspapers this morning saying anything other than it was engine failure that caused the two cars to come to a halt. Honesty is certainly the best policy in such circumstances. I am sure, however, Norbert Haug, the boss of the motorsport division, does not feel this today. I feel sorry for him at the moment and looking back over my motorsport career I wish I had been nicer to him back in the 70s when I was an Autosport journalist and he was our German correspondent.

I used to mercilessly hassle him on a Monday for his copy and if I had known then what I know now I would have perhaps been a little more sympathetic. If the expectation of the German public and his paymasters at Mercedes was not enough to cope with for this race, just remember who was being heralded before the season as the person who was going to take the battle to Michael. Yes, you are right, Kimi was the man to save F1 from Ferrari domination. Well now his team boss, Ron Dennis is reduced to admitting: "Lack of reliability is linked with our efforts to become competitive as quickly as possible."

While BMW Motorsport Director, Dr Mario Theissen,s not having to explain to his bosses at BMW why his engine did not last, I am sure he is not a happy person considering the public way the two drivers had a coming together. This is not what you want to see when you are spending millions to let them rush round in circles 18 times a year. You want them to get those cars to the end of the race if humanely possible and surely it cannot be too difficult to instil in them the importance of lasting the race.

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the Williams team's garage when they were being asked why they had to crash into each other. This is not the first time this has happened, and you must believe the team are now hoping it may be the last. It was difficult for me to see on TV what was really going on but the press release said it all. A racing accident was what Ralf, Juan Pablo and even new Technical Director, Sam Michael, called it. While a foul up at a home race is unfortunate, an accident with one's own teammate is very embarrassing. We see lots of accidents involving drivers. We applauded Takuma Sato for having a go in his BAR to get by Rubens Barrichello in his Ferrari. His team boss, David Richards even said: "The lad is a hero. He's a racer and gave it a go. At least we're taking on the Ferraris." I wonder what his reaction would have been if he had gone off having at go at Jenson Button!

I was again forced to watch this race away from the comfort of my own home. This weekend my travels took me to the Czech Republic where the 'other' BMW teams were doing a lot better. It was the half way mark in the FIA European Touring Car Championship at the wonderful Brno circuit and it was a BMW 320i that won both races. This track has a lot in common with the Nurburgring. It used to be a very, very long road circuit and was the scene of some classic races. While there was never a Formula One race there, there have been some great drivers taking to the track. The BMW Team Deutschland team in the FIA ETCC is run by one of the most experienced team managers in the business, Charly Lamm.

The then youthful Bavarian first visited this amazing circuit as a time keeper for the Schnitzer Team in 1971. He then went back in the eighties with the BMW 635CSi, a car still considered as one of the best touring cars ever. His vivid memories of this time which must have been magical include: "We went there with this car between '83 and '86. We had some wild and interesting times when Gerhard Berger and Roberto Ravaglia were sharing the car in '84, '85 and '86. The track at that time was extremely fast, with very fast, blind corners through a village. It was exactly the kind of circuit which the young Gerhard Berger needed to prove his skills as a racing driver. I have some very special memories of Gerhard qualifying the BMW 635CSi against the mighty Jaguars and Rovers of Tom Walkinshaw." Just seeing the look that comes into Charly's eyes when he thinks back to this time makes one want to have been there.

Anyway, back to F1. The teams are now getting ready to rush across the Atlantic for the double header in Montreal and Indianapolis. The calendar means there is very little time for them to gather their cargo for the trip, but they are still finding time for the annual Silverstone test session this week. I shall be going along to look after some sponsors on behalf of Andy Priaulx, the driver of the BMW GB FIA ETCC car.

I am looking forward to this as it is quite a time since I have seen F1 cars in the flesh. I always enjoy being with newcomers to the sport as they are usually taken aback at how clean the garages are, and how small both the cars and drivers are. It is also one of the few occasions when the public can get a glimpse of their heroes. Also along for a couple of these days are several of the 'boys' from the Formula BMW UK Championship. Part of their Education and Coaching programme is a visit to an F1 test. I can't wait to hear what they think after the day out. I hope they are blown away by it all and it makes them even more determined to be F1 drivers.

I also hope they realise that they will be very privileged as they will get into the inner sanctum - the F1 garage. I suppose this will be the equivalent of a young tennis player standing on centre court at Wimbledon or young golfer teeing off at St Andrews. We all have our dreams and I hope these youngsters will be able to realise one of theirs next week.

About the author:
Ann Bradshaw - Annie - began her motor racing career as a teenager, helping out her brother in local rally races in England, where she grew up. In the 1970s she organised motor racing events in England, and was later the press officer for the RAC MSA - the motorsport governing body in Britain. In mid 1980s, she became press officer to team Lotus, where she worked with Ayrton Senna. Shortly after, she moved to the Williams team and was working there for several years, when once again she found herself working with Senna. She worked with Damon Hill after the Brazilian's death, and moved with the British Champion to Arrows. She also worked with the Panoz team in the United States, before becoming a freelance press officer, now working with BMW among others. Annie joined Atlas F1 as a regular columnist in April 2002.

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