There is definitely something special about returning to the Nürburgring. F1 thrives on is history and nowhere does that history feel closer than at the grand old tracks of Europe. The modern GP Circuit at the Nürburging is a coda tucked away at the bottom of the famous old Nordschleife but the place has the vibe, and from the paddock, looking up to the castle and the occasional patch of asphalt appearing through the trees, you really feel it. While the village of Nürburg didn’t quite contain the chaos it usually does when F1 is in town, the walls of our hotel, decorated with pictures and mementoes of the teams and drivers that have stayed here, gave everyone a very comfortable sense of history – and also a very nice steak cooked on a hot stone.

It isn’t unusual to see foggy mornings in Formula 1. When we’re racing in the mountains, or at early/late season events it’s quite common, and poor visibility grounding the medical helicopter is a condition that pops up from time to time. It’s rare to have it last for the whole session and unique to have it last all day – but that’s what happened at the Nürburgring this weekend. The fog didn’t burn off, the heli couldn’t safely get over the Eifel to the designated hospital in Koblenz, and so Friday practice didn’t happen. It’s a curious situation for a race team because they’re really not prepared for idleness – but with the cars built and ready to go, the garage spotlessly clean and tidy, there’s very little to do except drink coffee and occasionally glance up at the sky.

Temperature rather than fog was the meteorological factor occupying everyone’s minds in the lead-up to the weekend. F1 tends to follow the sun, so the occasional chilly day is a rarity – and a cold weekend practically unknown. It has practical considerations beyond everyone having to dig out their jackets and beanies. This weekend had the look and feel of winter testing. The cars were stripped of their bodywork and had heaters installed to keep power unit components warm between fire-ups in the garage, and, when the cars did run, set-ups were tweaked to ensure there was plenty of heat being radiated from the brakes into the wheel rims. It really did feel like February in Barcelona.

The conditions are the same for everyone – but the impact of losing Friday varies from team to team. This weekend it caused us some serious problems. With a new aerodynamic package ready to go, the plan was to compare the old and the new across the two cars on Friday morning, then pick the best one to carry forward for the rest of the weekend. It didn’t happen that way, and the team opted to gather their data at the sharp end of the weekend, with Carlos running the new spec and Lando the old. That was tough on Carlos who had to cope with a car not quite dialled-in yet – but it’s valuable learning for the rest of the year.

The big screens on the garage walls carry the same world feed as the one everyone watches at home and, in between the sessions, they’re usually tuned to Sky Sports F1. This weekend, with Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen – former McLaren drivers – both approaching significant personal milestones, there were plenty of highlights packages featuring the McLaren team as it was in the first decade of the 21st century. As is the case whenever this happens, the garage survivors from that era get a big dose of nostalgia – but also a few slightly more arch comments from their younger colleagues about the leisurely pace of pitstops back in the day – and the retreat of their hairlines.

Both drivers sported unique, self-designed helmets this weekend, helping us mark World Mental Health Day with our charity partner Mind. The drivers hand-painted their designs which were then professionally transferred to their helmets. Carlos’ design looks like he’s a devotee of the Jackson Pollock school of Abstract Art with a drip and splatter technique; Lando’s looks to be inspired by flow vortices seen in CFD. Find out more here.

Lando didn’t have a lot of luck with his power units on Sunday. The original unit was replaced in the morning after engineers spotted a few worrying signs in their data from qualifying. The replacement started losing power part-way through the grand prix. TV broadcast the radio conversation of race engineer Mark Temple telling Lando he had to clear error codes after every corner – but in the background there was a huge effort from to isolate the problem and find workable solutions. After a few laps of quite animated discussions between the pitwall, Renault’s staff in the backroom, and the team in Mission Control things settled down – and even started to look a little more promising – but eventually Lando was forced to retire. It’s one of those afternoons where the driver comes in thoroughly miserable and everyone gives him a pat on the back. It just wasn’t our afternoon.