After achieving so much glory on track at the Race of Champions, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel are celebrating again as Germany has now won the race to host the event itself.
The annual end-of-season competition brings together the an invitational grouping of many of the world's greatest drivers from all motorsport's disciplines and sets them free to battle head-to-head in identical machinery. In recent years it has been held at the Stade de France in Paris (2004-2006), London's Wembley Stadium (2007-2008) and Beijing's "Bird's Nest" National Stadium (2009). This year, the Race of Champions is returning to European soil and the city of Düsseldorf – to the delight of the team that has all but made the ROC Nations Cup its own.
"It's going to be very exciting to see the Race of Champions in Germany, particularly as Sebastian and I have won the Nations Cup for the last three years," commented Schumacher. "So this is a great opportunity and a fantastic decision from the organizers. I'm really looking forward to defending our title in front of our home crowd. In the individual event we'll all be fighting for ourselves so it will be interesting to see who does better. It's always a fun event to meet up with our colleagues but you take it seriously inside the cars."It is special to do this kind of event in front of your home crowd,' said Vettel. 'It will be a unique experience and hopefully Michael and I will get a lot of support. We have a good mix of youth and experience and we'll try to defend our title but we know it won't be easy as the others are always pushing. Last year in the individual race I had a shunt in the semi-final so hopefully I can finally make it into that final and get a good result. Either way it's a great way to end the season. All the drivers always have a lot of fun together at this event, where there are always jokes behind the scenes.'
"It is special to do this kind of event in front of your home crowd," concurred Vettel. "It will be a unique experience and hopefully Michael and I will get a lot of support. We have a good mix of youth and experience and we'll try to defend our title, but we know it won't be easy as the others are always pushing.
"Last year in the individual race, I had a shunt in the semi-final so, hopefully, I can finally make it into that final and get a good result. Either way it's a great way to end the season. All the drivers always have a lot of fun together at this event, where there are always jokes behind the scenes"