Grand Prix 2015 Belgian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

So the second half of the F1 season will start with the epic race through the Ardennes forest that is Spa-Francorchamps. The track has more iconic corners and sections than most of the rest of the F1 tracks have put together. What would a modern F1 season be without a race here? Well I guess it would be 2003 or 2006 but lets forget those and say how F1 would not be F1 without a race here. The teams certainly enjoy it and after they've all be sunning themselves on beaches for the last month (apart from Ferrari of course who have secretly been developing parts with Haas in America....allegedly) so they will be raring to go. No one will want it to come round quicker that Mercedes who had a bit of a nightmare in Hungary. Both their drivers have a reputation of losing heart after a bad result and dropping form so they'll be hoping that things run smoothly in the first part of the weekend and they start to get back in the control position they have sat in for most of the season. With Ferrari winning the race on pure pace last time out though both the team and drivers will be forgiven for looking curiously over their shoulder. Is it possible that Ferrari could mount a second half of the season championship challenge? Vettel certainly seems to have got a sniff of it.

Away from the front pair with have a Red Bull team who will probably be depressed as hell that their form of double podium last time out will sink into nothingness as their engine power lets them down and dumps them back into the pack. Whilst they've had a lot of stick off everyone for how they keep complaining about the Renault engines after seeing how good their chassie was at a track that doesn't require as much engine grunt you start to see their point. Wherever they are in the field Danii Kvyat will hope he continues to take little chunks out of Ricciardo's points lead on him. The young Russian will be on a high after his first podium and he showed in GP3 days he's pretty good round Spa. That's not to say Ricciardo isn't on form though, he had a great race last time out, but he really needs to work on those starts. In the Red Bull B team the fight between Sainz and Verstappen will continue. Verstappen has the points upper hand after his 4th in Hungary but Sainz has usually come out on top on this one.

Will the McLaren revival be dead on arrival? Great results in Hungary but I can't see the Honda engine doing too well on the long straights of Spa and Monza. However both have been known to have a high attrition rate through crashes so maybe if the McLaren keeps it clean and tidy they'll continue to pick up points. That means from a McLaren point of view they have to hope Pastor Maldonado carries on as he has been doing for the Enstone team. 4 penalties in one race I think is a record for F1 and surely we are approaching a 1 race ban for Crashtor. It can't be doing Enstone any favours in the cash department either especially as they are supposed to be broke. They at least have Grosjean quietly doing a good job though. Williams should be on strong form at Spa but you never really sure which Williams you're going to get on race day. I'm sure they'll make it their priority to not get involved in a race with the Mercs but whether they can mix it up with the Ferrari's is anyones guess. One man who will probably be mixing it up in the top 10 as long as his car holds together is Nico Hulkenberg. Hulkenberg seems to have re-discovered his appetite for F1 after his Le Mans win. The other curve ball into the F1 mix at Spa might be Manor. The decision still hasn't been made on whether they will run their 2015 car with the 2015 Ferrari engine. If they decide to it could bump them up the field a bit and make everyone have to be on their toes in Q1.

I hope the run of good races F1 has will continue with this one but once again I can't see past a Hamilton pole and cruise to victory. Mind you I said that at Hungary.
 
No you are probably right on that one. I read as 50% them saying Pastor is and idiot and 50% lets not upset Mercedes because they are annoyed with us enough as it is re: none payment.
 
According to Joe Saward's blog today Titch it's a bit more complicated than that. There appears to be dome feverish acticity on the part of Einstone to speed up the process of getting Renault to buy them back. Which would definitely be a game-changer on several pooints. First of all because Renault's financial muscle would turn the sum demanded by Charles Pic into a bag of peanuts but also because longer term it would encourage the return of former enginers. They're already talking of Bob bell being back at the helm on the technical side and Alain Prost as chairman. It would also mean that the money Maldonado brings might no longer be required.

But for all that to happen Lotus would first of all need to either pay off Pic or enter into tempory administration.

My notebook at Spa
 
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Brundle's take on Vettel's tyre blowout.

I said to my Sky F1 colleagues immediately after Nico Rosberg's tyre blowout in practice that my 'nose' was telling me the teams needed to pay attention, despite all the apparent reasons and rationale. Speeds are progressively up, pole position was the fastest since 2010. In the sunshine, the track was continually rubbered in by the various categories and never once washed or made 'green'. With more power, downforce and weight, these cars are punishing their own structural integrity as well as the tyres.

Through Eau Rouge, the vertical load applied to each rear tyre is one tonne. Throw in some kerbs and bumps and that's a lot of load.

Now tyres shouldn't fail, and nor for that matter should front wings or suspension, but they always have (ask Nigel Mansell, or any other racing driver for that matter) and likely always will.

I'm not making excuses for Pirelli - they can defend and justify themselves - but let's not pretend what happened to Vettel is a new issue. For Pirelli, Michelin (Indianapolis 2005...), Bridgestone or Goodyear.

...

Tyre manufacturers will always operate on the side of caution with temperatures, pressures and dynamic camber settings. On the other hand, teams will always push everything to the extreme. That's a perennial problem which probably goes back as far as Ben Hur and his wheelmaker.

Martin Brundle: F1 enjoys Spa treatment as Hamilton looks unbeatable
 
I haven't had a chance to read too much since Spa. It's all part of the same problem of track limits I guess.
 
Once again, just get rid of the kerbs, have a narrowish very slippery bit so they have to slow down and then a wide piece of tarmac which will get them back by a devious route. Then if they exceed track limits it costs them time.
 
Bill Boddy

As far as I'm concerned, it's much simpler than that; simply have a spotter on every corner of the track - this could even be done automatically with cameras.

If any car has all 4 wheels over the white line, they receive an automatic black and orange flag, and told to return to the pits to have their car inspected. Failure to do so will result in instant disqualification.
 
But it's not a mechanical problem, The Artist..... the correct flag, per FIA regulations, is a black/white flag (unsportsmanlike conduct). If they ignore the penalty and keep driving, they then would be black-flagged (disqualified).
 
The meatball flag is intended to indicate damage that is not apparent to the driver, but is apparent to marshals, for example, exhaust pipes hanging off the car, bodywork deflected in a driver's blind spots, or a vehicle trailing fluids. Using it any way other than intended will dilute its meaning and importance, and that could become a major safety issue. Using it to send someone to pit lane for 'suspicion' of damage skirts dangerously close to turning it into an alternate penalty system, and is ripe for abuse by unscrupulous marshals.

Going off-track/outside track limits is merely a violation of rules, and as such, the rules dictating which flags are to be shown state that it would be a black/white penalty flag.
 
I still fail to see that asking a driver to return to the pits to be checked for damage/repaired is any different from holding out a flag, asking them to return to the pits to have damage checked/repaired
 
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