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.
 
I've been reading a bit about the new clutch rules and from what I understand it doesn't really hand control back to the drivers. It means once they leave the Pitlane with their chosen bite point they can't readjust it. The drivers actually just do the same as ever. So if the selected clutch setting is not to their liking when they try a start leaving the pits, it's tough,mtheyre stuck with it.
This isn't what I initially thought with the talk about control going back to drivers. I found this out by reading this article.

Clutches and Race Starts for Dummies

Still could be interesting
 
The acclimatisation to the new start procedure will take place with the two of the three* most dangerous starts in Formula One, as well! Not the best timing ever!

*Ste. Devote.
 
A few stalls for the formation lap(s) would delay the start nicely and bring the scheduled precipitation into play. Quite a few ifs there though.
 
What the hell happened to Williams this weekend? In Hungary their poor performance was down to the fact that they lack downforce. We go to a fast circuit and they get blown away on the straights by cars with a Renault engine.
 
What the hell happened to Williams this weekend? In Hungary their poor performance was down to the fact that they lack downforce. We go to a fast circuit and they get blown away on the straights by cars with a Renault engine.

They ran with a high downforce setup for... some reason.
 
The number of cars running all four wheels outside the track limits at the top of Eau Rouge was rediculous. With that many cars doing it, there must have been a speed advantage from taking that line. Aren't they supposed to get a penalty if they get a perceived advantage from exceeding the track limits??

The sollution is simple, if a car exceeds the track limits without reasonable excuse (eg slides off, avoiding an accident or getting bumped) it's a penalty. End of.
 
FB I simply belief the drivers as good as they are they are not world class.

You could say they don't have the budget to compete but they don't take the most of their opportunities when presented to them like in Austria last year and Silverstone this year

It appears they did not make any headway in the summer break and lost ground to Red Bull, Lotus and Force India. Their practice form where they were outside top 10 may have contributed to changing their set up

They were worried about the middle sector so put more downforce on the car which did not impede them over 1 lap but over a whole race it meant they were destroying the tyres quickly. It shows they are far too reliant on the Merc engine power.


It concerns me that you have Rob Smedley and Pat Symonds in your engineering team them both of whom have worked for championship winning team that they are not able to turn things around at Williams on the technical side. It just seems that being first of the losers is acceptable for Williams
 
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