Grand Prix 2016 Belgian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

People have different opinions about most of the F1 circuits but if there is something everybody agrees on is that SPA-Francorchamps circuit is great, for many their favourite.

How could it not, you've got the Ardennes forest, the very high speed, the ups and downs and iconic turns like La Source, Eau Rouge and Raidillon, Stavelot, Bus Stop. Could it be the motorsport heritage? For as long as cars have gone racing, Spa is associated with velocity. Of course at the turn of the 20th century they used the original circuit of 86km (or was it 118km?).

Even after it was shorten to 15km and then 7km, it kept its pedigree, its spirit. As the race comes closer, the anxiety continues to build in F1 fans; a 4-week summer break may be deserved for the drivers and teams but creates a void that cannot be filled with race reruns or silly season discussion. And it's mind-boggling that they have kept it as is but they've added more and more races (currently we are at 21) making each result of little relevance is the great scheme of things.

It is also Spa back in 1991 the race that saw the debut of F1 most successful driver ever, one Michael Schumacher. He never raced there before and went around the circuit in a bicycle to get to know it, before posting the best 7th time and running as high as 6th when his clutch gave up.

That was then but back to 2016, as it has been the case the past 3 years, Mercedes are the clear favourites. At the beginning of the year it seemed like this was going to be Nico Rosberg year, 4 victories in the first 4 races, a testimony of that, yet after his retirement in Spain the German has failed to recover his mojo and instead Lewis Hamilton seems destined to win his 4th championship (3rd in a row) with 6 victories in the last 7 races. It doesn’t seem likely that Rosberg is going to be a challenge for the remaining of the year which is a shame but confirms he’s not really a top-drawer driver.

Even though mathematically Mercedes can still lose the championship this year, it won’t happen and they have decided to go with a conservative approach to the race, having the fewest sets of supersoft tires. And why wouldn’t they, at the beginning of the year it seemed like Ferrari was mounting a challenge but they have clearly faded away. Also, after a stellar debut with the Scuderia last year, Sebastian Vettel seems to be at odds with the team. No longer have a quick smiled ear to ear but rather a wry one (if any); the German is conflicted by the lack of performance of his car and the off camera politics that are at play and seem to be more prevalent than ever. Almost the opposite can be said of Kimi Raikkonen who seemed to have recovered some of his flare, especially after his contract has been renewed for yet another year.

RedBull has taken over as the challenger to Mercedes but they are a few ways down the road when it comes to challenging the Silver Arrows. However the intra-team battle has been really interesting; Ricciardo the established lead and Max Verstappen the newcomer, very little separate them when it comes to qualifying and race results. If anything the young Dutch has allowed Daniel Ricciardo to shine again with superb performances in the past 2 races. Will the Aussie be able to capitalize and win a race this year? Let’s hope it is at Spa to mix it up a little bit.

Summer break also brought news of Manor racing demoting one of their drivers, Indonesian Rio Haryanto in favour of French DTM and F1 test driver Esteban Ocon, a moved caused by Haryanto’s inability to pay the 6.5 million pounds required to keep his seat. This in turn has lost Pertamina as Manor sponsor.

One of the best f1 weekends is just around the corner but the shadow of terrorism is upon it and the race organizers have made sure security takes centre stage. This is not really comforting for fans but it’s the new 2016 reality.

What are your predictions?
 
I normally enjoy Rosberg being booed, when he has earned it, but it was totally undeserved, he had a faultless race weekend, pissed nobody off, kept himself to himself and did genuinely seem to be being booed just for being Rosberg. None off the others were booed for 'not being Max' I can only guess there was a large British contingent at the race acting like they were at the football.
 
The Belgian GP winners and losers

Have to agree with the list

I think should take note of the losers

Ferrari
- They tangled which was clearly Vettel's fault and he's getting involved in a lot of these after Marchionne demanded results need to come
- Arrivabene avoided interviews post race
- Would another post season drastic reshuffling happen behind the scenes happen before 2017?

Vettel
- His stock is falling and I don;t see how he wants to stay beyond his contract unless say Adrian Newey joins

Verstappen
- The guy is so defiant a big accident is waiting to happen and perhaps it might end a drivers career or killing someone

- Someone needs to warn Max about driving responsibly... I am waiting for someone to accuse him of brake testing

Massa
- This is curtains for Felipe definitely if it aint Jenson there are other drivers ahead of him Williams want

Grosjean

- I missed the radio comment but he seems to have lost motivation ever Ferrari have decided to keep Kimi and/or Gutierez seemed to have snapped and got this mean streak where he is improving his own racing but also aggravating a lot of drivers

Williams

- I know they've got a limited budget but given their drivers and team experience they should be way ahead of Force India. Something is not working at Williams and not surprised if Button does not feel he need to do another season in the midfield.
- I am surprised Pat Symonds has not been able to get the team working in the right direction
 
I'm not sure the Turn 1 incident can be placed solely on Vettel - I think Verstappen must shoulder at least some of the blame while Raikkonen was completely innocent. Vettel very aggressively squeezed Raikkonen into the apex, while Verstappen dived for a gap that was always going to close.

Both Vettel and Verstappen were probably entitled to do what they did, but both of them were performing very risky manoeuvres. If only one of them made their risky move then there likely wouldn't have been any major incident, maybe a small amount of wheel banging but nothing more. But since both drivers did commit to the moves they essentially sandwiched Raikkonen between them, much like how Raikkonen and Kvyat sandwiched Vettel in China.



It is the things Verstappen did afterwards that really bothered me though. His attempts to get back to the pits while missing part of his front wing were ridiculous, he was all over the place and seemed to be off the circuit more often than he was on it. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if his floor damage came from one of these off-track adventures rather than the Turn 1 incident.

As for the two incidents at Les Combes... at Silverstone Vettel received a 5 second penalty for forcing Massa off circuit by also driving off the circuit himself. I was initially critical of this penalty, but in hindsight the penalty was justified and I was merely venting my frustrations with other aspects of that race (namely the ludicrously long safety car start). This set a precedent; forcing a driver off track on corner exit is fine but you must stay on track yourself. Verstappen twice forced a car off circuit at Les Combes by driving off the circuit himself; once to Raikkonen and once to Perez. The precedent set in Silverstone should have meant that Verstappen was due a penalty, two penalties in fact. Yet not only did he escape any penalties, neither incident was even investigated.

The swerve on the Kemmel Straight was outrageously dangerous and should have been grounds for a severe penalty. You can't make moves like that, especially not in an open wheeled race car that has a tendency to take off over the back of another car.


The worst part is that the lack of penalties tells Verstappen that he can get away with it, which is likely why we have seen a string of ridiculous moves from him in recent races. That is what, 8 questionable moves from him in the last 3 races? These are not isolated incidents any more, and if he was rightly penalised for most of these incidents then the penalty points on his licence would quickly force him to stop driving like a clown or face a race ban.
 
Max Verstappen was the bad boy last year in terms of penalty points but currently Gutierrez is leading in this year's standings due to his stupidity in getting in everyone's way
 
Off all the tracks left I think Monza and Suzuka could be the two most dangerous places to have high speed accidents giving the nature of their tracks where there are long straights and fast corners....

I think Max is in for a serious telling at the driver's briefing this Thursday and the Italian press might stir up things and paint him as some sort of villain
 
Il_leone - I think the run from Juncao to Turn 1 at Interlagos is also a particularly frightening place for such an incident to happen, with the pits low on one side and the stands high on the other.
 
Funny how perceptions change, isn't it? Up til now I've read a lot of "Max is amazing" stuff, and now he's the most dangerous thing on the circuit...

...look at it this way- they were hardly going to penalise the "saviour of the Belgian GP" at his "home" race, in front of the seas of adoring orange, were they? I'm also willing to bet that he drove the way he did out of frustration at cocking up his front row start in front of all his fans. Pressure does strange things to people.

As soon as he has a few clean races under his belt, this'll all be quietly brushed under the rug.
 
Max was definitely a bit naughty with his move to block Kimi, especially at those insane top speeds. But that movement and the timing of it was certainly no worse than Rosberg in Spain.

As long as his team is satisfied with the way he's going about racing I wouldn't expect a change. And I think they highly approve.
 
Well people were applauding that maneuver and decrying this one.

Hamilton was closing faster than Kimi and actually alongside the other car.

Why the vastly different reactions? (rhetorical question)
 
I think if it'd been Hamilton attempting the overtake then Verstappen would be having his huge crash.

As Brundle said about Senna, he put you in a position where you were going to crash if you carried on the overtake, Brundle would carry out the attempt and crash...

I get the impression that Verstappen does it to Räikkönen because he knows he's got him mentally.
 
Well people were applauding that maneuver and decrying this one.

Those people who were applauding Rosberg's maneuver were utter morons. I certainly didn't see any on this site. Plenty who said racing incident but no one clapping.

Can't we just bury that one as an argument from a few months ago that not everyone will agree on and just look at the current completely different in no way similar incident?
 
I think you will find a few drivers will start to find ways to rough Max up just to teach him a lesson. I don't expect any of the current drivers trying and force him towards the pitwall if they either raced him down the straight but they are ways to make a certain driver know his place
 
teabagyokel At Brazil touch wood the big crashes have usually happened at the top of the hill when drivers lose control hitting the wall usually in the wet . There has not been a big crash because the cars are already braking for the Senna S

Its more the run down to Skido dellago where we've seen a few wing losses as they race down to the twisty section that might get a bit dangerous
 
I get the impression that Verstappen does it to Räikkönen because he knows he's got him mentally.

There might be an element of truth to this. Throughout his career, particularly since his comeback Raikkonen has been extremely good at avoiding incidents through knowing when to back out. If Verstappen had tried some of his recent moves on a similarly reckless driver to himself, like Sainz for example, I suspect we would have seen at least one accident. Up to this point Raikkonen has been very good at avoiding any accidents with Verstappen, but he is not perfect and sooner or later Verstappen is either going to pull his "tricks" on the wrong driver or Raikkonen will fail to avoid him.
 
Formula One: Raikkonen and Vettel should be "ashamed"- Verstappen

Here is the article Verstappen blaming Vettel and Raikkonen for ruining his race into turn one.

This includes admitting deliberate making life hard for them and saying if turn one had not happened then he would not have been so aggressive with Raikkonen

Maybe Max deserves a slap in the face for making a rubbish start and then desperately lunging down the inside at La Source which was very tight anyway

But his admission he was :censored: off to drive that aggressively and pushed Raikkonen deliberately Come on this is Formula One not Nascar or Demolition Derby


I am thinking if next year's F1 cars are going to be tougher and more demanding to drive. He might be found out being unable to sustain such pace and concentration and more prone to make more rash moves
 
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