Grand Prix 2014 Belgian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The Formula One season hosts its greatest irony every August; that its race in Belgium is famous and successful partly because it is built into the side of a hill. And while the supposed difficulty of naming 5 famous Belgians is a cliché, naming 5 famous corners at Spa is easy. Pouhon, Stavelot, Blanchimont, Bus Stop and La Source, for example. There's a lot of debate about that other corner's difficulty in 2014's F1 cars, but Eau Rouge is and always will be an inspiring sight.

The battle at the front is, as always likely to involve Mercedes cars. Lewis Hamilton has won the Belgian Grand Prix a number of times more than 0 and less than 3 in the past, but will surely hope to actually be in with a sniff of victory after Saturday's qualifying session. Rosberg's run of poles has been rather unchallenged more recently, but his last few opposed sessions have also resulted in starts from the front. He has an 11 point lead to defend, which makes this rather more fun than certain other teams dominating.

Who is most likely to challenge? Or, even more likely, finish third? Well, on a high-speed circuit such as this, Mercedes customers surely must stand a massive advantage, meaning Williams in particular look likely to take out that second row, unless more poor prime tyre work as they did in Hungary. It is traditionally Force India's best chance to take the good points at Spa and Monza too, so watch out for them.

Red Bull and Ferrari are, as usual, most likely to lead the charges for their respective engines. Ferrari seem to have decided to coincide their perennial bloodletting with their best result of the season, which is an odd choice, while Seb Vettel will be hoping to come good on the promise of the last two weeks and finally start to beat Ricciardo. It is a better circuit for the Bulls than Christian Horner would have you believe.

With the chance of rain never zero and a range of corners guaranteed to entertain, the Belgian Grand Prix is a perennial highlight, long may it reign, and lets hope 2014 will be as good as some of the great moments of Spas gone by.
 
There's a lot of debate about that other corner's difficulty in 2014's F1 cars, but Eau Rouge is and always will be an inspiring sight.

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Now that you mention it, Eau Rouge will be of particular interest this year.
Could Eau Rouge suddenly become a lot more challenging this year with the 2014 cars? Much-reduced downforce levels combined with higher straightline speeds compared to previous years will definitely make it a bit hairier for the drivers.

They'll certainly be travelling faster when they reach Eau Rouge so who knows? Maybe Eau Rouge won't be taken flat-out quite so easily this year.
 
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This is more what I hope for than what I predict:
1.Lewis Hamilton
2.Daniel Ricciardo
3.Fernando Alonso
I am hoping Rosberg's good luck ends when Alonso accidently drinks out of his water bottle at the pre-race press conference, transferring his luck to Fernando, like Lindsay Lohan in Just My Luck
 
The Williams cars with their high straight line speed should be in with shout of the podium and it's hard to look past the Mercs unless reliability gremlins come into play. Will Hamilton's brake issues be sorted ?? Red Bull have shown signs of improvement but Hungary was a high downforce low speed track which is the exact opposite of Spa.

For a top 3 without any realiability issues, I'd have to go for:

1) Hamilton
2) Rosberg
3) Massa

If it rains that could throw the cat among the pidgeons and open the door for serveral teams to push for a bag full of points.
 
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[QUOTE="marksawatsky, post: 250415, member: 4042"
I am hoping Rosberg's good luck ends when Alonso accidently drinks out of his water bottle at the pre-race press conference, transferring his luck to Fernando, like Lindsay Lohan in Just My Luck[/QUOTE]

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Hmm... I think you're drinking out of La Source on this one.

Yes I know, that was probably the worst joke of the week...:embarrassed:
 
LifeW12......How did Lewis choke during qualifying at Hockenheim and Hungary?......:thinking:

My top 3
1..Hamilton
2..Rosberg
3..Bottas
 
Is anyone forgetting the Vettel win in the supposedly underpowered Renault Red Bull of old?

Ninja.....Vettel was able to win last year at Spa, with his ability to exploit the use of his EBD better than any other driver in the field. Soooo.....now that system no longer exists...no...if the race remains dry, and if Lewis, Nico, Daniel. Valtteri, and maybe even Felipe are still running during the race.
 
Car or engine? Newey alluded to the fact that Renault are "working hard" so maybe they will squeeze a few more gee gee's out of their V6 over the next month.
 
Most likely both FB

All of Red Bull's title have come from the fact they seem to leave the others sleeping when it comes to summer development. Need we remind people of Vettels win record in the second half of seasons?

Now whilst I don't expect them to get near the Merc I would certainly suggest they may jump to clear second placed team. Whether it'll be Vettel or Ricciardo leading the way is of course another question.
 
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