Finally, the wait is over, as the summer break comes to a much anticipated conclusion, returning on what is a very busy motorsport weekend. Because we have BTCC, Indycar, V8 Supercars and all of the F1 support events all taking place over the next few days - the hard drive in the sky box is weeping at the prospect of having to store it all. Here at the end of that break, waiting to embrace the second half what has been a rather complex and often angry season - people have been angry at Pirelli for doing their job, team-mates have been angry at each other, and Di Resta is often angry at his team for pretty much everything, we have the greatest track of them all. The one and only Spa-Francorchamps...
During the time off the rumour mill has been rotating at breakneck speed, all manner of driver line-ups have been postulated heading into the 2014 season, everything hinging on the fate of Felipe Massa, and that empty space at Red Bull. The odds seem to suggest that Ricciardo is going to replace Webber - from the development program - but the other suggestion is that Raikkonen will take the seat, which could set off a sequence of events. Other theories see Kimi to Ferrari alongside Alonso, or that Massa is replaced by Hulkenberg and Alonso goes back to Lotus alongside Grosjean considering he and Luca Di Montezemelo have not been making friends at the moment. It turns out the big man at Ferrari doesn't like Fernando complaining about the car, even though Spaniard does have a very valid point. I can sense things are going to start to unravel, and with the likes of Sirotkin lurking with money from Russia, the grid next season could look very different. Of course there is the potential that all these rumours and suggestions are only smoke and mirrors - Ricciardo will take the seat and the status quo will remain elsewhere.
The Track
In a season peppered with all these new fangled Tilke-based circuits something none of those huge scale developments come anywhere near the quality of the outstanding Spa-Francorchamps, 7km of splendour, power and overall greatness. The calendar could do with a few more of these please. The Belgian GP follows the contours of the land through the Ardennes - using the elevation to it's advantage from the top of the hill on the entry to Les Combes, descending through Rivage and the double apexed challenge of Pouhon.
The layout itself has been subjected to some modifications in and around the pit area, the majority of which can only be described as blasphemy frankly, La Source was sharpened allocating more room on the outside as run-off space. In some respects it was a tolerable adjustment, but the things that were done at the other end of the pit straight border on unforgivable, the sacrilegious effort of redeveloping the Bus-stop chicane is the one blot on the copybook that is brought up each season. Everything about it is hateful, the apexes are too tight and it is chicane with a monumental amount of space between the two phases of the corner.
Other than those flaws, the track has everything including the infamous and legendary Eau Rouge corner, an uphill climb that is known throughout the motor-racing world, even though in the modern era of extreme downforce it is less of a challenge... in the dry at least. The same could be said for Blanchimont at the end of the lap, made even more subdued with the tarmac run-off space. But given the magnitude of some of the accidents in the key corners I think I can forgive the removal of the gravel. Those huge BAR accidents in 1999 on their own were enough to have the gravel taken from Eau Rouge. Spa not only typifies European circuit design, where flow and driving challenge is placed far above what the layout looks like on a piece of paper on a design office desk, but completely excels at it. Because of the rhythm and flow of the corners, unlike the newer layouts each corner flows into the next rather than being designed as a separate unrelated entity separated by excessively long straights.
If the layout wasn't strong enough the climate is such an intrinsic part of the event it is almost fused with the track itself, and looking at the predicted forecasts it could get very interesting.
What to expect
It's been a while, but tyres and complaining to Pirelli may resurface again at the track with the highest corner loads in Blachimont and Eau Rouge - the fastest corners of the entire season, it was for this event in 2011 that Pirelli imposed strict camber limits to prevent failures. It will be a strong test for the redeveloped tyre construction.
In terms of car performance, power of the track will help the Mercedes powered cars, for example it has always been a strong track for Force India - Fisichella almost took the teams first win in 2009, before Raikkonen scored the first KERs influenced victory. On the other hand a flowing downforce based middle sector will favour the Red Bull team - which once more opens the door rather wide for another Vettel victory. Because Spa is a low downforce circuit overall, the difference through the field is likely to be more compressed - even allowing McLaren to be competitive and potentially steering clear of the qualifying relegation zones. Each week there is the issue of where Ferrari and Lotus will be in the standings as both teams have had issues with the new tyre construction and their performances are increasingly temperature dependant - and Spa doesn't look like being a warm weekend.
A potentially chaotic rain effected race on a track with a closer time difference between the contenders give hope to those people at the bottom of the field - only 8 cars finished a rain affected race in 1998 because that was a very destructive event. If Michael Bay directed races, they would probably end up like that one. But in this modern era, if that amount of rain was to arrive everything would be cancelled, red flagged and left alone - which is odd frankly, you'd think modern cars with all this fancy technology foiled by a little monsoon. The problem is to do with aquaplaning and visibility - it happened in 98 too Aquaplaning under braking caused Fisichella to tear his Bennetton apart when crashing very heavily into the back of the Minardi of Shinji Nakano at the Bus Stop chicane. Hindered by visibility in spray coming off the back of the Japanese driver's car, visibility also prevented Schumacher from seeing Coulthard as the Scott moved offline to allow the German to lap him before Pouhon. It's moments like these that make Spa well worth the wait through the summer break for.
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