Round 11: Belgium 2015 - Race (Delayed)

Greetings Internet, 

Due to a post-rehearsal adventure through the closest thing that Northern England can muster to a monsoon - the time previously allocated to writing up the events of the weekend quickly vanished. Replaced with the highly unprecedented concept of socialisation. It does mean that I have a lot of motorport to catch up on - BTCC, Indycar and Aussie V8's to be retrieved from across the internet. But just when you had thought I had given up on you all... although the term 'all' may be a gross exaggeration of the number of people who were expecting any form of content to grace this corner of the internet. I have placed myself back in front of the computer, while a bunch of code is compiling in the background make the final contribution following the Belgian GP.

Yesterday various members of the media were predicting a destructive free for all off the line as these highly paid (or paying) racing drivers were doomed to fail when having to start the race all by themselves. Almost as if the world forgot that these drivers have being driving racing cars for quite some time now, and outside of F1 they will have had to handle the initial launch without a battalion of engineers and computer simulations to program the start settings for them. Yes an F1 car is markedly more complex than anything else lower down the racing hierarchy, but expecting a repeat of the 1998 levels of carnage was a little on the ridiculous side. In the end we were treated to a reasonably incident free race, the mayhem and carnage was left to the support categories who demolished several race cars over the weekend - and one barrier. But without further delay and meaningless rambling, one with the show...

The Race

After qualifying left us with a somewhat bizarre grid behind the inevitable front row Mercedes lockout - those theories of a manic start started to bubble to the surface. While the teams themselves predicted little change over what we've seen already this year. None of that really mattered to Nico Hulkenberg who was struck down with a sensor failure on the formation lap, the team asked him to pit before the start - before then instructing the German to drive to the grid. The problem they thought had resolved itself, had in reality remained. The result was an aborted start and an additional formation lap, while the Force India was wheeled into the pit-lane and into retirement. 

The Race - Take 2

So on the second attempt, Carlos Sainz was instructed to return to the pits with a separate mechanical difficulty, and so there were only 18 cars taking the actual start. I was having flashbacks to the end of last season when everyone was going bankrupt. As the lights went out, there was no crescendo of shredded carbon fibre and dislodged wheels did not rain down from the sky - it was a simple orderly start. Some cars did better than others, Rosberg lost several positions while Sergio Perez and Ricciardo gained some. Even then Nico claimed the poor start was due to an overheating clutch after the second formation lap rather than being thwarted by a complex start procedure. Everyone negotiated La Source without contact - with the minor exception that Will Stevens and Jenson may have brushed wheels. The fact that I am writing that sentence, kind of sums up how poorly McLaren's season has gone. Starting the 11th race of the season with 105 grid penalties between them is both a dire reflection on their progress and the ludicrous nature of the penalties system.

On the run up the Kemmel straight after Radillon, something unusual was unfolding - a Mercedes was under attack, from a Force India of all things. Hamilton had to defend to the inside after Perez sat in the slipstream, at the point of the timing line at the end of the first sector the Mexican had an overlap was leading the race. That only lasted a few seconds as Lewis claimed the line in Les Combes and Sergio didn't attempt to fight it out on the outside line. After that things did settle down a little bit, with Rosberg claiming one of his places back down the inside of Valtteri Bottas at the disastrous abomination that is the bus stop chicane. The threat of mayhem and devastation was further reduced when Pastor Maldonado's Lotus broke down as it entered the Kemmel Straight. Pastor limped the car back to the pits but it was game over for one of the Lotus cars. But as one car retired another one came back from the dead - Carlos Sainz's Toro Rosso was revived and put back into the race a couple of laps down. The mechanics at Force India were unable to do the same for Hulkenberg and he too was officially retired from the race. 

This opening phase of the race was mainly about drivers recovering from less than ideal starting positions - Raikkonen had to make up for the gearbox penalty and technical failure he encountered in qualifying. Grosjean and Mad Max Verstappen were also docked places due to technical infringements. So all three cars were out of position in comparison to where the raw speed of the car should be, Vettel and Kvyat could also be added to that list, but their poor grid positions were self inflicted. Of the cohort it was Raikkonen who had more to prove, to justify Ferrari's decision to renew his contract for the following season. Four laps into the race he'd made it up to 12th place by overtaking Fernando Alonso's McLaren. The Spaniard probably wishing he still had one of the red cars this season instead of jumping ship to a struggling McLaren-Honda partnership. Jenson in the second McLaren was having an even more dismal time - as his ERS was cutting out at certain points round the lap. Prompting him to ask whether the batteries were connected properly.

Back at the front Hamilton was having a very easy time of it - especially with Rosberg losing ground and currently sitting in 4th place. He was building a comfortable lead over Perez in second place as the first round of pitstops were approaching. Of the leading group it was Ricciardo who dove into the lane first, hoping to undercut Perez and take second place. Force India noticed the strategy and called Sergio in on the following lap, but the combination of a long lap and a faster stop by the Red Bull team leapfrogged Ricciardo ahead. This also gave Rosberg plenty of clear track to unleash some of the core pace of the Mercedes. Pace that would allow him to jump both Ricciardo and Perez before scampering off into a comfortable second place. Mercedes had to reverse their conventional pit priority to make it happen, but Hamilton wasn't really under threat from Nico such that it would become a problem. Further down the pit-lane at the Williams garage an odd mix up had occurred at Valtteri Bottas' stop. The Finn came into the pits to be fitted with a new set of soft tyres - and was only given three softs and one medium tyre. Perhaps Williams were experimenting with new interpretations of using both compounds during the race... at the same time. Bottas was sent back on track with his mismatched tyres, as the camera cut to a rather guilty looking mechanic in the team garage. The regulations don't allow for two different compounds in use at the same time, but it took the stewards a long time to figure out precisely what to do with the bizarre situation. Eventually they would finally deliver a verdict of a drive through penalty many laps later. During this time Valtteri would continue to run with the mis-matching tyres. 

With the opening round of pit stops out of the way, the racing could continue - although the wind conditions had rather made the DRS excessively effective. We'd seen Renault powered cars leaving Mercedes powered ones for dead once the DRS was opened on the Kemmel straight. Some of that was down to Red Bull running a specifically low downforce, high speed setup and Williams leaving a bit more wing on the car. But even so the speed differential meant that any DRS pass became an inevitability. So with that in mind, why would anyone look anywhere else to make a pass - turns out that Mad Max Verstappen doesn't follow those rules. As he closed in on Felipe 'Fred' Nasr's Sauber in the final sector, he decided not to wait until the Kemmel straight to make a pass. Instead he thought it was a great idea to drive round the outside of the Brazilian through Blanchimont... It was an overtake that redefined the threshold of being 'ballsy'. Especially considering that in the GP2 feature race, a driver tried the same thing and ended up in hospital. Max had the Toro Rosso all over the curbs on the exit and managed to complete the pass and didn't spin into the barrier. The race wasn't anywhere near finished by the mad teenager already booked a place in the bonus points scoring.

Now that the front of the race was now settled, it made more sense to pay some attention to the developing battles behind as several rivals were starting to line up for a chance to take the remaining podium place. Grosjean joined the party along with Perez, Ricciardo and Massa - with the two Ferraris not too far behind. But the battle was about to get a little less populated as several of the drivers were making their second stops. Ricciardo on the other hand was making one final stop - the only problem was that it was the Renault engine electronics which dictated the stoppage, on the side of the pit straight. Despite the car being in a reasonably accessible place, the decision was made to throw a virtual safety car. Just to make sure that the marshals could safely push it off the track and behind the barrier. This failure could have come at a better time, when relations between Renault and Red Bull have entered another rough patch, with the rumour that Red Bull having terminated the 2016 contract between themselves and the French manufacturer. The virtual safety car wasn't in effect for too long before racing resumed with the two Mercedes out front. Unsurprisingly Hamilton managed to find something to complain about - this time it was that Rosberg had closed in during the VSC, which can happen. As long as he wasn't adjudged to be speeding he was driving within the regulations. Therefore it meant that Lewis was more cross that he didn't maximise the VSC period and that Nico had used it more effectively. In the end it didn't exactly matter.

Several cars pitted under the VSC, and rearranged the order outside the top two - Sebastian Vettel cycled through to third on the benefit that he hadn't pitted when everyone else did. Ferrari appeared to be attempting a one-stop strategy. Perhaps this is what happens when you race on a similar piece of tarmac to the previous champion of one-stopping: the driver formerly known as One-Stop Perez. This years cars and tyres were going to find that sort of stint life difficult, but perhaps Ferrari knew something that no-one else did. Perhaps Ferrari were looking up at the clouds that were gathering around Malmedy and Rivage in the hope that some rain was on the cards. But the forecasts suggested that rain would arrive, only some time after the race had finished. I think that the thought of rain was nothing more than wishful thinking, because for long stretches of the race, it was a little on the bland side

Further back some comeback drives were starting to take shape - namely in the hands of the sole remaining Red Bull containing Daniil Kvyat and his terrifying death stare. The Russian rejoined from his stop in 10th place, and had a lot of ground to make up to score some significant points. But he had rejoined on a set of the softer tyres - and was setting fastest sectors as he tore towards the pack. Daniil's first victim was Valtteri Bottas, who was now on a matching set of tyres and had served his penalty. The Williams, despite having a superior engine was no match for the DRS attack from the Russian and Kvyat and his scary face eased past before Les Combes. This idea of putting on a set of quick tyres wasn't sinking into the Ferrari pitwall, even when Vettel commented over the team radio that they should think about a second stop... a suggestion which fell on deaf ears. Sebastian's position became under threat from more than just his tyre life when Grosjean started wearing down the deficit to the final podium place. Back to the Kvyat charge and he successfully picked off his next victim - Kimi Raikkonen once more using the combination of soft tyres and DRS to make light work of the Ferrari.

The majority of the positions away from the main two battles looked to be reasonably settled, so the focus remained firmly on Vettel holding off Grosjean and Kvyat's pursuit of a greater points haul. The first fight seemed to have stagnated with a gap of 0.8s between the Ferrari and the Lotus. While the second scrap also appeared to be stalling because Kvyat couldn't repeat the standard DRS pass on Massa because Felipe had DRS from the back of Perez's Force India. Because the Williams was running a higher downforce setup it was unable to make a move on Perez in the same way that Kvyat had been doing to several cars beforehand. Eventually Massa dropped away from Perez giving Daniil the perfect time to strike. Felipe still had DRS but Kvyat had enough speed to get alongside before Les Combes. In a feat of extremely late braking the Russian threw the car past Massa, almost sliding off and across the Les Combes infield. But Kvyat held the slide and claimed the position before chasing after Perez in the Force India. 

A little further back, Mad Max Verstappen was looking to add to his overtaking account with a move on Kimi Raikkonen at Les Combes. Even with the DRS advantage the attempt was a little on the optimistic side as he skated down the inside before sliding off the road and handing the place back. Grosjean on the other hand was taking a more patient approach to dealing with a Ferrari in front of him. But suddenly as Vettel rounded the kink at the start of the Kemmel straight his right rear tyre exploded - looks like staying out for that long was not such a good idea. As shards of Pirelli littered the circuit Romain was promoted into a safe third place, while further back Kvyat had taken 4th place from Perez, outlining the benefit of a newer set of tyres. But in the end staying out was Vettel's only shot at taking third, as a second stop would have put him in the same league as Kvyat, fighting for 4th place.

One can be forgiven for forgetting that the two Mercedes' were out front, only to be picked up by the camera as they completed another 1-2 underlining their domination and dispelling the idea of being threatened by Ferrari. The one remaining Lotus of Grosjean finished off the podium in a remarkable drive, several second further down the road we find Kvyat for Red Bull. Perez and Massa rounding out the top six - despite Felipe's best efforts of passing Perez, when the pair went either side of Vettel's ailing Ferrari. Raikkonen repelled the threat of further attacks from Mad Max Verstappen as the pair took 7th and 8th respectively. The points were rounded out be the mismatched tyres of Valtteri Bottas and the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners - Qualifying

While the qualifying report was sort of over-written by a gentle walk in the countryside and socialisation. It doesn't mean that those points become null and void, I just add them on as part of this post. 

• 10pts - Sergio Perez - A Force India, that far up the grid - a magnificent performance
• 8pts - Romain Grosjean - A similar story for the Lotus driver, qualified well, but was pushed back on the grid due to a penalty.
• 6pts - Daniel Ricciardo - The highest placed of the renault powered cars
• 5pts - Valtteri Bottas - Came out on top of the very fierce battle for the coveted 'best of the rest' 3rd place grid slot
• 4pts - Lewis Hamilton - Scores points for the crushing victory he crafted over Rosberg in the final part of qualifying.
• 3pts - Pastor Maldonado - Got the second of the Lotus team cars inside of the top ten.
• 2pts - Daniil Kvyat - Scores a pair of style points for holding a slide at the top of Radillon
• 1pt - Daniel De Jong - Survived a monumental accident in the first of the GP2 races when nudged off line on the entry to Blanchimont

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners - Race day

Part two of the points reveal covers the events on the Sunday, which was also under the pleasing influence of social adventure... and rain, lots and lots of rain.

• 25pts - Romain Grosjean - Lotus' first podium since 2013, and on the day that the cars were supposedly impounded after a dispute with Charles Pic.
• 18pts - Daniil Kvyat - A brilliant late race charge passing many cars, including a particularly impressive move on Massa
• 15pts - Sergio Perez - A top five finish for Force India, and their highest result of the season
• 12pts - Mad Max Verstappen - Round the outside of Blanchimont... even if it was a little out of bounds, it is worth many points
• 10pts - Manor - Finished on the same lap as the McLarens... even if it is the longest track of the season, to be only 40s behind is impressive... or bad news for McLaren
• 8pts - Marcus Ericsson - Scores a point for Sauber in a car which has had next to no development work done on it since day one.
• 6pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Before running into retirement the Aussie saved a massive slide at the top of Radillion.
• 4pts - Lewis Hamilton - Another win and another set of points
• 2pts - Nico Rosberg - Will be awarded two points for the most devious, yet legal use of the virtual safety car to close in on Hamilton
• 1pt - Justin Wilson - Gets the final point in light of the injury that he sustained at Pocono, as we hope for a quick and complete recovery.

Looking ahead to Monza

So the season carries on from one high speed traditional circuit to an even faster one, a circuit which has the Honda and Renault engineers cowering in a dark corner of their factories. Unlike Spa, Monza doesn't have a sector leaning towards high speed cornering and aerodynamic grid. It has long straights and short corners in between. I foresee it being another relatively easy day at the office for Mercedes.

But in the intervening period there are several arguments brewing in the pit lane. Between Red Bull and Renault, between Vettel and Pirelli and ultimately within Williams concerning a slight issue with matching tyre compounds. Perhaps by the time we reach italy in a couple of weeks time, some things will be that bit more clear.

Round 11 - Belgium 2015 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

After the four week mid season break I'm back - and I can almost hear the collective groans from across the digital universe echoing through the halls of cyberspace. We left for the summer break after the manic Hungarian GP with many questions and rumours circulating throughout the paddock - the majority of those involving the future of Kimi Raikkonen and his place within the Ferrari team. Suggestions floated round the pit lane that Valtteri Bottas was on course to replace the other Finn in the red overalls. But in the past few days that story has run it's course as Ferrari have announced that they will in fact retain Raikkonen's services for another season - as they were asked for £10m to buy out Bottas' contract by Williams. A sum of money they clearly didn't feel like paying - and Valtteri's 2015 campaign hasn't been as electrifying as the previous season and is more on par with Massa, a former Ferrari resident. 

The second piece of interesting news coming into the Belgian GP as this is going to be first race with the new start regulations in place. To some degree I find messing with the regulations half way through a season to be a little out of order, but the summer break was the ideal time to introduce a change. The new rules focus on the amount of electronic assistance involved in selecting clutch bite points and start procedures. Drivers will no longer be able to perform extensive bite point practice starts - the idea being that it places start procedure more in the hands of the drivers rather than the underlying software. This can only be a good thing, if done properly, because I can imagine that the top teams have already planned and strategised various loopholes to get around the regulations. For example in Hungary we saw the Mercedes drivers performing bite point checks when they pulled the cars into the parc-ferme area at the end of qualifying. The end result is that we are likely going to see a wider variety of starts on Sunday afternoon as there is a lot more variability in human judgement than in a bunch of computer code optimising the settings for the best launch down to turn one. Some, slightly more pessimistic critics have predicted a slightly destructive start, one akin to the race which saw Romain Grosjean banned for wiping out several cars in La Source. 

Of course the mention of La Source can only mean one thing - the annual pilgrimage to Spa for one of the most highly anticipated races. Home of so many championship highlights and turning points.

Spa-Francorchamps

Few venues in the 2015 calendar draw the appreciation of fans and competitors alike, the hallowed ribbon of tarmac winding through the Ardennes is legendary and rightly so. It has featured on the schedule for generations and is in the top echelon of circuits the F1 parade sets up cap. Circuits like Spa and Suzuka have managed to retain some a lot of what has made them great in the face of continuous pushes for wider run off areas and less gravel. Admittedly even the grandeur of Spa has been ever so slightly compromised by the addition of tarmac escape areas in Malmedy and Pouhon. But the worst crime of all was to modify the bus stop chicane - where the pressure for circuit development proved to be just that bit too strong...

The mystical journey that is the Spa-Francorchamps layout begins at La Source - where Grosjean decided to play bowling with the field in 2012. The tight hairpin is only a short distance from the start line, so the grid doesn't have enough time to space out before the concertina of the first corner. The exit of La Source points the cars down the GT start line - plummeting down to the base of the most famous corner of the entire year. The mountainous and imposing cliff that is Eau Rouge. Over the years Eau Rouge has demolished cars for getting slightly out of line including both BAR's in one qualifying session in 1999. These days with the traction and downforce the modern cars are blessed with, that challenge is not what it once was. In the build up to the weekend Raikkonen has stated that it might not be easily full throttle as it was a few years ago. Some of the cars towards the back of the grid with lower downforce levels may have to have a confidence lift or two mid corner.

Those who rise over the crest at Radillion with all four wheels attached are then fired down the long kemmel straight between the trees. Where the rainfall can hang in the foliage when the typical Spa weather comes out to play. At the end of the Kemmel straight lies one of the most prominent overtaking spots at Les Combes - it was also the home of the 'incident' where Rosberg refused to move over for Hamilton and contact was made - triggering Toto Wolff's angry face. Les Combes flows directly in to Malmedy and the curving descent through Rivage. Each corner is exactly where you feel it should be as the flowing middle sector picks up pace. Rivage flows into Bruxelles before another sharp descent towards Pouhon. While the challenge of Eau Rouge may have been watered down by car advancement - Pouhon hasn't, the tricky downhill double apex left-hander remains one of the corners that can catch people out. 

After Pouhon the track levels out on the run to the Fagnes chicane two medium speed sweeping turns unified to mark the approach to the end of the middle sector. The final part of the sector is Stavelot at the bottom of the track, it doesn't have any special characteristics but it just feels like it belongs there and that it matches the flow and rhythm of the circuit. After the second part of Stavelot the track winds back through the forest at full speed, exploiting every ounce of power on the blast back to the finish line. It is this dependence on raw power that may hamper McLaren and Renault powered teams this weekend. In the middle of this high speed sector is one of Spa's other infamous landmarks - Blanchimont - estimated to be the one corner on the entire international calendar with the highest entry speed. Despite the legacy of destruction that surrounds Blanchimont, including hospitalising Luciano Burti in 2001, it has fallen the same was as Eau Rouge. The unrelenting tide of rising downforce levels have made it easy flat - in the era of the dominant Red Bull cars, Vettel and Webber were able to drive through Blanchimont with the DRS open...

Then we come to the end of the lap, after miles of beautifully crafted race track to the disastrous eyesore that is the newer Bus Stop chicane. The bus stop has endured several modifications over the years, some of which were to accommodate changes to the pit lane entry and paddock area. But the older pre-2002 specification was always the best. It was simple, challenging and effective. What we have now is a cumbersome mass of hatred and despair, it is heresy to append such a malignant wasteland of tarmac and curbing to something as treasured as the Spa Francorchamps circuit. It is the equivalent of adding underbody neon lights and a gaudy spoiler to an E-Type Jag - but we have to live with it for the time being - until Bernie decides it is more fun to scrap Spa altogether for a rich middle-eastern oil state... Anyway the ruined chicane does mark the end of the lap so you can enjoy the rest of it once more.

The Form Guide

Well due to a reasonably tiring week involving covering 18 miles of countryside, meteor showers and lakeside hypothermia - my conventional schedule has been a little out of sync. Therefore this is being presented on Friday, rather than Thursday before any of the practice sessions have begun. But as we now have that data we can have a look at how things stand as of the conclusion of FP1.

On the whole nothing too much has changed - Mercedes still have an iron hold on the top two places, even if that didn't help them in Hungary. Manor are still languishing off the back of the field and Pastor Maldonado is in the wall, following an unfortunate line through Les Combes. However it is the set of cars in between which is more interesting, even through the times in FP1 are not really representative of true pace. Daniel Ricciardo was the Mercedes' closest challenger - which after his performance in Hungary doesn't seem too unusual, but we all (well probably just me) expected the Renault powered cars to be struggling to keep in tough with the Ferrari and Mercedes powered rivals. Yet all four of the Red Bull branded cars were inside the top ten - at the expense of supposedly faster cars.

Williams for example appear to be under-performing on where we expect them to be, as they had in Hungary - but on a power based circuit this is more of a surprise. Lotus are also quite far down the order, they do have an excuse - their reserve driver Jolyon Palmer was borrowing Grosjean's car, and Maldonado crashed his once more. Once those four cars get up to speed, the Toro Rosso's might find their grip on the top ten weaken slightly.

At the far reaches of the timesheet, we find McLaren - a second off the pace of the next car (barring Palmer, and Ericsson who's Sauber was short on power). They are only 1.3s clear of the Manors, which in a week where Honda were claiming significant upgrades to the power unit is quite the disappointment. One ray of hope for the team is that the they might have been using an older spec engine for FP1, and saving the newer one for FP2 - which might explain the deficit. Their nearest rivals have also received an engine upgrade as Ferrari have finally handed Sauber the newest version of their power unit. But the chassis has fallen so far behind in the development race, dreams of re-enacting that 5th place finish in Australia are a long, long way away. Sauber have said that upgrades are coming, but they might only be ready for Singapore.  

But relative pace and grid position could all come undone on the Sunday, especially with the new start procedures and the faint but promising threat of some of that special Ardenne weather. After two great races in Britain and Hungary, lets hope Belgium can bring home the hat-trick.