Belgium GP 2012 - QF

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friday was a total washout.  Showers all morning and more rain in the afternoon meant very little or not practising at all for everybody. Kobayashi  was fastest in P1, the only driver with 20 laps on the board in a session that Ferrari and Lotus didn’t even bother trying to establish a lap time. Only Sauber, Williams and Toro Rosso and to some extent Red Bull tried to get some running, something didn’t even happen in P2 when conditions where at its worst and the big players rather kept their cars clean parked in their boxes. With sunshine expected for the next 2 days all their set up work will be concentrated for the Saturday morning FP3 session.

What can we expect? we are completely in the dark for QF, so let’s look into what’s in the cards for Spa. 

This is a very demanding place on tyres and that’s why Pirelli has chosen their hardest compounds.  With the fastest and longest corners in all of F1 racing and a very abrasive surface, tyre degradation is very high. It requires lower downforce than most circuits to maximize top speed in the two long straights where they reach almost 300kph for an extended period of time; they run full throttle 70% of the lap and use their smaller set of rear wings. Average lap speeds are in the 230kph, the brakes are used only 8 times per lap. Under this circumstances the Mercedes powered cars will have an advantage in sectors 1 & 3 (McLaren & Mercedes, maybe Force India) but we could see big time differentials in sector 2 where directional changes and high speed corner stability count just as much (Lotus, Red Bull, Sauber, and then Ferrari) Performance in sector 2 is the key to mark consistent laptimes and faster long runs on race day. Then comes tyre temperatures.  At maximum 16c for Saturday and 18c for Sunday that could be bad news for McLaren and particularly for Mercedes and really good news for Lotus.

The talk of the paddock is Lotus ‘double’ DRS (DDRS), a system that is expected to yield 0.5 seconds a lap if they can test it and feel confident enough to use it for the first time. It reduces drag and downforce as speed increases giving an advantage at all times (slow & fast sections) regardless of whether the DRS flap is in use, but it needs fine tuning to set it up because it could unsettled the car’s downforce depending on how it switches its airflow activation. 

And then we get to the most exciting part: the drivers. They all rave about this place, one of the few circuits in the world where GP machinery can be run at their full potential, where accurate hands and feet can make a significant difference...and where for some reason Kimi ‘The King of Spa’ always shines.  The feeling is that if Kimi can place his E20 near the front this could be Lotus’ first win of the season.

There have been 8 different drivers on pole in the last 8 years, but Alonso has never been one of them. Actually he’s never even started from the front row at Spa...

After 5 weeks of rest I assume you are ready, so let’s get going:

Cato – HAM  RAI  VET

Good luck!

Back to Comments          Back to InfoNews