06.09.10

Carlos Castella

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The Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium is considered by all drivers as the best in the calendar, and it therefore comes as no surprise that there are always great races there. This is traditionally the best Grand Prix of the year, and it seems likely to win this accolade this season too.

Its magnificent course, with two very fast top-speed parts alternating with an intermediate one based on selective bends, and its always unpredictable and changeable weather make it a constant challenge for machines and drivers alike. Only the best win in Spa, but sometimes the best are the ones who manage to avoid mistakes and traps on the track.
This was the case of Lewis Hamilton this time. Taking advantage of Webber's mistake at the start, the McLaren-Mercedes driver knew how to get ahead and did not leave that position in the whole race, despite all the circumstances: two safety cars, two storms which meant that the tyres had to be changed several times, and he skidded off the track twice, from which he was able to recover.

But the key to Hamilton's victory was not only his impeccable driving throughout the race, but the McLaren team's extraordinary capacity for reaction. In the last two Grands Prix, the fitting of a new aerodynamic package disorientated the team a bit, and it seemed particularly vague in Hungary.

Nevertheless, even despite the summer shutdown, the response from the team's engineering department lived up to its reputation: McLaren not only became competitive again, but they also seemed to be up to the standard of Red Bull. Hamilton came second in qualifying, and in the race Mark Webber could not beat him when he was in second place. It was only the excess of Sebastian Vettel's impetuosity which prevented Jenson Button from fighting for a place on the podium too.

The evidence for this improvement was shown in the qualifying: at the last attempt, and with a track which was starting to get wet, only two drivers improved: the two McLarens, whose cars run particularly well on the wet track, something which had already been seen at the beginning of the season in the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix, and which was also very important on the changeable, but always wet, Belgian tarmac.

Unlike McLaren, the Ferrari team seemed to start off very well at the week-end, with Fernando Alonso being the fastest in Friday's tests. But on Saturday morning, the team had to make a risky choice for the qualifying, preparing the car for a rainy race. The rain came on Sunday, but not as Fernando Alonso hoped, since he wanted it from the beginning.
Rubens Barrichello's mistake, crashing into Fernando's car at the end of the first lap (inexplicably without damaging the latter's car given the force of the impact), meant he had to take a difficult decision: pit and check the car, and put on intermediate tyres. If it had continued to rain, with the car being adjusted for the rain, the right tyres, and the Safety Car getting all the participants together, it would have been a master stroke.

Unfortunately, the rain died down, making Alonso change the tyres again and join the whole race again in a car in precarious conditions. When the rain Ferrari was waiting for finally came, it was already too late, and in trying to catch up with Mercedes, Alonso skidded off the track. Felipe Massa, in contrast, did very well in the race, always staying close to the top three without losing his pace. Unfortunately, Ferrari was not competitive enough to try to improve its fourth place.

In light of the final result, Ferrari was not very clever in designing a strategy trusting in rain for Fernando, because this is always unpredictable. It is better to take risks in the race, like Ross Brawn did: he kept both his cars on the track without changing tyres, waiting for it to rain. With modern tyres, which can last for a whole Grand Prix, and with his drivers coming out from the back, he had little to lose, and finally the result was typical of the best strategy there is in the pit wall: Rosberg went from 14th to 6th place and Michael Schumacher from 21st to 7th place. Despite this result, they were beaten by an excellent Adrian Sutil, who this time won the qualifying, among the German drivers.

It came as no surprise that Renault took a further step forward in its journey towards the first positions, and Kubica's race (it was only a mistake stopping in the pits that made him lose the position with Webber) could mean that the Pole is in a position to mix regularly in the leading positions. That would add even more interest to a World Grand Prix that still has five candidates, although two of them are somewhat ahead, thanks to the results at Spa.

Carlos Castellà

Carlos Castellà’s experience in motorsport encompasses DTM, Formula Indy, GP2 and the World Series as well as Formula 1. He is the staff writer for the magazine Grand Prix Actual and has worked as an F1 specialist for a wide experience in championships like DTM, F Indy, GP2 or the World Series, he is now a staff writer in the magazine Grand Prix Actual Television Española, where he also contributes to the NASCAR and WTCC broadcasts.