Round 12 :Preview: Belgium Grand Prix

The Summer break is drawing to a close and Formula One fans all over the world who were anxiously waiting and getting awfully bored during these 4 weeks were met with great news this week as everyone's beloved Spa-Francorchamps circuit host to the Belgium Grand Prix has been promised on the calender for the next 3 years ! With rumors of Spa alternating with the Nurburgring due to its recent financial troubles or Magny Cours in a bid to reinstate the French Grand Prix ,fans were quite worried about the future prospects of this great race circuit.

The Track: 

The Old Spa vs the New Spa

Its no secret that Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is a favorite of many great champions,drivers , teams and of course us fans. The pre-Pirelli and DRS years , this circuit would be one circuit where  we all could look forward to some overtaking , its unique combination of corners ,straights , kinks , hairpins all just perfectly laid-out in the middle of the Ardennes just seems like racing-paradise.

Even the laconic Fin Kimi Rakkonen states :

"You can’t get the same kind of a feeling anywhere else. It’s great to race with a modern racing car at a proper circuit that has such a great tradition.Spa offers very challenging high-speed corners and you need to get the right set-up for the car. I bet every driver likes Spa. For me it is the greatest racing circuit in the world. It is my favourite place. I’ve liked it since my first ever visit there in 2000 with Formula Renault.”

The initial Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps was a 14.1 km long stretch , meandering through the Ardennes. The modern and heavily revised 7 km circuit still features some of the old great corners such as Eau Rouge and Blanchimont but the daddy of all corners (as Jackie Stewart described it) , the Masta Kink no longer is a part of it.



As you exited the town of Malmedy , you were greeted with the 2.4 km Masta Straight where Formula One cars would easily reach a top speed of over 300 kph , another 2 km straight followed both separated only by the Masta Kink. It was crucial to get a good exit speed out of the high-speed left right chicane for a good lap time. The Kink as old circuits characterists were , was situated between two farm houses. These very barns provided shelter to Jackie Stewart when he crashed heavily here into a telephone post while negotiating the Masta Kink. He waited unconscious for over 2 hours for medical aid with Graham Hill stopping mid-way during the race to cut him from his car loose with some spanners. The Masta Kink was the most feared corner of all time.



No mention of Spa being a great drivers circuit is without the mention of Eau Rouge. Named after a river with a red tinge which flows underneath the corner. The current Eau Rouge has been heavily modified on grounds of safety which made it easy flat for modern Formula One cars but with G-Forces of upto 5G and a great overtaking move up ahead at the Kemmel straight it is one of the greatest corners in the racing calender today. In fact, Eau Rouge is so steep that a couple of years ago , a mini van failed to climb it.

The old Eau Rouge was way more steep and angled , and this was indeed another one of those feared and revered corners require skill and bravery in the cars of yesteryear's.

However, its not just Eau Rouge or the Kemmel Straight which gives drivers a rush whilst putting a lap , its just the way the corners flow .




A Flying Lap

Starting from the short pit straight, braking into the cramped up La Source (which offers great action during the start), ever so gently feeling the traction and deploying KERS at full power and straightening up the car for Eau Rouge, taking a huge chuck of the inside kerb and making sure you get a clean exit from Radillion,

Gathering speed on the Kemmel Straight , reminiscing scences of Hakkinen's great overtaking move  here on Schumacher into the right hander Les Combes , making sure you get you're braking right and not carry extra-speed since you flow into Malmedy.

Braking downhill into the tricky hairpin , Rivage which is tough to negotiate in the wet, hugging the inside kerb as long as you can till the front of the car slides out going right again preparing for a mini straight from turn 9 , getting ready for another of F1's great corners Pouhon.  A double apex slightly downhill left hander  : Entry Speed - 290 kph ! Exit speed 300kph !

Braking again for the slightly off camber right-left 170kph Fagnes chicane or as the as Belgium's call it fittingly Tiff-Taff . Again making sure you don't chew off more than you can bite. Getting a good exit out of turn 14 which will determine your top speed into Blanchimont , the drivers finger just waiting for the car to settle in a straight line to deploy the KERS and DRS on a hot lap.

Negotiating the Curve Paul Frere and heading towards another great corner - Blanchimont. A left hander taken at over 300 kph and then braking hard into the bus stop chicane another great overtaking zone where you can ever so easily loose every bit of your effort of the previous sectors and heading down to the pit straight again.

No stop and squirt , no mickey mouse corners , no stupid slow chicane's , no ludicrously narrow braking zones. Circuit de-Francorchamps rewards passion , speed , bravery.....It is just perfection.




Raikkonen recorded his last Formula One victory here in 2009 , and has a total of 4 victories here; fighting greats such a Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton on the track , producing some great overtaking moves and just being Kimi during the weekend. Its one of those weekends where you can bet that the Fin is definitely giving his best. No questions about his motivation here for sure. With Lotus on good form, Kimi showing us that he hasn't lost a bit of his talent and skill , it would seem just poetic if he wins.

But who can count out the other Lotus ? The other Dark horse can dampen it ever so much for Kimi . If Grosjean wins at Spa, beating the King of Spa himself in a similar car and achieving Lotus' first victory this season would really not go well for all Raikkonen fans.

With the ever so dynamic weather of the Ardennes , Spa ever so often throws in surprise showers during the ever so gripping moments of the grand prix and with a certain driver nicknamed the Regenmeister celebrating his 300th Grand Prix on his favorite race track , a track where he has already achieved so many milestones in the past including clinching his 7th World Championshipin 2004. A Schumacher victory here seems quite unlikely unless the weather throws us a surprise. Definitely rooting for a Michael Schumacher victory here.

Alonso has never won at Spa and will be hoping for another stunning drive to attain that elusive victory here.

With the summer break and a lot of expected updates including the Double DRS on the Lotus, a McLaren resurgence and Ferrari bringing updates to boost their top speed as well ;  Formula One is back to its usual predictable business of being unpredictable...

Post Race Analysis : 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix

"Just like old times, Kimi..."




A brilliant drive from Lewis Hamilton saw McLaren find the pace it had at the start of the season , with Lewis Hamilton being lightning quick in all practice sessions and delivering in qualifying to put his car on pole position.

Although in Q1 and Q2 we saw signs that the Kimi Raikkonen had found his element and would challenge Hamilton for pole , sadly the flying fin disappointed in Q3 and ended up in 5th , his team-mate however showed that the Lotus had good pace and qualified on P2.With Lotus finally delivering a strong qualifying result , McLaren had a tough Sunday to look forward to.

The torque restriction drama had many pundits think Red Bull would struggle to find one lap pace and even more so with tyre degradation during the race , but Sebastian Vettel proved otherwise and looked on course to challenge Hamilton's time for pole position until an uncharacteristic mistake in the final sector.

Championship leader Fernando Alonso , echoed his team's regular claims that the Ferrari was still not fast enough in a dry session and by his standards a lowly qualified 6th.

Sunday, saw track temperatures soar in the mid 40's with fears of rain being eradicated as the sun shone brightly over the old-school style Hungaroring.

Would Hamilton dominate the race ? Would Lotus finally win ? Will Grosjean make it till turn 2 ? Speculations , questions , drama at its tipping point when the cars assembled after the formation lap......
And AN ABORTED START !

Bummer..

As Schumacher's car was pushed into the pit-lane the grid took another formation lap and we finally had the 5 red lights illuminate.

Hamilton made a great start, Vettel and Grosjean fought into turn 1 and as they did Button sneakily overtook Vettel .

Mark Webber had made a great start to 8th from 11th and Felipe Massa went backwards.

The race seemed processional during the first two stints with the hard to overtake nature of the track being showcased nicely. Hamilton was storming in front, closely chased by Grosjean while Vettel crucially lost a lot of time behind Button and again the two time world champion was losing his cool and being visibly frustrated with his engineer.

The only fascinating point of the race was at the final stint when Raikkonen came out of the pits , outbraked his team-mate into turn 1 , going wheel to wheel on the exit and consolidating second place. He was now in the hunt to chase down race leader Lewis Hamilton , but again the Hungaroring would prove to be hard for someone to overtake despite DRS and KERS.

The ice-man just couldn't put on the power quick enough to match Hamilton into the braking zone for Turn 1 and had to settle for second yet again with Lewis Hamilton taking victory number 2 of the season .

The spark is certainly there , Raikkonen and Lotus are quick , they just need a bit more and victory will be theirs . Who would bet against a victory at next month's Belgium Grand Prix for the King of Spa ?

Hamilton's victory meant the closed down the gap to Alonso, yet still is quite a far way back.

Alonso despite finishing 5th , has now the biggest lead in the championship ever.

A month off from F1 seems long but the next double header will be a cracker with Spa and then Monza ! 

Round 11 : Preview to the Hungarian Grand Prix

The Lotus F1 Team has gathered a reputation for being overly generous in sharing information about their cars. We as fans love the detail in the descriptions which no other team dare to reveal.

Here's a look at the needs and setups for the Hungaroring courtesy Lotus F1: 

Championship So Far: Round 10

Post Race Analysis:2012 German Grand Prix

"Spaniard in an Italian car , designed by a Greek winning the German Grand Prix"

A weekend similar to the one we had a fort night ago at Silverstone - a predominately wet practice sessions , teams scratching their heads about dry setups and tyre wear , a wet qualifying although luckily not red flagged and a familiar man on pole position proving again this season he is the man to beat when the going gets tough. A man who delivered not one but two pole position laps......Fernando Alonso. 

Four hours before the race and things were spiced up a bit a suspected technical infringement by the FIA , although the FIA cleared Red Bull , they did however mention that Red Bull have indeed breached one of the regulations however the FIA claimed no action could be taking due to the ambiguity of the rules.

Although Red Bull were accused of cheating since this is not the first time they've been involved with an infringement, I see this as another aspect of F1 . The engineers and teams constantly thrive to find loop holes in the rules and seek performance and that's their job. If it all went right , then just as Brawn GP in 2009 with their double-diffuser they would be called clever and brilliant. I think this makes things interesting and given F1 this added dimension off the track which makes it even more enjoyable. 

"There's no clause in the regulations that refers to the spirit of the regulations"

After an year off , Hockenheim saw two familiar faces on the starting row of the grid on Sunday although roles reversed. As the front runners lined their cars on the grid after the formation lap , the clever Spaniard angled his car to the right , pointing it to the apex of Turn One, giving signs to the home-race-hero that he still remembered how he was squeezed out two years by him giving way for Massa to inherit the lead , his intentions obviously to unsettle the German ,make him ever so cautious and who know's botch the start ? 


When it comes to mind games , there is no one who can play it better than the cunning Spaniard.

As Karthikeyan took his place to complete the grid of 24 , the marshall waved the green flag giving an all clear. As the five red light illuminated, little did we know we that Hockenheim would provide us with great battles all throughout the grid for 67 laps.

It was go , go , go....

Preview: 2012 German Grand Prix

A couple days left for the 2012 German Grand Prix. The mid point to the 2012 Formula One Season still sees no clear favorite driver , no dominating car , no over-powering innovation and each race telling a different story about the pecking order . 

The season started with McLaren dominating the opening race , with Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel looking vulnerable due to the "restrictions" imposed on exhaust-blowing diffusers ( I say restrictions , since the ban hasn't been completely enforced as teams are still harnessing the gases to gain rear-downforce) and Ferrari in the shambles.




Things as they are , seem at a contrast to the beginning of the season. Red Bull people say have the strongest package, followed by Ferrari and Lotus , McLaren have dropped back and are being given tough competition from Mercedes, Sauber,Williams and Force India.

They have rumours of a huge update on the McLaren this weekend which will boost they're chances of victory and regain their form but with things as they are in the current season simply putting on oodles of downforce on any car doesn't seem to get the results. The tyres here play more of a significant role , sometimes more downforce leads to the tyres getting overheated and not lasting and hence that downforce is not "seen" in lap time. 


Understanding the tyres seems crucial to the winning championship this year(understatement of the year award)

Championship so far : Round 9