The Official Not606 Belgian GP Chat & Predictions

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Who will win at Spa?

  • Sebastian Vettel 234 Pts

  • Mark Webber 149 Pts

  • Lewis Hamilton 146 Pts

  • Fernando Alonso 145 Pts

  • Jenson Button 134 Pts

  • Felipe Massa 70 Pts

  • Nico Rosberg 48 Pts

  • Nick Heidfeld 34 Pts

  • Vitaly Petrov 32 Pts

  • Other (please specify)

Results are only viewable after voting.
McLaren hoping to have a qualifying pace to match their race pace for the next two weekends:

McLaren aims to improve qualifying form in second half of 2011

"In terms of closing the gap to red Bull, we have had a competitive race car for some time now," Neale told a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in on Wednesday. "The qualifying pace is where we have been falling short.

"I'm pleased to say that - except for the slight blip at the British Grand Prix – the trend has been good and we have been closing in.

"We haven't got the cars in the right part of the grid, but we are developing at a better rate and there are a series of upgrades planned for these next two races."

Neale said part of the disparity between McLaren's relative pace in qualifying and races could be explained by the design concept of the DRS wing, which can be optimised either for race balance or for one-lap speed.
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AbsolutelyGlorious said:
They've run short gearing. The difference between a race setup and quali setup gearing wise isn't necessarily dictated by top speed (which would require a longer gearing for qualifying) but where you want to be fast.

Gearing is a compromise between acceleration and top speed, so a shorter range gives you better in gear acceleration, but clips your top speed on long straights, i.e Red Bull reach 280km/h quickly but can't go much faster than that on longer straights. The upshot is that they're accelerating from corner to corner quicker, their car is geared for ultimate lap time rather than straightline speed.

This was okay when they were clear of the field, they could pull out of DRS range in the first two laps and then dictate from there. And another advantage is that on high fuel you're less likely to hit top speed and be punished for the shorter range, which further enabled them to sprint clear early on. A good example of this was Barcelona, McLaren's outright pace was largely down to the tyres, but on the pit straight you could see Hamilton closing faster and faster as the fuel loads came down and Vettel hit the limiter earlier on the straight.

Now they've been caught they'll be very vulnerable on the straights especially with DRS if they persist with short gearing. If they're under attack they'll find it very hard to defend, particularly on Kemmel with DRS, and if they're attacking another car it's difficult to get a run at them into the braking zone, and DRS becomes next to useless as Vettel found out trying to pass Massa at the Nurburgring.

Basically a qualifying setup focuses on outright lap times, while a race setup factors in that they may have to fight other cars on track, usually this is achieved through longer ratios. It seems a bit counterintuitive, similar to last year when they were under-fuelling the cars, it took them longer to complete the race distance but because overtaking was so difficult track position was king.

Somewhere like Monza with lots of long straights, a qualifying setup could use longer gears than a race setup because of the higher top speeds achievable on low fuel.
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I know how gearing works, i was just curious if a longer gear could possibly hurt their performance during corners. Thank you for the answer given. It's like i said, because of their aggresive quali based gearing, with the car topping out at around 190 mph, they struggle in a straight line.
 
Vettel please, can you put my points with Nick as I am he. Not bothering with the sweepstakes again as I always lose. Can't wait for Spa, one of my favourite circuits and races.
 
Practice tomorrow. <diva>

Hope the BBC are quick uploading their interviews today. No doubt they'll do them, then Holt/Benson will write an article focussing on the most trivial point of one of them, and then they'll upload the videos at about 11PM.
 
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2011/8/12422.html

Felipe Massa, Ferrari
2010 Qualifying - 6th, 2010 Race - 4th
“Work was already carried out before the break to prepare for the next two races in Belgium and in Italy and we will be bringing some aero updates to Spa, including new wings to try out. Everything seems to be going in the direction we expected, so I hope we can have a good weekend. Like most drivers, I love driving at Spa and I have some good memories of winning there in 2008,"

Massa still thinks he won in 2008. What a tool.
 
Well the weather is likely to play a big part of this coming weekend.
I think with the months lay-off Red Bull will come back strong and I have a sneaky suspition that Webber will come good.
Hamilton will be on the podium but Button? First or Fifth! :)
 
McLarenDan said:
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2011/8/12422.html

Felipe Massa, Ferrari
2010 Qualifying - 6th, 2010 Race - 4th
“Work was already carried out before the break to prepare for the next two races in Belgium and in Italy and we will be bringing some aero updates to Spa, including new wings to try out. Everything seems to be going in the direction we expected, so I hope we can have a good weekend. Like most drivers, I love driving at Spa and I have some good memories of winning there in 2008,"

Massa still thinks he won in 2008. What a tool.
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History books show he won, if Hamilton didnt cut the corner, it may have been different. And if he didnt cut the corner, he wouldnt have been close enough to Raikkonen to overtake him.
 
ReallySeriousName said:
History books show he won, if Hamilton didnt cut the corner, it may have been different. And if he didnt cut the corner, he wouldnt have been close enough to Raikkonen to overtake him.
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Hamilton won that race and I don't care what alonso fans or massa fans or any fans think. Hamilton gave the place back and the FIA penalise him! Idoits and ****ing ****s the FIA are.

Massa also I don't know what he is playing at. He was gifted that win and even Raikkonen deserved it more than him
 
I can't believe people are still arguing about this. <doh>

I saw people bickering about it on James Allen's forum and thought we were lucky to avoid it - I spoke (or rather thought) too soon. :(
 
Even Kimi Raikonen thought what Hamilton did was fair, he cut the chicane and gave the place back, but the stewards decided to change the rules without telling anyone, it was possibly one of the most flagrant abuses of power I've seen in F1, after all they let Prost, Senna and schumacher deliberately take out their title rivals to win the WDC and not strip them of their titles, how can they have the temerity to penalise someone for following the rules?

I'm not a particularly big Lewis fan, but I don't think anyone can look on that decision and be happy about the way he was cheated out of a win, because that's exactly what happened. A case of "it's our ball and we make the rules, when and where we like, depending on who we favour at the time"
 
The FIA would have a leg to stand on if Raikkonen didn't crash out as well. I think it's a farce, but that's not the issue; Massa boasting about his win as if it was an awesome achievement annoys me.
 
Miggins said:
Even Kimi Raikonen thought what Hamilton did was fair, he cut the chicane and gave the place back, but the stewards decided to change the rules without telling anyone, it was possibly one of the most flagrant abuses of power I've seen in F1, after all they let Prost, Senna and schumacher deliberately take out their title rivals to win the WDC and not strip them of their titles, how can they have the temerity to penalise someone for following the rules?

I'm not a particularly big Lewis fan, but I don't think anyone can look on that decision and be happy about the way he was cheated out of a win, because that's exactly what happened. A case of "it's our ball and we make the rules, when and where we like, depending on who we favour at the time"
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Yeah they should have clarified the rule not penalised Lewis for it.
 
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