Belgium - Ferrari Owners' Club

Let's start off with perspective. My 1600cc, wingless single seater laps at much the same pace as the Pirelli Ferrari formula classics – high 2.50s. I can picture a complete lap in my mind, as I'm sure the FOC racers can. I can also picture our top class cars – 180bhp ex F3 Dallaras - on 2.25s. At 25 seconds a lap faster, they flew by me. To try to imagine another 40+ seconds quicker is frankly impossible......

Seeing a lap with Robert Kubica on TV doesn't help. The speed through Eau Rouge was breathtaking and without any hint of a drop in the engine note. Yet in the Saturday conference Massa said “For sure (sic) Eau Rouge isn't a demanding corner any more.” which for us mere mortals is inconceivable and a little sad. The straights seem tiny, so where we club drivers can breath out and have a bit of a rest, the professionals are hard at it.

Braking for the corners looks to happen about where we turn in, and the drop in speed for quite tight corners such as Rivage is much less than expected. The TV pictures had me hanging on to my armchair with the “G” force around Pouhon, or “turn 10” as the more soul-less drivers call it. The sheer mental and physical effort in comparison with my own efforts was humbling, and I believe that all honest club racers will join me in that humility – these guys are unbelievably good, every single one of them.

As for proportion, consider costs, and please pay attention because we will return to money matters later in this piece: to gain the first 25 seconds advantage, my fellow club racers probably pay 5 or 6 times what I do for a season. To do the same time as them in a professional category – Formula BMW for example – would be around 100 times my costs. To struggle on the back of the F1 grid, say with a Spyker, is 10,000 -12,000 times my costs, and my guess is that the last 3.33 seconds to the front of the grid costs around 30-40,000 times more!

The front of the GP grid was, of course, all red with the cars in the “correct” order at the front, Räikkönen ahead of Massa and the Scuderia's first complete front row lock-out of the season. The Ferraris were expected by all to dominate at Spa just as the McLarens had at Monza – Räikkönen explained that Spa has similar characteristics to Turkey where the team last ruled. McLaren's struggle and the need to push the cars beyond the limit was highlighted by Alonso's spin at Rivage when pushing too hard, and Hamilton regularly locking fronts into the Bus Stop.

This doesn't mean that Räikkönen had it easy though. He came into the pits in the last qualifying session, after his first run, saying that something felt a bit funny at the back of the car. As this seemed just what had caused his Monza accident there was due cause for concern. A bit of comedy wheel-tugging revealed nothing and it says a lot for Räikkönen’s single-mindedness that he then went out and nailed pole.

As this is supposed to be a race report, my report is that the race was dull and boring, though from a tifoso’s point of view it could not have been better as apart from pits stops (2 each) the order was unchanged from start to finish. Neither driver put a wheel significantly out of place; Räikkönen came home 4 seconds ahead of Massa who in turn led the Maccas by 10 seconds. Kubica had a steady progression up the field to ninth by lap 4, where he had several dices with Kovalainen. But whilst Spa is a great driver's circuit, it is not easy for overtaking when cars and drivers are closely matched. Kubica looked as though he deserved better, and Kovalainen looked as though he deserved worse, but it was not to be.

Honda revived a Formula One tradition from the 70s of this year’s car being worse than last’s, as Lotus (80 vs. 79), McLaren (M26 vs M23) and even Ferrari (312B2 vs. 312B) demonstrated. Sato's Super Aguri (2006 Honda) passed Button's less-than-Super 2007 Honda five laps before Swampy parked up. F1's own Ming Campbell, David Coulthard, retired on lap 32 with hydraulic failure. If it had been at the Bus Stop at least he could have used his Bus Pass to get home.

Perhaps the most dramatic moment of a poor race was when Hamilton challenged Alonso for the lead at the start around the reshaped (and improved) La Source. It was a standard Hamilton move – bold, brash and aggressive. But Alonso has obviously invested in a video recorder and has been watching Hamilton's moves. He resisted, firmly but fairly, there was a bit of barging but nothing dangerous and he maintained his position. Great stuff but for me the most revealing part was a sour faced Hamilton whining about Alonso's driving in a post race interview.

The lad is now part of the establishment but he's getting self-absorbed, sulks when he loses and won't acknowledge when he's been bettered, even when it's by a double World Champion. He has a great future in F1 (and professional sport) with that attitude. And on that topic, my fellow scribbler Winston D’Arcy has been hoping that one of the Macca lads will be at the Scuderia next year. I don't think so. I agree there is no way these two can work together but my guess is that Hamilton will stay for at least another year at his home team. Alonso will not be brave enough to risk his reputation at a team capable of winning the World Championship but will either follow the money to Toyota, on the grounds that if they can't do better with his driving and car development skills, then they never will, or he will return as the prodigal son to his own home of Renault who without him have sunk to midfield also-rans.

Has anything else happened in F1 that I should mention? Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya has bought Spyker/MFI/Jordan The owner of Vladivar Vodka (wasn't that the Vodka from Varrington in the 1970's?), Whyte & Mackay's whisky and Kingfisher Lager reportedly paid £50m for the ailing back markers and sure enough, Herman Tilke has already bought a ticket to the subcontinent. Oh joy. By coincidence, that £50m price of Spyker is almost exactly the same as the much talked about McLaren fine, which I have tried to avoid mentioning. As I said earlier, proportion and perspective; they were fined a whole team's worth!

I do not intend to talk about the justice involved in what was undoubtedly the most thorough, professional, impartial and impeccably researched investigation since Lord “Betty” Hutton presented his widely respected and popular Iraq report. The discussion on why a company is fined for the actions of an employee acting outside his brief, and the extent to which the data may have helped McLaren when their car and Ferrari's are so clearly different has been rehearsed many times.

However, the manner in which the affair has been publicly dealt with has undoubtedly brought ridicule and disrepute on the sport. Luca di Montezemolo dedicated the team's win to the Woking copy shop man who alerted the team. That was a bit tacky. However, the kindest comment I can make about some of FIA President Max Mosley's comments is that he must have had a hard week and have been very tired.

Max justified the £50m fine by saying that it would bring McLaren's budget down to that of other teams like Williams. However, development is not something that can be instantly turned on or off. and this year's development budget must mostly be spent at this stage of the season.

As for next year, imagine approaching a sponsor and asking for £50m to pay last year's fine. The truth is that the fine will be paid either by McLaren dipping into the corporate piggy bank or more likely by 40% shareholder Mercedes. What will happen to the funds? Apparently £25m will go to the other teams and £25m to an FIA programme explained by Max on BBC 5Live's Sunday show to encourage motorsport “in developing countries (sic) like Africa and South America.” Does Darfur really needs an F3 Championship?

Sadly, the scandals don't seem to have gone away. Max went on to reveal that McLaren had accused Renault of stealing data “on a floppy disk”. I can just remember floppy disks. They held just over 1mB of information. My iPod holds 40,000 times as much data, so either Renault now hold one low resolution black and white scan of an M29 front wing or Max has a limited g.php of technology.

Although the FIA achieved the once inconceivable task of making one feel sympathetic toward Ron Dennis, at least one team came out of the affair with credit. BMW stated that they did not wish to have any credit if they came second in the Manufacturer's Championship. They wanted to get there on merit only.

This seems to be a generally accepted attitude because when Ferrari secured the Championship, the atmosphere on TV seemed distinctly low key. We must hope that we can have an untainted World Champion. The only way that Formula One can have any credibility this year is if Räikkönen can overtake Alonso and Hamilton. For the sake of Formula One, “Forza Ferrari”!