10.9.10

The usual superlatives came out for Spa. The greatest track in the world, the most testing corners, the drivers’ favourite driving track.  All true, no doubt, and I’ve said the same in the past.  But the Editor asked me, after writing in the past about my efforts at Spa in a wingless single seater, to try the track a couple of months ago in something with a bit of downforce. So (purely to satisfy the Editor) a Dallara F300 (2000 F3 car) was acquired and run.

Now, bear in mind this is a series production car, over 10 years old, and in club racing trim. The corners we hold in awe – Eau Rouge and Blanchimont – are quite a bit different when you go fast with downforce because, as the ex-F3 team owner who built the car told me, “to go faster you first have to go faster”.  What he meant, of course, is that the faster you go, the more the downforce comes in and pushes the car down, which in turn lowers the centre section and diffuser improving their efficiency and creating yet more downforce.

The end result is that, admittedly on just a very few occasions over the weekend, those two mythical corners were flat even for me, and whilst the F1 cars are going substantially faster their aero is a lot more sophisticated, and there’s more of it. This accounts for the fact that the teams with hand operated F-ducts were running one handed through Eau Rouge (and presumably Blanchimont). 

The other relevant point that was brought home to me by the exercise was that the closer you can run to the ground, the greater the venturi effect and so the more the downforce.  Wouldn’t it be useful if the wings and floor could flex a bit to allow them to get closer to the ground?  This, of course, is the latest tweak initiated by Adrian Newey at Red Bull (allegedly), followed by others and now stamped on by the FIA.

The other side of this is that, in slow corners, the reliance is almost as much on mechanical grip as it is in a low downforce, even road-based, car, and if the tyres are robust enough to stand the downforce-aided cornering forces in high speed corners, they’re unlikely to be super-sticky in the slow stuff.  Add in a bit of lubrication in the form of the rain which is inevitable at Spa and you have a circuit which is the ultimate challenge – not just for the drivers but for the engineers who need to select appropriate tyres and car settings. 

Sure enough, qualifying was in the greater part determined by engineers’ tyre decisions and by slow corners. Pole went (again) to Mark Webber. His people were quick enough to seize the opportunity of a dry track - job done. Lewis Hamilton ran in the damp and the general consensus was that it wasn’t the fast corners where he lost the time but the slow La Source.  It’s thought that his use of brand new, rather than scrubbed, tyres also cost time. Were it not for those, McLaren would have had a very dominant pole.

Renault F1 chairman Gerard Lopez has been grumbling that the costs in F1 are higher than expected, having just developed 2 F-ducts and thrown one away. Could cost possibly be why Renault offloaded the team to him in the first place....? Nonetheless, masses of cash and the talent of Kubica put the Renault third. Vettel was fourth and Button fifth, again due to a slow La Source in the wet.

Ferrari had raised our hearts with Friday practice times, only to dash them with no better than sixth for Massa despite a new blown diffuser. There was some concern when both Alonso and Massa, at different times, went off at Rivage – a slow corner – but in the end the real disaster was caused by tyre choice and timing for Alonso.  His final qualifying run was left too late.  It may have seemed sensible to put in a banker first, but the conditions changed for the worse and a combination of misjudged tyre choice and damp lost sufficient time to leave him tenth.  Had he swapped places with Felipe then perhaps the result of this race -  and eventually the world championship - could have been so different.

As fans we concentrate on the drivers as the key figures, and quite rightly so, when they are the gladiators who are risking all for our entertainment.  And yet some of the most successful years for teams happen when they have a star designer or engineer. Journeyman Mark Webber is leading the championship in a Newey car. Jenson Button was World Champion in a Brawn.  I rest my case. The problems that even so great a talent as Alonso was unable to overcome were caused in the pits. Should we as fans not be anxiously hoping that Ferrari recruit not the next Schumacher or Senna, but the next Newey or Brawn?

In the race itself, poleman Webber had a bad start, or perhaps his software did, as the anti-stall kicked in and left him struggling in sixth, soon demoted to seventh. Hamilton took the lead, with Kubica in second. Massa held station which moved him up to fifth and Alonso made up a couple of places to eighth. Sadly, this was an unfortunate move.  As the cars came round Blanchimont some rain appeared. This was just enough to give low-speed braking problems where the grip is back to mechanical rather than aero, and the first five cars simply overshot the Bus Stop chicane. 

Alonso was tight behind Sutil but got the corner absolutely right which was a pity because Barrichello didn’t; he locked up and smashed into the rear of the Ferrari. Alonso had the presence of mind to head directly for the pits where repairs were effected and intermediates were fitted. Whether this was bad luck or bad judgement I can’t say, but it proved the wrong choice and they were soon past their best.

Meanwhile the Red Bulls showed the drivers’ characters – the safe pair of hands of Webber gradually and cleanly made up places. Vettel seemed to be sulking that he was mid field and tried overtaking along Kemmel’s grass edges, with predictably no success. A safety car to retrieve the Williams gave those on slicks a reprieve as the shower stopped and on the restart Alonso was at a disadvantage.  Despite this he made up places and was back to 13th by lap 16, making an aggressive but clean move at the Bus Stop on Liuzzi. Maybe some ex-Scuderia drivers could take note of the difference between “hard but fair” and “near homicidal”?

Mid race, there was a fight most of us thought we would never see.  Sutil’s Force India passed Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes into Les Combes, absolutely fair and square, with considerably more straight line speed. Was it engine or aero?  As they share Mercedes power, perhaps Mercedes were running higher downforce in the expectation of rain, though Force Indias are notably slippery - remember last year? 

Sutil’s team-mate Liuzzi suffered at the hand of the now-dreaded Vettel as Vettel’s rear caught Liuzzi’s nose in another badly judged Bus Stop move. The Bus Stop may be by far the worst corner to drive at Spa – in fact it would be the worst corner at Curborough if it was there – but there’s no doubt it was responsible for a lot of activity and driver error.  Which, I hate to say it, perhaps makes it a “good” corner.  Vettel gave himself a rear puncture and  drove the 4.3 miles round the circuit with no damage.

Ten laps from the end more rain came. The generally faultless Hamilton had a moment at the other bete noir slow corner, Rivage, where he went off and oh-so gently kissed the foam barrier. No problem, he stayed in the lead, and did so to the finish but must have had a few nervous seconds.

With 8 laps to go, all the cars put inters on. Kubica made a pit box error which slowed the otherwise slick stop. Webber got the jump to pass him for second which is where he finished.  Vettel did a second stop having rooted his inters, which completed his “how to destroy your young superstar credentials in one race” checklist. However, his time will come.

If Alonso was lucky to escape Barrichello’s assault, his luck ran out at the slow Malmedy corner where the delightful Mademoiselle Grip decided to take a short vacation, leaving strict old Madame Armco to cover for her. After 2 kisses, the F10’s passione (or at least its front right wishbone) was destroyed, the car stopped at right angles to the road.  Certainly Alonso was pushing harder than he would have done had he been running in a higher place, but despite his flaws, this push is why we Tifosi like him better than Raikkonen. The aforementioned ex F3 Team Manager reckons that were Alonso in a Red Bull, the championship would have been done and dusted some time ago.

There was no choice but a safety car. After the restart Rosberg did well to muscle past teammate Schuey for sixth, just behind a well deserved and seemingly error free drive for Sutil. To emphasise my point about engineers and strategists being potentially more important than drivers, the post race explanations were that the Mercedes team planned the race to run like this and that as a result the team finished better than the car deserved.

The front three, Hamilton, Webber and Kubica each had near, but not quite, faultless races. In fourth, Massa did everything that could be asked of him. He drove with no significant mistakes to run consistently and safely.  This sounds almost dismissive but I mean it as great praise. Alonso ran out of luck, because he needed to call on it so often after a single bad call in qualifying. Massa did everything right, and with a bit more from the car would have been right there.  Hopefully, at Monza, he and Alonso will be.

PS: I said Massa did everything right. Not quite, because he lined up a few centimetres out on the grid. The ever alert Belgian officials spotted this too late to do anything but the FIA had a post-race investigation. To revert to my own experience, the Belgians got my grid place wrong by 32 places and despite having it pointed out to them did nothing and offered no apology. One of the links between club and top level motorsport is that officials, especially outside the UK, can sometimes leave something to be desired. [Tony started from the back of the grid in both races, rising to 12th in Race 1 and 15th in Race 2. These were (effectively) his second and third races in the car - Ed].

PPS: What the F1 boys need to do for the slow corners is a few Curboroughs. Get the Noggin and the top hairpin right and the Bus Stop and Rivage are no problem.

Click here for FIA lap chart

Stefano Domenicali: “This weekend definitely did not end well for us, even if Felipe’s fourth place, at the end of an impeccable and error free race in conditions that were far from easy, is an important result. Fernando saw his race compromised right from the first lap, the unwitting victim of an accident and then, despite fighting his way up the order, he ended up off the track in the sort of incident that can easily happen in a rain-affected race. Apart from that, and any other considerations, we must recognise that our performance in this Grand Prix did not match our expectations and interrupted a positive trend that began a few races ago: we have to understand why immediately and take the necessary countermeasures."

Felipe Massa: "I think this is a positive result and, given the way the race went and the accidents that put Vettel and Button out of the game, we can even say we were a bit lucky. This weekend, Red Bull and McLaren were stronger than us, but we worked well as a team, making the right choices before and during the race. Our set-up was a bit more efficient in the dry, while we suffered a bit in the wet, especially in the middle sector, while in the first two we were reasonably competitive. Now we go to Monza, for our home race: we hope to do well at a track where speed and stability under braking count for a lot. We will continue to fight right to the end, even if the situation in the championship is ever more compromised.”

Fernando Alonso: “ It is very disappointing, because this is a bad result, but it does not mean I have given up on my chances of winning the title.”