Red Bull aiming to strike back at Spa (Belgian Grand Prix preview)
Mark Webber needs to recover from his poor race at Valencia
Racing on Valencia’s uninteresting point-and-squirt street circuit one weekend, and the majestic sweeps and crests of Spa-Francorchamps the next, is swapping the ridiculous for the sublime.
Many driver name Spa as their favourite because it allows them to explore the limits of their machines and themselves. With the possibility of rain thrown into the mix, and we have an excellent weekend’s racing ahead of us.
After a miserable, point-less race at Valencia, Red Bull have to produce the goods at Spa to keep themselves in the hunt for the championships.
On paper, the RB5 should be very strong around the 7km lap. The car has proved most efficient at circuits with high-speed corners, which the Belgian venue has in abundance.
Added to that, temperature for the weekend are expected to be cool, and there is a chance of rain – again, both sets of conditions have suited Red Bull nicely this year.
The biggest problem for Red Bull – as discussed here yesterday – is the likelihood that Sebastian Vettel is going to get an engine change penalty sometime soon.
Brawn re-discovered their previous levels of performance at Valencia and it wasn’t confined to Rubens Barrichello’s car. Jenson Button set a quicker fastest lap than his team mate, but the combination of poor qualifying and a bad start ruined his race.
Barrichello’s Valencia win has brought him right back into the drivers’ title battle. It was the culmination of a run of four races where he’s looked more than match for than his team mate, even if it hasn’t always been reflected in the results:
| Race | Barrichello | Button | Notes |
| Britain | Q2/R3 | Q6/R6 | |
| Germany | Q2/R6 | Q3/R5 | Barrichello ahead until pit stop problem |
| Hungary | Q12/R10 | Q8/R7 | Barrichello has car failure in qualifying |
| Europe | Q3/R1 | Q5/R7 |
The softer tyre compounds being used at Spa this year could play into Brawn’s hands. this year the teams will have the medium and soft Bridgestones, instead of the hard and medium tyres brought last year.
If Brawn can get a decent result at Spa, which in theory should not suit them as well as Red Bull, then they should be able to approach the final fly-away races with much more confidence. But will it be Button or Barrichello leading the way?
Some teams have wondered allowed how significant McLaren and Ferrari‘s KERS power boosts will be at Spa. It has by far the longest flat-out section of any F1 circuit – 1.8km – and which should make the KERS cars incredibly difficult to live with on the opening lap as they sprint from La Source, through Eau Rouge, and on to Les Combes.
Finally, no preview of the Belgian Grand Prix would be complete without mentioning the disgraceful conclusion of last year’s race. It was one of those heart-sinking moments when the powers-that-be took what had been a thrilling race at a classic circuit, and ruined it with poor governance and incompetent stewarding. Let’s hope they get it right this year.
Drivers to watch
Luca Badoer – This race will decide whether Luca Badoer gets to stay in the Ferrari until Felipe Massa returns. A huge step forward over his Valencia performance will be expected.
Sebastian Vettel – After two consecutive no-scores, Vettel’s position in the championship battle is looking increasingly vulnerable. But we’ve seen what he’s capable of in wet weather – if it rains at Spa he must be favourite for the win.
Robert Kubica – A minor improvement from BMW saw Kubica return to the points at Valencia. On the market for a 2010 seat, and usually strong in the rain.
Kimi Raikkonen – Last year he came within a couple of laps of winning four consecutive Belgian Grands Prix. Has been on the podium in the last two races. Surely this is his and Ferrari’s best chance of a win this year?
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Nirupam said on 26th August 2009, 11:11
For SPA this year, I will bet for Vettel/Kimi/Lewis/Alonso for win.
I will have to choose 3 though for the coming prediction! :P
Prisoner Monkeys said on 26th August 2009, 11:29
I don’t think it’s going to be a case of Red Bull being first and second and Brawn finihsing outside the points as a lot of people make out. It’s Red Bull terrirory to be sure, but that’ not to say Brawn is at a disadvantage.
The thing is that Brawn have never really run a good car in cool conditions. China was certainly cool, but the deluge means that it can’t really compare. They introduced new parts for Silverstone, and while that race and the Nurburgring were both less-than-impressive, everyone attributed it to the condition. But the Hungaroring was supposed to favour the car, and they struggled even more. It became apparent that their upgrades were the problem. And I should think that the upgrades were more likely to blame than cool conditions.
That’s not to say Brawn will utterly dominate, however. The car might be suited to stop-start circuits, but Spa has its moments that will play into their hands. I’d watch them particularly through the Bus Stop, La Source and Les Combes; the Mercedes engine is faster than the Renault, so they’ll have more speed from Blanchimont and Radillion, before slowing down for the stop-start sections.
This, I think, is Red Bull’s race to lose again. They have to decide which championship they want to win; if they want the drivers’ title, they’ll have to back Webber absolutely. But if they want both, they have to trust to Webber to do the job and support both drivers equally.
I also think Button will be more comfortable now that Barrichello is at his back. Once Vettel scored his Silverstone win, he moved into second place overall, and I think Button was conscious of that. Now that Barrichello is in P2, he’s got a bit of a buffer. That, combined with his annoucement that it’s going to be take-no-prisoners from hereon in, and I think he can at least do something. Maybe not a win, but certainly be a thorn in Red Bull’s paw.
SamS said on 26th August 2009, 11:36
Totally agree. I think that Brawn have settled down a bit from the fan fair of hte opening rounds. Hopefully they have sat down and tried to begin to sort our their cold issues.
I also beleive the choice of tyres will only make the race more interesting.
i that if HAM or RAI are near the front it is going to be tough to pass them with their KERS as you mentioned Keith.
Red Bull have to be worried about Vettels engine though, or maybe they just had a dodgey batch in Valencia.
One thing is for sure Spa is possibly the best race on the calender this year and I cant wait to see Jenson and the guys this weekend and hopefully Jenson will get his mojo back!
mp4-19b said on 26th August 2009, 11:38
many people might disagree with me here, but i’m of the strong opinion that redbull must go for the kill. They shouldn’t be looking at conserving engine by turning down the revs. Vettel especially, as he’s got only 2 engines left must go for it. Knowing adrian newey, i suspect he’ll be thinking the same. you never know. this aggressive strategy might just pay off. going by the trends in the last few races, it seems barrichello has upped his game, webber is just where he need to be & button seems to be suffering severe lack of confidence. Vettel must take advantage of all these factors. I don’t see button challenging for wins anymore, rather he’ll be looking to play safe, settle for good points. red bull should be very aggressive if they want vettel to be part of the fight.
Aardvark said on 26th August 2009, 12:06
Looks like rain again, at some point during the race.
Not sure who this’ll favour: the Red Bulls looked awesome in the wet in China and Malaysia, but it’ll be a completely different car by now. Button’s ability to keep his nose clean will help him.
Hamilton’s skill should be unbeatable in the rain, but it’s as if the team tells him which tyres to have and when. This hurt them again in Valencia. Decisive tyre choices by the driver always help in the wet: look out for Glock or Heidfeld popping up with a good result.
Hopefully Badoer will keep the stewards distracted so they won’t meddle with the frontrunners…
mp4-19b said on 26th August 2009, 12:40
i think neither red bull featured on the podium at malaysia.
you might be right, but he did look ordinary at China and Malaysia earlier this year.
Hopefully Badoer will keep the stewards distracted so they won’t meddle with the frontrunners…
that, i think the most important point you make.
Tom said on 26th August 2009, 14:39
re. red bulls in malaysia: that’s cause they ran out of time. webber and vettel were stunning (until vettel lost it into a gravel trap)when the rain came.
Hell$torm. said on 27th August 2009, 6:14
i think that the car was mostly to blame for lewis’s average showings in malaysia, because in wet weather you need a good balance between front and rear grip, wich the earlier car did not have and suffered from having poor aerodynamic ballance.
i would like to see a wet race, should provide some good action and tighten up the championship.
f1rocks said on 27th August 2009, 2:00
“the Red Bulls looked awesome in the wet in China and Malaysia, but it’ll be a completely different car by now…”. True Red Bull have made massive changes but two fndamental things haven’t changed – it has a lower centre of gravity with the rear end engineering e.g. pull rod suspension and it still punishes its tyres more than the Brawn which means in cold conditions they are still generating heat while Jenson will be swevering down the straights trying to get some heat into them. Go Webber!
Alex Bkk said on 26th August 2009, 12:36
Some teams have wondered allowed…do you mean aloud…
Cheers, Alex
GQsm said on 26th August 2009, 12:37
In the Renault Belgium GP preview quotes, Romain says he still works part time at a bank in Geneva on Tuesdays!
“Q. How did you spend the days after your first grand prix?
RG: I stayed in Valencia for a day to enjoy the city and get some rest before I went home to Geneva. Then on Tuesday I went back to work at the bank to keep in touch with reality! I think it’s important to continue like this as I enjoy working there and this routine has always worked well for me in the past.”
I wonder if he gets many autograph requests while serving customers.
ade said on 26th August 2009, 12:37
On the post-race BBC Red Button Forum, Martin Whitmarsh noted that McLaren’s KERS wasn’t particularly going to be an advantage at Spa due to problems with what he called ‘Harvesting’.
mp4-19b said on 26th August 2009, 12:41
what is Harvesting?
Ronman said on 26th August 2009, 12:51
It’s collecting energy from braking in order to charge the batteries…
F1Paul said on 26th August 2009, 12:38
Surprising how little you mention the Ferraris and Mclarens in this preview, given their return to form and undoubted impact that they will have in the overall championship outcome.
I think Lewis stands a great chance of victory in this one. He’s one of the best in the wet and has the advantage of KERS to get him away well at the start. With that in mind, he’ll be afforded the luxury of having a good few options on his fuel load in quali, as even if he starts a few rows back he should get a jump on both the Brawns and Red Bulls off of the start.
Of course Kimi and Heiki also have this advantage, but I just don’t see Heiki doing the business at the moment, and Kimi has come up second to Lewis too often to suggest he’ll get the better of him. Still, i think Kimi will be good for a podium.
Who gets the third podium spot is hard to say… Spa has a habbit of chucking up a few surprises, so I’ll say Mr Consistent, Niko Rosberg could be there or there abouts, with the Red Bulls being the victim to one of those aforementioned surprises.
So yeah, my prediction: 1st Hamilton, 2nd Raikkonen, 3rd Rosberg. Brawns and Red Bulls battle it out for the last remaining points.
F1Outsider said on 26th August 2009, 16:45
He’ll do well until water gets into the KERS system and it fails and he abandons the race in a giant plume of smoke…
Ned Flanders said on 26th August 2009, 13:21
I’m not too bothered who wins this race. What is most important to me is that we get a great race. 9 consecutive poor/ terrible races would really be testing my faith in F1.
Raikkonen is looking good for the win- he always goes well at Spa, the F60 has been much quicker recently, and has always been strong on high speed circuits. And, importantly, he has KERS, which should gain him a few places on the first lap.
If Raikkonen wins, perhaps this could be the first time a driver has finished first with his team mate last…
Hakka said on 26th August 2009, 16:50
Hmmm…
Quoting Raikkonen:
Hakka said on 26th August 2009, 13:58
Vettel and RBR are going to be pretty concerned that Spa has the longest period of continuous full throttle of any track on the calendar, and that 63% of the track is taken at full throttle.
Let’s hope there isn’t another failure for Vettel during FP and qualifying itself. They may turn the wick down for him for FP, but it would be interesting to see if they do the same for Mark.
Tom said on 26th August 2009, 14:40
don’t forget monza is the next race too! oh dear…
mp4-19b said on 26th August 2009, 14:46
can red bull sue renault for providing them sub-standard engines? i’m no other customer cars have had engine failures this year, that mercedes seems bullet-proof, ferrari & toyota are doing a fine job. Its only the renault that seems to be having problems. But i cannot blame renault fully, cuz Adrian newey car designs always seem to suffer from engine related issues, you can go back to the days of williams-renault in 91-92, in 91 engine related problems cost mansell the championship imo, again 98-05, especially 00,04,05 that merc engine kept coughing up every few feet & fingers were pointed at Adrian Newey & his aggressive design. its common belief that aero & engine never compliment each other & add to it adrian newey, its a recipe for fireworks.
PJA said on 26th August 2009, 15:09
I seem to recall when Newey first went to Red Bull they had a contract for Ferrari engines but he wanted them to change to Renault engines as they require less cooling than the Ferraris. So Toro Rosso ended up getting the Ferrari engines.
Hakka said on 26th August 2009, 15:24
Interesting hypothesis.
Becken said on 26th August 2009, 15:54
Well, Renault was the only manufacturer that made some adjusts on their engine power this season. Something could have been wrong regard rehability on this process, I suspect.
But, I was looking to Mark Webber´s engine usage and he used the engine number 5 four times. How this could be possible when Sebastian have all this failures sounds strange to me…
Patrickl said on 26th August 2009, 20:30
The stats on f1wolf don’t say that he used engine 5 four times. Only that he used the 5 already used engines 4 times. He could have used engine 5 then 4, 3 and 2. It would still say “used 5 engines this season” after every race.
Wesley said on 27th August 2009, 0:29
Very astute observation mp4-19b.
The Renault cars don’t have the engine failures that Red Bull do.It must be the air flow,less cooling maybe?Or maybe the gear box?
Mailman said on 26th August 2009, 14:16
Keith wrote:
Race Barrichello
Britain Q2/R3
GermanyQ2/R6
Hungary Q12/R10
Europe Q3/R1
In Hungary, Barrichello qualified 13th.
Easy to make that mistake I suppose as Massa didnt start and eceryone behind him on the grid moved up one place for the race …
Fuel Adjusted his stats are:
Britain Q3/R3
GermanyQ4/R6
Hungary Q13/R10
Europe Q1/R1
(Info from http://www.pitlanefanatic.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=795 )
Patrickl said on 26th August 2009, 20:34
In Valencia, Barrichello was Q2 fuel adjusted. Hamilton was Q1.
It’s a common mistake that people forget that Hamilton drove another stint after he set his fast lap.
Of course the fuel correction should be based on the fuel level at the time of setting the lap. Normally the last lap is the fastest, but in this case it was about 3 laps earlier.
Tarzan said on 26th August 2009, 15:31
I certainly hope Red Bull aim to do better this week end. They don’t have much choice really.
Interesting thought the Newey/fragile engine hypothesis. It could explain why Alonso hasn’t had the same problem as Vettel.
Ral said on 26th August 2009, 15:34
While I’d love Raikkonen to win, I doubt the Ferrari is up to it. Ferrari (and McLaren although to a lesser extent recently I guess)’s weakness has been the high-speed corners and I think there are too many of them for either team to really feature the way they have in the past two races. Also, while the “straights” are long, so is the lap itself and they won’t have enough kers charge to last them the lap. So they will have to be choosy about where to apply it and where not to. In the end, both Ferrari and McLaren will have to make more extreme compromises in their setup than Red Bull or Brawn, or possibly even Williams, Toyota and Renault. Start aside, I think it will quite heavily impact their qualifying and therefore race result.
eF-0nE said on 26th August 2009, 16:07
i hope Kubica get few more points at sunday.
Rahim said on 26th August 2009, 16:40
c’mon Kimi Raikkonen….This is the best possible chance for a Victory and to prove yourself to the NON BELIEVERS