2013 Belgian Grand Prix
- Alonso edges Vettel in Belgian GP driver poll
- Belgian Grand Prix gets lowest rating yet in 2013
- 2013 Belgian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2013 Belgian Grand Prix fans’ video gallery
- 2013 Belgian GP Predictions Championship results
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 14:31
Wow, that’s an onimous sign for the championship…
OmarR-Pepper (@)
25th August 2013, 14:36
yeahhhhhhhhhhhh
N
25th August 2013, 15:26
I dont know. Spa and Monza are have very specific needs, very slippery cars do well there, but, every circuit after Monza are high downforce, thats were Merc will really come into their own now that they are seemingly really looking after their tyres now.
Theres is a big gap for Hamilton to close, but its not impossible. Hamilton lost the 2007 title with a points gap of around 40+ points with just 2 races remaining.
One bad result from Vettel changes everything.
^Mo^
25th August 2013, 17:11
With two races to go, Hamilton had a 12 point lead over Alonso (who in turn had a 5 point lead over Raikkonen). That was under the old points scoring system btw
N
25th August 2013, 18:21
Yep im aware, he had a 17 point lead over the eventual winner, 17 points in new money is around 40 to 45.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 17:23
I very much disagree with that – Red Bull have never been bad on high downforce circuits, in actual fact they’ve been very strong there!
Slippery circuits are usually their weakness and Mercedes’ strength, hence why this is an ominous sign.
N
25th August 2013, 18:28
Not really.
Mercs strength all through this year has been high downforce circuits, the reason they didnt do so well in the races was because of their terrible tyre wear, but their underlying pace was always strong. Now that they seem to have a handle on the tyre problems, they will be a force in the remaining races after Monza.
Merc wernt great at Spa because they gambled too much on expecting rain, hence their awesome pace through the high speed corners of sector 2 in the wet on saturday.
Spa and Monza are very specfic and have specific needs, teams always bring Spa/Monza specific aero packages to those races. RB being very quick in a straight line there means little for the remainder races, because that low downforce spec car wont see the light of day after Monza.
N
25th August 2013, 18:35
PS i never once said RB wernt strong in high downforce situations, on the contrary, thats been their strength for the past 4 seasons, i did say though that this year, Mercs have been strong at high downforce circuits, actually they’ve been strong at just about every circuit and its commonly accepted they have the quickest car, it just isnt that evident because they couldnt convert those poles into good race results, now though, it looks like they can.
Merc made a mistake in Spa with gambling on wet weather, did you see their barndoor rear wing in comparison to RB’s?
If Merc optd for a better setup with higher top speeds (which we know they’re capable of), Vettel wouldnt have breezed past Hamilton, and the outcome of the race could have been very different. But then again, it could have rained and Vettel could have fell backwards with having little downforce on the car. You win some and you lose some. To say todays result is ominus though, well, i wouldn’t.
Eggry (@eggry)
25th August 2013, 14:32
Great drive from Alonso but Vettel was out of touch. I don’t believe Vettel could win at Monza but this is quite blow for Hamilton and Alonso. They should have won here. I fear Asian season would be dominated by Vettel.
oliveiraz33 (@oliveiraz33)
25th August 2013, 14:40
Asking alonso to win from 9th is quite a big task…
Vettel is in huge momentum, Webber and Massa should have done a lot better looking at their teamates…
This is vettel’s championship… There’s no way he will lose that point advantage, because it’s most likely that it keep’s climbing…
Ricciardo got in the top 10 and 2 positions up on Vergne despite starting behind him in 19th place, so good race for him…
I was hoping for a more exciting race at spa :/
R.J. O'Connell (@rjoconnell)
25th August 2013, 14:48
Even Spa can’t produce a wet weather melee with dramatic closing-laps battles for first every year.
Ricciardo and Alonso had the best drives of the race outside of the dominant Vettel.
Shreyas Mohanty (@)
25th August 2013, 14:57
Vettel didn’t have the best drive for god’s sake. Give on guy a tank and the other a knife – who wins?
Shreyas Mohanty (@)
25th August 2013, 14:58
*one
Roberto (@roberto)
25th August 2013, 15:02
So the overtake on Hamilton was done on AutoPilot or what? It was Alonsos fault he qualified that far down the field. He would’ve had an easy race in second as well (and might have even been able to challange Vettel) hadn’t he fluffed qualifying yesterday.
Ron (@rcorporon)
25th August 2013, 15:05
Hey look… it’s the tired old “it’s the car” argument.
Shreyas Mohanty (@)
25th August 2013, 15:05
@roberto Do keep in mind RBR were low downforce so high straight speed today – and the Mercs seemed to have slipped to their place anyway.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 15:07
@shreyasf1fan I wholly disagree – Webber wasn’t even close and he started directly behind Vettel. Using the same argument for Alonso and Massa isn’t entirely fair either as I think few would argue that Massa is better than Webber (hence why he was so far behind in the half-term rankings).
He didn’t do very well in qualifying (spinning and so missing out on a proper flying lap) and considering he made 5 places almost immediately – kudos to him for that by the way – it wasn’t exactly as if he was massively held up by traffic. After that, it’s just driver and car and the Ferrari was clearly a vastly improved car for this weekend, so I also think it is inaccurate to say “tank vs knife”.
Guilherme (@guilherme)
25th August 2013, 15:21
@shreyasf1fan So he won by 17 seconds while managing his pace for what, 30 laps, and still wasn’t the best drive? Just look at Webber, he looked completely rubbish in the fastest car – mind here, I give you that the Red Bull was the fastest car, but what else you expected Vettel to do with it? Lap everyone twice? Anyway, back to Webber, he also had good top speed, a very high exit speed out of Eau Rouge, and what did he do with it? Absolutely nothing.
Don’t blame Vettel for Alonso not winning mate, the Ferrari had the pace to finish second for the whole weekend, the only reason Alonso started that far down the grid was because he spun and missed his last lap – and as far as I’m concerned a spin is a driver mistake.
Shreyas Mohanty (@)
25th August 2013, 15:21
@vettel1 i wasn’t referring to alonso vs vettel here. I was talking about Vettel and the rest of the grid! Come on, did you see that pace out front? That’s why I hope each year that some other top driver is in the RBR with Vettel – either Alonso or Kimi. If Vettel beats any one of those two with *equal* machinery – I will accept defeat and concede to the greatness of Vettel. Until then, I am rigid.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 15:26
@shreyasf1fan
Well who did then? If it’s Alonso my comment is completely valid.
@guilherme +1 – my perspective exactly.
Shreyas Mohanty (@)
25th August 2013, 15:43
@vettel1 Mate, read my comments again and you’ll see that I never said Alonso was the best driver this week. For me, Ricciardo was best. 9 positions gained is a mean feat.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 15:57
I did @shreyasf1fan – in fact, I quoted it in my reply!
That’s fair enough, it’s presumptuouness on my part to immediately assume you were referring to Alonso as having the “best drive”, so apologies for that. I still don’t agree, but apologies.
Roberto (@roberto)
25th August 2013, 15:58
@shreyasf1fan TBH you could say the same for Alonso. Massa as a teammate is not really giving him an equal opponent in the same machinery. The only time he had a very strong team-mate he came out second best. So to apply this non-sense logic to Vettel seems a bit harsh.
Shreyas Mohanty (@)
25th August 2013, 16:42
@vettel1 well, this place wouldn’t be do much fun if we all had the same opinion, would it mate? ;)
tmax (@tmax)
25th August 2013, 16:47
The days will not be far away when the fans change the yardstick and say Only if Vettel can Walk and Win the race, I will accept defeat and concede to the greatness of Vettel.
Well he won his first race in Monza in a Torro Rosso @ age 19 in an Non Adrian Newey car. Mind you Torro Rosso was not even a mid field car then. To be statically correct Vettel Won a Race even before Newey’s Red Bull won one. so give him a very Little latitude. Agreed Newey is great and ultimate. Then if the machinery is performing on a auto Cruise then why is Webber not even getting close.
To be again Statistically correct,the Great Senna never won anything in a bad machinery and > 80% of his Wins came from front Row of the Grid…….
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 17:26
@tmax even though I agree with your point wholeheartedly your comment is not factually correct – the 2008 STR was designed by Red Bull Technology, headed by Adrian Newey. It wasn’t anything to shout about at that time though absolutely.
tmax (@tmax)
25th August 2013, 18:17
@vettel1 I don’t want to take that argument because of the simple reason, I find it hard to believe that Adrian Newey will sit and design the Torro Rosso whereas his own Red Bull chassis has not won a single race till then. I find it hard to imagine that Horner will let Newey to work with Toro Rosso to enhance their chassis whereas Red Bull themselves were chasing their first elusive win.
If I take your argument that the the Torro Rosso was copied from Red Bull why did they find it so difficult to score points those days forget about points and wins.
Now if you say the drivers of Re Bull ( webber and coulthard) were bad that is what I am precisely saying Vettel has been doing a phenomenal job.
David-A (@david-a)
25th August 2013, 18:23
@tmax – He was actually 21, not 19 (still the youngest ever winner, of course).
@shreyasf1fan – In response, I say that until Alonso wins another championship, or beats someone other than Massa or a rookie, that Vettel has taken over his mantle of best driver on the grid.
tmax (@tmax)
25th August 2013, 18:33
@david-a thanks for the correction. My bad. 19 was his Grand Prix debut and 21 his first win……
Dave (@)
25th August 2013, 18:42
@tmax – At the time STR were running the previous season’s RBR chassis, so Newey did design the STR chassis – indirectly.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 19:14
As I said, I absolutely agree with your point! ;)
I think the cars were very similar in terms of performance and so absolutely that just goes to show how well Vettel was doing even from an early age!
tmax (@tmax)
26th August 2013, 2:00
@raceprouk The only point to be noted is that the Newey designed Previous year (2007) race car only accumulated 24 points in the entire 2007 Season and 29 Points in the 2008 . The Vettel Driven Torro Rosso of 2008 ( Supposedly Newey Designed) had 39 Points in 2008 season of which 35 Points were scored by Vettel and 4 points by Sebastian Bourdais. Also a reminder that Mark Webber was the driver of the Red Bull in those 2 years too.
I guess It still goes on to prove that Newey was the only contributing factor and that Vettel was just a Chauffeur of that car without any particular talent at the age of 21.
All I am saying is that give that kid a little bit of latitude other than saying “Oh that was because it was a Newey Designed Car !!!!”
Dave (@)
26th August 2013, 10:03
@tmax – First, the ’08 STR is the ’07 RBR. Second, don’t tar me with the same brush as the anti-Vettel mob. I rate Vettel one of the top drivers on the current grid, with Alonso, Hamilton, and Raikkonen.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
25th August 2013, 15:18
What does that even mean “huge momentum”. That just sounds like the annoying Eddie Jordan bla bla.
The car is simply faster than all the others and on Vettel’s car they somehow do seem to be able to get the starting system set up properly.
Guilherme (@guilherme)
25th August 2013, 15:23
@patrickl yeah, because Webber don’t have a history of rubbish starts ever since he started his F1 career, therefore it must be absolutely Red Bull’s fault. Oh wait…
Patrickl (@patrickl)
25th August 2013, 15:51
Well Vettel did have those bad starts also, but right now his side of the garage seems to have the problem solved yes.
Roberto (@roberto)
25th August 2013, 15:24
“Starting System” – you mean the Drivers skill? I know they get an amount of help these days (with anti stall and such), but there is still a lot of skill involved in these starts. Something a Webber for example needs to learn more about.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
25th August 2013, 15:52
You might want to educate yourself on F1. There is a huge amount of engineering that goes into the start. Driver skill means little.
Roberto (@roberto)
25th August 2013, 16:02
LOL ok then.
Why have drivers then at all, might as well have “engineers” do the racing for us shall we?
Breno (@austus)
25th August 2013, 16:05
@patrickl so I assume the huge amount of engineering has failed Webber in Minardi, Jaguard, Williams and Red Bull?
Patrickl (@patrickl)
25th August 2013, 16:08
Don’t be ridiculous. There were plenty situatiosn where Webber outstarted Vettel Especially before the Silverstone fallout. But in those cases the team often admitted they got the clutch settings wrong on Vettel’s car.
splinky
25th August 2013, 21:06
Ciaron Pilbeam ( former Webber’s race engineer) has an explanation for MW poor starts….
” Mark doesn’t normally get the best of starts. The initial uptake of the clutch is good, his reaction from the lights going out, around about two and a half to three tenths of a second in reaction time, is good and matches Vettel. But it’s what happens after that which is important and his feeling of the wheelspin and when to apply the KERS – the details of a start – is slightly missing compared to Seb”
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 15:28
@patrickl well since the cars are the same then the weak link must be Webber in setting up the start system.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
25th August 2013, 15:51
Yeah, the weak link probably are his engineers.
David-A (@david-a)
25th August 2013, 16:51
@patrickl – The weak link is Mark Webber. Far too generous to Vettel after peeling away from the start line, and too generous out of turn one, so Alonso got by him.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
25th August 2013, 18:31
Well when the clutch is set up wrong, the car either bogs down or you have wheel spin. Either way, you end up going slower than the cars around. Then you start getting boxed up by the drivers around making you lose even more spots.
Same thing happened to Grosjean and Raikkonen when Grossjean insisted on running Raikkonen off the road costing them both exit speed.
David-A (@david-a)
26th August 2013, 2:15
I’m not referring to any clutch setting being wrong. His start wasn’t bad on Sunday. I’m referring to him not positioning his car well when his teammate defended, then not even fighting the Ferrari out of turn one, when he wasn’t boxed in by anyone.
Eggry (@eggry)
25th August 2013, 15:34
starting system up lol
nackavich (@nackavich)
25th August 2013, 14:36
Ricciardo: 19th to 10th, biggest gain in the race. Solid drive with the right strategy to get him out of that midfield mayhem.
panache (@panache)
25th August 2013, 14:36
Obscene pace from Vettel today. Even when he was saving his tyres he was consistently increasing the gap to those behind.
semilost (@semilost)
25th August 2013, 14:43
NBCSN’s “coverage” here in the States was pathetic. They ran ads EVERY 5 mins!
I love the Pope
25th August 2013, 14:49
Yes, that was far worse than before and much worse than speed tv.
tmax (@tmax)
25th August 2013, 16:49
and the Qulaifying was not Telecast Live yesterday. It was a big disappointment and let Down from NBC Sports
Alfie (@alfie)
25th August 2013, 18:00
You didn’t miss much
R.J. O'Connell (@rjoconnell)
25th August 2013, 14:46
Regarding the MAL/DIR/SUT/GUT incident, and pointing out who’s on my user icon: That was totally Maldonado’s fault and a stupid incident. Honestly, it was worse than a lot of the “HEINOUS AND TERRIBLE” incidents from a year ago. He was fighting with Lewis for a podium place at Valencia a year ago, this incident was for places outside the points. At the same time, he has driven much cleaner than he was last year – Melbourne was a lazy spin, and he was blameless for getting punted at Monaco – but he and the car don’t have the speed to let that shine.
I don’t think the penalties are over, I’d expect him to get -5 or -10 on the grid for Monza. I’m hoping this doesn’t compound and lead to more accidents.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 14:49
His sudden change of mind was ridiculous but meh I didn’t think it was such a bad collision – Sutil seemed to at least partially cut him off.
R.J. O'Connell (@rjoconnell)
25th August 2013, 14:53
And in fairness, it was a compound deal with the dust-up with Gutierrez.
Gotta admit, with NBCSN on ad break and Twitter talking up a “fight” between Maldonado and Gutierrez at the time, I thought they were gonna come back to show the two throwing punches!
toiago (@toiago)
25th August 2013, 14:54
To me it just seemed like he didn’t have anywhere else to go after being tapped by Sutil, as he suddenly saw himself in the path of Di Resta. To me that second collision was simply inevitable.
Michael Brown (@)
25th August 2013, 14:58
Yeah Maldonado should have checked his mirrors before turning into Di Resta, but Sutil cut Maldonado off in the first place who gave him enough room.
TMF (@)
25th August 2013, 15:38
imo, the penalty can be justified (initially I thought it was too harsh) but seems he dived for the pits after the contact with Sutil.
Shreyas Mohanty (@)
25th August 2013, 14:51
Did anybody else get furious when the commentator said Alonso had a “decent” race when he crossed the line?
MNM101 (@mnm101)
25th August 2013, 14:56
Thats very disrespectful, Alonso was great today
Dave (@)
25th August 2013, 15:05
Not disrespectful, but definitely a big understatement.
evered7 (@evered7)
25th August 2013, 15:02
Doesn’t matter if Alonso had a decent race or a storming one. If Ferrari want a shot at the title, they need to find a magic bullet from somewhere. Else they might as well opt out of competing in the championships.
They got back strong in 2010 with the EBD but the other years have been a disappointment in terms of development. Things might change with Allison in place but they need to consistently winning from now on for Alonso to have a shot at winning the WDC.
Roberto (@roberto)
25th August 2013, 15:05
TBH Alonsos pace was very strong today. He should’ve done better in qualifying yesterday and he might’ve had a chance to fight for the win today.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 15:09
He had a good race absolutely. I wouldn’t call it spectacular though – the Ferrari seemed much better this weekend.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 15:10
On that note, they really need rid of Massa. He’s hopelessly off the pace of Alonso and the car – get Hülkenberg in the car and they might actually score the points they are capable of.
Roberto (@roberto)
25th August 2013, 15:17
The Hulk would give Alonso something to think about I’m sure of it! Maybe that’s the reason why Ferrari are reluctant to let Massa go? I don’t think there is another driver in the field which is more in line with playing second fiddle to their team mate than Massa.
OmarR-Pepper (@)
25th August 2013, 15:24
should be done immediately
oliveiraz33 (@oliveiraz33)
25th August 2013, 15:26
Massa is realy in poor form… to be honest I think massa should have gone 2 or 3 years ago, he just can’t justify being in a top team…
Breno (@austus)
25th August 2013, 16:07
Massa wasnt entirely at fault this sunday, he had several problems with his wheel turning on and off (that means everything from kers to radio).
Eggry (@eggry)
25th August 2013, 15:14
That’s same for Vettel, isn’t it?
Patrickl (@patrickl)
25th August 2013, 15:24
Dunno which presenter youa re talking about, but Coulthard on the BBC seemed annoyingly unaware as usual. He kept on droning on about Raikkonen’s brakes smoking on the grid when it was clearly Button’s car (seen from the Grossjean start footage). Or when he felt that Maldonado clearly diving for the pit entry cutting through two cars was somehow a “racing incident”.
TMF (@)
25th August 2013, 17:01
His race was spectacular. But ALO needs to stop trashing his team. After the race the first thing he does is making the 2nd place a bad thing because they couldn’t beat RB. Instead of encouraging the team that they came closer much closer and were faster than Mercedes and Lotus.
In 2 years when HAM and VET have fully matured his performance on track will no longer be enough of an edge and then it comes down to these details. And I wouldn’t be surprised if LDM fires him over this sooner or later.
Todfod (@todfod)
25th August 2013, 18:23
In 2 years if Ferrari cannot produce a championship winning car for Alonso, then Alonso should fire them
Dave (@)
25th August 2013, 18:38
Please link to where he did so. The general consensus from the whole Scuderia was the car was better, but still not good enough, which is a simple statement of fact.
oliveiraz33 (@oliveiraz33)
25th August 2013, 15:30
Anyonw knows what hapened in the podium will all those “booo”s? Was it another Greenpeace protest?
Eggry (@eggry)
25th August 2013, 15:32
@oliveiraz33 http://twitter.com/F1Times/status/371630166499262464/photo/1
Yes, Greenpeace.
Roberto (@roberto)
25th August 2013, 16:05
@eggry thanks for clearing that up. I was going to ask the same thing.
Todfod (@todfod)
25th August 2013, 18:49
Its hard to watch these races over the past few seasons. The brilliance of drivers like Alonso and Hamilton is completely over shadowed by the sheer genius of Adrian Newey. Not to say Vettel isn’t doing a great job, but the constant advantage provided by his machinery is enough to get the job done.
The only interesting WDC battle would be between Vettel and another tier 1 driver as his teammate (Alo, Rai, Ham)… and unfortunately for us, Red Bull have signed Ricciardo to be Vettels teammate.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
25th August 2013, 19:20
I would like to see two of the top drivers in the Red Bull indeed but there’s no guarantee it’ll be a fast car next year. If the Lotus, Ferrari or Mercedes were to end up the fastest car, do we then criticise them for not fielding the best line-up possible?
On a pedantic note @todfod, I think one has to say Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel are all full of brilliance.
Todfod (@todfod)
25th August 2013, 19:35
Not denying Vettel isn’t the same league as Hamilton and Alonso…. just saying it isn’t fair fight
Todfod (@todfod)
25th August 2013, 19:37
Not *implying