2016 Belgian Grand Prix - Fri 26 – Sun 28 Aug 2016

[Chuckjr]

Let's be realists. Nicos best can't beat Hamilton.

I completely agree, you could already see against Schumacher that Rosberg lacked in racecraft.
But his qualifying was always excelent, when Rosberg is relaxed he is just as fast over a single lap than Hamilton (not better).
The problem is, he just gets weak at the knees when Hamilton is around on raceday.

Why he does that, i do not know.
Earlier in the year i thought he finally had grew a pair of balls, and just focused on the winning instead of his teammate.
But it turned out that was not the case ....

I think it is a shame, because the championship would be a lot nicer to watch when there is genuine competition between two (or more) drivers.

Lets hope for some rain and let Verstappen, and Hamilton fight for victory =D>

It's because Nico is thinking and trying to beat Hamilton. The key he is missing -- the only way he will ever beat him is driving innately. In Chinese it's called 'mushin', meaning 'no mind'. Not mindless like an idiot, mindless as in not reactive. Reactive driving is the key to slowness. He must relax and let go completely. This is how Hamilton drives (most of the time) as well as Alonso and a few others and is why they are so good. Until Nico stops 'trying' to beat Hamilton, he never will. He will likely find that out when he's 80 and looking back and that's why he won't beat him right now. He's reactive. He's myopic. He has to stop caring so much and thinking so much and drive for the love of driving. That's the way he will find time.

[Racer X]

Pérez on Super Soft will make it so that he has to come out for new tires sooner then the top 10.

So I'm almost certain he won't be fighting for the top 5 he will finish maybe 7th or less.

Just basing this guess on tyre degradation.
So I hope Nico can be top 10

So that Force India can beat Williams in the Contructors Championship.

[search]

Matt_b has it correct, they were simply covering the chance that the track got quicker towards the end of the Q2 session and the later runners who could have pushed them out of Q3, with the lap being so long they had to be on track and on a fast lap just in case. I do not see them using the Supersoft Tyre in the race unless either the temperature drops significantly or they get a puncture or a safety car with only a few laps to go and they are marginal on which ever tyres they are on.

Do you have inside info or just your guess?

The later runners had to improve 1.5 seconds to push Ferrari out.

most of them did their first laps on used tires though, which costs you around 1 second. Button came close to beating Vettel in the end, and as McLaren, Haas, Renault and Wehrlein all had a kinda similar pace in Q1, I think it was the right decision, even in hindsight.

[SectorOne]

Alonso staying positive for the race:

"Provisional grid. First row for Lewis and me."
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJn403Qhfsh/

[bauc]

http://www.accuweather.com/en/be/franco ... ast/962410

Thunderstorms @1pm?!

[Jef Patat]

Don't bet on it:
http://www.yr.no/place/Belgium/Wallonia ... ailed.html

Some clouds. But certainly not 50% chance. Local weatherforcasts predict slight chance of a shower for the region.

[bauc]

Don't bet on it:
http://www.yr.no/place/Belgium/Wallonia ... ailed.html

Some clouds. But certainly not 50% chance. Local weatherforcasts predict slight chance of a shower for the region.

Good as I would love to see dry & hot race full with overtakes and good strategy calls [-o<

[Steven]

It's certainly going to be considerably cooler than on Friday and Saturday.
The 35°C from Quali will be 26°C and clouds instead, so expect an even larger drop in track temperature than those 9 degrees.

This should play to the advantage of those starting on the super softs, including Verstappen and the Force Indias.

[ClarkBT11]

Hamilton's starts have improved a great deal compared to the start of the season, he tries to hold back if he's starting in second place in the warm up lap trying to leave Rosberg sitting at the start line longer to allow more heat into the clutch of Romberg's.

Correct me, if I am wrong. I thought that during the warm-up lap, each car needs to be within 2 car lengths from the car in front. It seems that Hamilton is sometimes further behind. This is an inappropriate tactic used by Hamilton, right?

It's ten car lengths but it looks more than that near the grid. If Hamilton does it I don't see why Nico chooses not to use the same tactic.

[ClarkBT11]

It's certainly going to be considerably cooler than on Friday and Saturday.
The 35°C from Quali will be 26°C and clouds instead, so expect an even larger drop in track temperature than those 9 degrees.

This should play to the advantage of those starting on the super softs, including Verstappen and the Force Indias.

This will certainly make Hamiltons job easier. His stints will be a lot longer in the cooler climate. We've seen before he can make the tyres last but it could be a different story in the dirty air he will find himself in, only time will tell.

[search]

I don't think Hamilton was sandbagging when he said that he'd be happy to score points at all. Mercedes seems to have similar problems as in Singapore, not getting the tires in the right window. Their long run on the softs yesterday morning was hopeless, one second off the pace. The lower temperatures today may help, or not, we will have to wait and see I guess

[basti313]

Hamilton's starts have improved a great deal compared to the start of the season, he tries to hold back if he's starting in second place in the warm up lap trying to leave Rosberg sitting at the start line longer to allow more heat into the clutch of Romberg's.

Correct me, if I am wrong. I thought that during the warm-up lap, each car needs to be within 2 car lengths from the car in front. It seems that Hamilton is sometimes further behind. This is an inappropriate tactic used by Hamilton, right?

It's ten car lengths but it looks more than that near the grid. If Hamilton does it I don't see why Nico chooses not to use the same tactic.

There are obvious reasons, but we will not figure out which one is true, so discussing them is useless. And the discussion would spoil the thread already before the race.

It's certainly going to be considerably cooler than on Friday and Saturday.
The 35°C from Quali will be 26°C and clouds instead, so expect an even larger drop in track temperature than those 9 degrees.

This should play to the advantage of those starting on the super softs, including Verstappen and the Force Indias.

Well, I did not believe in the usual talk about tires lasting only one lap. We had this so many times and it was never true, they always managed to run the option tire for 10 to 15 laps when 2-3 laps were "announced" after Q.

Of course 10 laps in Spa is a lot, but anyways Ves will be able to run 7-9 laps on the SS, maybe even more when it is cold, which leads to an easy SS-S-S or SS-S-M.
His stop will leave him right in front of Ham and then trigger a lot of S starter stops for track position. And this track position is the key: He will always be able to stop before the others and will be on the right tire to finish the race in the end. Others will need to go on the SS or M at the end, which leaves them either in a difficult position in dirty air or simply too slow to overtake.
I think, except for the Mercs, SS-S-S is the tactics to go for.

[search]

Well, I did not believe in the usual talk about tires lasting only one lap. We had this so many times and it was never true, they always managed to run the option tire for 10 to 15 laps when 2-3 laps were "announced" after Q.

Of course 10 laps in Spa is a lot, but anyways Ves will be able to run 7-9 laps on the SS

I very much doubt it. 5 laps at most, if at all, it has rained over night, there will be no grip at all

[nevill3]

They have introduced an extra kerb overnight to reduce the chances of debris being dragged onto the track on the exit of turn 9, Leige.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/spa-i ... 10826/?s=1

[basti313]

Well, I did not believe in the usual talk about tires lasting only one lap. We had this so many times and it was never true, they always managed to run the option tire for 10 to 15 laps when 2-3 laps were "announced" after Q.

Of course 10 laps in Spa is a lot, but anyways Ves will be able to run 7-9 laps on the SS

I very much doubt it. 5 laps at most, if at all, it has rained over night, there will be no grip at all

No grip means, that it favors even more the SS as it has more grip and will slide less than the S. With lower track temp it will not overheat aswell.

With a green track and lower temp my bet is on a podium for Ham. Too high tire deg might be the only problem for him.

They have introduced an extra kerb overnight to reduce the chances of debris being dragged onto the track on the exit of turn 9, Leige.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/spa-i ... 10826/?s=1

http://cdn-4.motorsport.com/images/mgl/ ... turn-9.jpg

Who will kill the first wishbone? Vet? Ves? Mas???