Nico Rosberg enters Eau Rouge at Spa-Francorchamps during the 2011 Belgium GP
Cornering to the right. Cornering to the left. Driving by the chicane. Accelerating on the straights. Aiming for the apex. Staying behind the slipstream of the car in front. Looking for an opportunity. Press the KERS button. Overtaking the car next to me. Victory is MINE!! Yes, this is what I think about when I drove to work the last few days. As you can imagine, after the long summer hiatus without races, Iam in a full on hungry-for-F1-races mode. The wait is driving me up the Pit wall (figuratively speaking, of course). I wish I have a Pit wall!
So, where did we leave off before the Summer break? Hamilton won the last race in Hungary before the break. However, Alonso leads the championship so far with 164 Driver Points, followed by Webber, Vettel, Hamilton and Raikkonen.
Alonso has been squeezing every last bit of performance out of his Ferrari. No matter how hard Red Bull and McLaren have tried so far this season, their driver/car/team combos are no match to Alonso in his Ferrari supported by the very well-oiled and strategic Ferrari team.
The race is definitely on now between these top drivers. The road to the last race will be tough. All the teams will bring upgrades for this weekend, looking for that slightest edge to beat out competitions.
For the Constructor’s championship, Red Bull is leading, followed by McLaren and Lotus.
In the musical chair of drivers switching teams, everyone seems to be staying put for now. No big changes, yet. The questions remain - Will Massa stay on? What about Schumacher? Anyone remember Kubica, will he recover enough to come back next season? Has Hamilton signed the McLaren contract or is he still looking?
This weekend, we will be at Spa-Francorchamps at the Belgian Grand Prix. Alguersuari summed up the track with, "there are a lot of high-speed corners, but also some straights making it a very fast circuit." The thrill-inducing corner of Eau Rouge will be one to watch out for. Try to keep your eyes glued to the cars as they race full throttle ~75% of each lap!
With high speeds come high tyres temperatures. To accommodate all the hard work the tyres will have to do throughout this fast track, Pirelli will make available the hard tyres as well as the medium tyres. Soft tyres would have simply burned out too quickly. However, with Spa having its own microclimate (read: Rain!), it is entirely possible that intermediates will make an appearance or two. It will also be fascinating to watch how the tyres strategy will unfold at the Qualifying as well as throughout the Race (especially the last 10 laps).
Schumacher has won six times at this track, Raikkonen won four times. These are very good odds for both drivers, but unless Mercedes and Lotus pull something grand out of the bag in upgrades, it may well be Vettel or Hamilton to take home the top spot as they were the recent winners in 2011 and 2010.
All in all, it'll be an action-packed race weekend. All the drivers will be refreshed from the break and ready to hustle on an exciting track. This weekend cannot come fast enough!
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