2017 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa Francorchamps, 25-27 August

[PlatinumZealot]

Eau rouge is supposed to be taken with
a sole pinkie finger on the streering wheel. Let's talk about that like we do every year shall we?

[godlameroso]

This year not even, it's taken via steering wheel telepathic link. I think they could even take it flat out in the wet. Now Pouhon, that's the one I wonder if they can take flat in qualifying, maybe a slight lift like in Copse. I fully expect turn 9 to be flat as well.

[Jolle]

Remembering last year it was a tenth and a half between mercedes and red bull in Q3. Given that the engine advantage is smaller this year I expect it to be close between the big 3. The good thing is that you can overtake at Spa.

Last year it was just Rosberg due to Hamilton’s PU penalties. It was a “just enough” lap. With both drivers in the mix, they would have gone a lot faster.

[sosic2121]

Remembering last year it was a tenth and a half between mercedes and red bull in Q3. Given that the engine advantage is smaller this year I expect it to be close between the big 3. The good thing is that you can overtake at Spa.

Last year it was just Rosberg due to Hamilton’s PU penalties. It was a “just enough” lap. With both drivers in the mix, they would have gone a lot faster.

Kimi was also less than 2/10 behind. I do believe Rosberg was great at driving "just enough", but gap looks too small to me.
Maybe pole is not guaranteed.

[iotar__]

Remembering last year it was a tenth and a half between mercedes and red bull in Q3. Given that the engine advantage is smaller this year I expect it to be close between the big 3. The good thing is that you can overtake at Spa.

Last year it was just Rosberg due to Hamilton’s PU penalties. It was a “just enough” lap. With both drivers in the mix, they would have gone a lot faster.

Kimi was also less than 2/10 behind. I do believe Rosberg was great at driving "just enough", but gap looks too small to me.
Maybe pole is not guaranteed.

All the wrong angles as usual :
- what is this just "just quick enough" nonsense? Rosberg had one of the better laps in China '16 where Ferrari were close/on par. BTW in Singapore Hamilton didn't have any penalties and Rosberg was ~0,6 quicker than second Ricciardo and ~0,7 than third LH. Draw conclusions from that . Dragging Hamilton into everything.

- Vague recollection but wasn't there an issue with tyre pressure, other settings or with tyres in general? https://www.pitpass.com/src/seasons/201 ... turday.php

NR:We had a difficult weekend until Qualifying. Especially, this morning we were thinking that we were off the pace a bit. So I was really happy to grab pole today. The Red Bulls were quickest on the long runs on Friday, so we need to be at our best to beat them. The tyres are a big challenge in the heat here this weekend. The degradation is very high. My disadvantage at the start is that I have a harder tyre with lower grip,

- what is the point of dragging '16 results again as some kind of indication of '17 form? Can't you remember Ferrari vs RB at Monaco, or against Mercedes at Hungary/Singapore. For the 100th time, RB from last season is not RB from '17, they can go whining about the engine but that's not the reason they're losing to Mercedes and Ferrari now.

- As for '17: A. the usual, Mercedes slight favourites here. B. overtaking is possible with consequences to strategy.

[sosic2121]

- what is the point of dragging '16 results again as some kind of indication of '17 form?

Spa is considered a power circuit, but cars with lesser engines were only 1.5/10s behind last Year. If that gap was realistic, maybe engine difference is not detrimental this year.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

- what is this just "just quick enough" nonsense? Rosberg had one of the better laps in China '16 where Ferrari were close/on par. BTW in Singapore Hamilton didn't have any penalties and Rosberg was ~0,6 quicker than second Ricciardo and ~0,7 than third LH. Draw conclusions from that . Dragging Hamilton into everything.

The day you stop feeling offended, whenever Rosberg's statistics are put in perspective, you would understand the picture better.

Now the point that the other posters are discussing is that, last year's Pole lap at Spa would have been much quicker, had there been a competition for pole. Because "Hamilton" was not participating due to PU penalties, Rosberg could go there and do an easy lap to get pole. Just to put things in perspective, in the very next qualifying in Monza, Hamilton out-qualified Rosberg with 0.5 second. The third fastest car of Vettel was 0.35 second further adrift. That shows, the SMALL gap that existed at Spa, wasn't real and hence, there was a possibility to achieve much bigger time gap.

With that, it wouldn't be wrong to say, the pole time for last year could easily have been 1:46.2xx.

Oh and yeah, regarding the 2016 China qualifying, I suggest you go back and see what really happened last year in China qualifying. I am not talking about Hamilton's problems, but how both the Ferraris fluffed the last flier. Without that, "Rosberg" wouldn't have had "one of the better laps" in China. Needless to say, once again, a beneficiary of lack of competition from "Hamilton". It was a damp qualifying and you know better who is good in damp/wet.

[Artur Craft]

I've been conservatively wrong on every prediction I've made thus far, so I figured I'd try going the other route this time

Fair enough

Remembering last year it was a tenth and a half between mercedes and red bull in Q3. Given that the engine advantage is smaller this year I expect it to be close between the big 3. The good thing is that you can overtake at Spa.

Unfortunately, the opening of the PU regulations made Mercedes stretch it's legs over Renault(they said their 2017 PU is just 0.3s faster than their 2016's while FI claimed Mercedes made "unprecedent" gains with their 2017 PU), so, I'm afraid Red Bull will be far this time and, as said by godlameroso, Rosberg could've gone faster(just look at his Q2 time on the soft compound)

But, after some many tracks with not great racing, I think we might see some nice battles this time.

For the 100th time, RB from last season is not RB from '17, they can go whining about the engine but that's not the reason they're losing to Mercedes and Ferrari now.

except there are several videos out there showing that they, normally(I guess Silverstone QLF, on that damp track, was an exception), do not lack speed on the corners. Being fair to them, their RB13 car might not be much better than Ferrari or Mercedes, but it's not much worse either. It's there or thereabouts and the PU makes the most difference(their performances on Monaco and Hungary are further evidence of that).

[ironrose]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EdMsHAUX_A

Going by the video I think it will be

Merc dominant from Turn 2 to Turn 7
Ferrari dominant from Turn 8 to 14
Merc dominant from Turn 15 to 18
Ferrai dominant in Bus Stop Chicane and first hair pin (Merc lost lot of time in those hairpins at Hungary)

[GPR-A duplicate2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EdMsHAUX_A

Going by the video I think it will be

Merc dominant from Turn 2 to Turn 7
Ferrari dominant from Turn 8 to 14
Merc dominant from Turn 15 to 18
Ferrai dominant in Bus Stop Chicane and first hair pin (Merc lost lot of time in those hairpins at Hungary)

Well, that kind of prediction would come close to true, "IF" everyone is running a high downforce spec. As Both Spa and Monza require a far more trimmed downforce package (lowest downforce package for the calendar), it would be hard to take Hungary as a reference for cornering performance. Whoever has the powerful PU, can afford to bolt a little more wing.

[TAG]

Well, that kind of prediction would come close to true, "IF" everyone is running a high downforce spec.

Why do you have to ruin everything? I think it's a fair point for turn 8 regardless as that's a very low speed turn which have shown the Ferrari to be superior in all season long.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Well, that kind of prediction would come close to true, "IF" everyone is running a high downforce spec.

Why do you have to ruin everything? I think it's a fair point for turn 8 regardless as that's a very low speed turn which have shown the Ferrari to be superior in all season long.

If you observe what happened throughout the season, you will see a varying pattern.
Mercedes did well in Australia, which does have some slow corners (for pole and first stint).
Mercedes struggled in Russia's S3, which had a lot of slow corners.
Mercedes was the best car in Spain's S3, which again had slow corners. (Just like Hungary, the way Vettel opened the gap in last sequence on Lewis, it was Lewis who had done that in Spain and got pole !!!).
Mercedes flopped badly in Monaco.
Mercedes again did extremely well in Canada (albeit one car) and Baku that contains a lot of slow corners.
Mercedes failed in Hungary again.

So, it shows, when they get it right, they can do very well in slow corners and when they get it wrong, Ferrari beats them. There is definitely something about that "Diva" that they are struggling to get it right.

[godlameroso]

I think it's the nature of the corners, that if the road is flat, and smooth Mercedes can hold it's own, but if the road is off camber, or bumpy in the slow sections Ferrari tends to have more grip and stability in the slow stuff. Moot point as there's only La Source, and Bus Stop in Spa, the rest is mostly medium, and a couple high speed turns, and after the recent re-paving and usually cool weather, it should favor Mercedes on paper. However I won't count my chickens before they hatch, Ferrari should be close, and Red Bull may have something to say.

Frankly, I'm more interested in the midfield battle, will we see a relatively competitive McLaren? Will Force India be a force to be reckoned with? Will Williams continue struggling? Will Renault continue it's improved pace? What about the Haas, or the Toro Rosso? Will Sauber still be a backmarker supreme?

[TAG]

...and Red Bull may have something to say.

something like, hey guys! wait up! :0

Horner has already started talking about how they're going to be on the back foot.

[djos]

...and Red Bull may have something to say.

something like, hey guys! wait up! :0

Horner has already started talking about how they're going to be on the back foot.

They've said that before and then been surprisingly competitive at spa.