Belgium GP 2013: FP1 & FP2

This weekend, the world of Formula One visits one of the most iconic and oldest tracks in its history. Although it has been changed since motor racing first visited the circuit in 1925, the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is still a favourite racing circuit for both drivers and fans.

  I particularly love the high speed, flowing corners of the track and it is one of my favourite tracks to watch to watch Formula One drivers attack each corner and fly down the straights. Although I've never personally been to the track, it is one which I would love to visit in the future, especially to see Eau Rouge in its full glory.

  Whilst I am watching coverage of the F1 weekend, I do not usually write posts relating to them specifically. Most of my previous posts have focused on drivers or rumours or the overall performance of a team so this weekend I thought that it was time to try something different. I've decided to write posts both regarding Free Practice 1 & 2, which took place today (Friday) and I will be writing another post on Sunday afternoon giving my race reaction. What better place than the Belgium GP to start my posts regarding a race weekend?!

  

I decided to watch the Sky Sports F1 coverage of Free Practice 1 and 2 and found immediately that there was a lot of focus on Mark Webber's replacement. As of yet Red Bull have not announced who has inherited the race seat and so even after the F1 summer break, this topic is still being constantly brought up. With no new developments in the story aside from a few rumours that Daniel Ricciardo has already signed the contract, it seems as though Sky have gone far enough with the story now. Granted, FP1 this morning was damp so there was not a lot of action on the track to discuss, but I think there should be less focus on this now. Apart from this and the annoying advertisement breaks throughout the programme, I enjoyed FP1 this morning.

  It was good to see the cars back on the track for the 90 minute session albeit with the intermediate tyres on in the damp conditions. Damp conditions unsurprisingly caught some drivers out, as they explored the limits of the race track and we saw a lot of lock ups and run offs at the bus stop chicane, from Raikkonen to Bottas to Gutierrez to Vettel. 

  Alongside these excursions, teams were also testing new development parts for their cars. Most notably, Lotus and Sauber were testing their own versions of the 'double drs' system, which when operated dumps drag and can gain up to 3 tenths of a second per lap. Lotus had already trialled this system last season, but it has yet to feature in any of the races, either last season or during this one. 

  Red Bull had also made changes to their nose cone on the car, as it is slightly flatter than previous versions of the part and Ferrari had also made changes to their brake ducts alongside Lotus. Ferrari had also been running two rear wings, one with lower downforce on Massa's car and one with higher downforce on Alonso's car.

   With around 45 minutes to go, Mark Webber was the first to put slick tyres onto his Red Bull, which was interesting to see as each driver had a dilemma. In some parts the track was dry and therefore needed the slick tyres, however around the pit lane the track was still clearly too damp for the slick tyres. In the dry section of the track, sector 2, Webber set a time of 50.8 seconds with 40 minutes to go, which was 4 seconds off Jenson Button's 46.6 he set in the same sector during qualifying in 2012 which gave him his first pole position for McLaren. 

  At 24 minutes to go, Alonso and Perez were swapping the quickest times at the top of the board, after most runners had also put on a set of slick tyres. Compared to a 2:00.500 set by Button at the beginning of the session, Perez' 1:55.518 illustrated that the track was drying out and drivers were finding their confidence. 

  However, with around 19 minutes left of the session, the rain started to fall again and so it was hard for drivers to get in any quicker times. At the end of the session the top ten looked like this:

1. Alonso 1:55.198
2. Di Resta +0.026
3. Sutil +0.175

4. Perez

5. Rosberg

6. Vettel

7. Gutierrez

8. Hulkenberg

9. Ricciardo

10. Bottas

With the damp conditions and limited running during FP1 it is impossible to know if this data is representative of what the cars are actually capable of. It will depend on the weather during qualifying and the race, and at this early part of the weekend I wouldn't look too much into the times. 

FP2 gave us totally different weather conditions. Instead of a damp track and the threat of rain, it was sunny and dry at the circuit and this meant that the teams and drivers were able to complete more running. This weekend the tyres available are the hard and medium compounds, and we saw both of these being run during the session. 

   There was a busy start to the session, with most cars getting out on track to make up for the limited running in the first session and with this we also saw some more development parts on the cars.

  McLaren were running a new rear wing n plate on their car, Mercedes had a new rear wing and Lotus had taken off their 'double drs' system, which they ran earlier in FP1. 

  With 30 minutes gone of the session, Webber had set the fastest time of 1:49.390, considerably faster than in FP1. Red Bull were looking competitive during the session, and finished with Vettel topping the session with a 1:49.331 and Mark Webber close behind. The only downside of the session as far as they were concerned was that Vettel suffered from a right rear puncture near the end of the session, which signalled the end of his session. 

  Caterham driver Van Der Garde suffered from a setback at the end of the session after crashing into the barriers after turn 14 after losing the rear of the car which brought out yellow flags and the end of his session.

The top ten at the end of FP2 were:

1. Vettel

2. Webber

3. Grosjean

4. Massa

5. Vergne

6. Raikkonen

7. Alonso

8. Perez

9. Rosberg

10. Di Resta

With the Friday sessions now over, the drivers have one session left tomorrow before qualifying. As usual the Red Bulls seem competitive, in both racing and qualifying pace. Lewis Hamilton has had a few set up issues and has not been entirely happy within the car, but it would be foolish to write him off for pole position just yet. He always seems to get it right for Saturday. 

I still think it is too early to see the improvements that Ferrari and McLaren have been trying to make and we will get a better idea of that tomorrow perhaps after FP3. My prediction however as it stands now is that it will be Red Bull and Mercedes going head to head for pole position.

Predictions:

Pole: Hamilton

Win: Hamilton 

Focus on F1: Paul Di Resta

Through all the rumours and the matter of the World Driver's Championship, there are many different aspects to Formula One. Sometimes, I find that the media focus so heavily on the latest rumour linking Kimi Raikkonen to Ferrari or how Lewis Hamilton is now seemingly in the hunt for the 2013 World Title, that we forget about the other talented drivers which we encounter at every race, but do not necessarily receive the attention they should.
  The media is quick to notice when someone performs extraordinarily well or when someone falls short of expectation or when they become outspoken, but no driver is given the nod when they are doing well within their team and is quietly getting on with the business in hand. There are so many underrated drivers on the grid at the moment and I believe one of these to be Paul Di Resta. Although he has captured the media's attention over the past couple of races due to his allegations against his team, prior to this I found that there was not much focus on the young Scot. 
   Already in his third season competing with Sahara Force India, it seems as though Paul is ready to show everybody exactly how talented he really is. Many people may not know that he beat Sebastian Vettel whilst competing and winning his Formula Three title and this is one indication of his speed and talent. I've noticed recently many people criticise Paul and his performances, suggesting that he perhaps isn't good enough. This baffles me somewhat as it makes me wonder if they can see the same thing as me when I'm watching the tv. The important thing to remember here is that he isn't driving the fastest car with the most downforce yet he is still managing to regularly score points in races and qualify within the top 10 (prior to recent qualy problems.) Clearly the car he is driving at the moment isn't capable of winning races or podium finishes because there are teams such as Red Bull, Lotus and Mercedes which are much faster. Di Resta is capable of overtaking, racing other drivers hard and fairly, and is rarely involved in accidents or incidents with other drivers. 
   One side of Paul that we've seen more of this season is when things start to go wrong. For three consecutive races from Monaco to the British GP and even in Hungary, Di Resta has qualified towards the lower end of the grid, for various reasons.
   In Monaco he qualified in 17th place due to the team failing to put on a new set of intermediate tyres in time for him to set a time at the end of the session when times were tumbling, similar to the way that the team didn't manage to get him out in time during qualy in Canada at the next race, resulting him starting the race from a familiar 17th. For these errors Paul blamed the team, but faced criticism for being quick to blame them. Personally, I do not feel as though he did anything particularly wrong here, he was obviously frustrated as he knew what the car was capable and it was clearly better than the 17th place it qualified. After it happened twice in as many races, it's no surprise that he was disappointed and I'm glad he felt as though he could be honest about his feelings at the time. Formula One is a team sport, and so the team should rightfully accept some of the blame for the situations although on the flipside of that some would argue that Paul so accept some responsibility too. Maybe he should.
   One of the most impressive moments of the season was when Di Resta qualified in 5th place for the British GP. However I cannot imagine his frustration when he was later disqualified from qualy and made to start from the back of the grid for being 1KG underweight. Nevertheless, it was still an amazing effort from the driver, and even more amazing to learn that even with the added kilo, he still would have qualified in that position. He really outperformed the car that afternoon and fought back the next afternoon coming from 22nd to 9th to score 2 points at his home race.  
    As it stands Di Resta is currently 10th in the WDC standings, after 10 races. He has 36 points, a career best and has scored more points in the first half of the 2013 season than for the total of the 2012 or 2011 seasons. More importantly, he is consistently beating his team-ate Adrian Sutil, who is no F1 rookie, and this shows in the current 13 point difference between the two drivers. Paul is constantly improving, and surely deserves his chance at a bigger team with a more competitive car that is capable of competing for championships.  

With still 9 races to go in this season, although Di Resta is very unlikely to win the WDC, he is historically stronger in the second half of the season and this provides an exciting feeling for the rest of the season. Along with all the other drama that constantly surrounds F1, you're going to want to be watching the Belgium GP weekend, starting on on 23rd August, with the race on the 25th.