James Allen: The big Spa questions

The Belgian Grand Prix at spectacular and historic Spa-Francorchamps is always one of the most eagerly awaited races of the season.

But as James Allen explains, Brawn GP will be going into Friday morning practice with a slight sense of trepidation, while Red Bull is in a serious strategic dilemma regarding Sebastian Vettel’s engine situation…


This is going to be a great weekend. I can just tell. The sun was shining when we arrived here this morning – it’s clouded over now, as is Spa custom – and there was a noticeable buzz in the air.

I think everyone in F1 gets up for this race; the drivers are following in the wheel tracks of the legends.

This is the track of Clark and Senna and Schumacher, and to add your name to the list of Spa winners must rank alongside the list of Monaco winners, certainly for any driver who has a sense of history.

There is a lot riding on this race for the two teams fighting for the world championship.

Jenson Button acknowledged today that the Friday practice session will be probably one of the most important of the season for Brawn, because the team will learn whether it has got on top of its problems with warming up the tyres which have hammered its competitiveness from June to early August.

In Valencia the car went very well, but it was stinking hot there. In these cooler ambient conditions, will the Brawn light up the tyres or not?

If the team is competitive here then it’s looking pretty good for Button’s championship (or maybe Rubens Barrichello’s).

If the weekend turns out to be a repeat of Silverstone, with the Red Bulls in another race from the others, then Brawn could suffer some more losses and will be looking ahead nervously to Monza and Suzuka.

Button said that he fears the KERS cars here, with their ability to shadow him through Eau Rouge and then push the button to pass on the long uphill straight to Les Combes.

He said that he would need to have more fuel in his car and pass the KERS cars using strategy.

But he contradicted that later when he said that his lesson from the start in Valencia, where he was boxed-in in midfield, was that he should change his strategy approach and get out front so he’s not caught up in it.

Red Bull suffered a massive set back in Valencia with the lack of competitiveness of Mark Webber and the double engine failure of Sebastian Vettel.

Now 25 points behind and having only two fresh engines for the rest of the season, Vettel is going to have to compromise his practice sessions and run extra miles on race engines, or take a 10-place grid drop somewhere.

This should be Red Bull’s race and for Webber in particular a win is a necessity.

The driver who is worth keeping an eye on is Kimi Raikkonen. He has really raised his game lately and has been on the podium at the past two races with very strong drives.

Spa is a special place for him; he won here in 2004, 2005 and 2007. He was in contention for the win last year before the crazy rain storm intervened in his battle with Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari have stopped developing their car but this race is a bit of a one-off aerodynamically so everyone has brought new wings and so on, and in Raikkonen’s hands the Ferrari may well be able to get its first win of the season.

This would only increase the pressure on his temporary team-mate, Luca Badoer.

Source: ITV