F1 Talk: Vettel closes the gap on Hamilton in Belgium

We got the on track fight that we wanted in Belgium but it didn’t exactly bring many fireworks to the race. It all happened very early on and from then on in, Lewis Hamilton couldn’t get close to Sebastian Vettel and had to settle for second place.

Both drivers were pretty much perfect all race long as they eased away from the rest of the field. It always amazes me how racing drivers make no errors over a stint or race distance, not even a tiny error like a lock up or going a little bit wide. Of course, I only saw the TV pictures like most of you have but from what I saw Vettel and Hamilton were on it and drove beautifully.

Coming into the weekend, we were all unsure of how close it would be between Ferrari and Mercedes. It now looks like Ferrari have the edge, even on a track which should suit Mercedes and conditions that should favour Mercedes as well.

Seeing the top 3 cars in Q2 split by half a tenth at one point was music to my ears. It’s amazing that two completely different teams who have been working in the factories non-stop all summer with different drivers can bring out the same result, on the longest track of the year as well!

We won’t know until Monza (unless it rains again) if Ferrari would have locked out the front row in dry conditions as rain started to pour as Q3 began. It remined me of the 2013 qualifying in Belgium when rain began to fall seconds prior to Q3 and Force India gambled with Paul Di Resta to go out on intermediates whilst the other nine cars went out on slicks. I was surprised nobody gambled to do the same thing.

Force India did gamble to try and set a lap on slicks in a wetting track and both drivers were lucky to escape the barriers as they slid around the 7.004KM Spa-Francorchamps circuit. But because the best conditions were at the end, they went onto their intermediate tyres later than everybody else so their tyres were much fresher and it got them onto the second row of the grid.

An excellent result for a new entry!

To be serious though it really is a mini fairytale to go from being in administration were it can all end up going horribly wrong (even though it was unlikely) to having superb car pace which they haven’t shown all year long is phenomenal. I was so happy for them, especially for Esteban Ocon who is searching for a drive in F1 for possible the final part of this season and next season. A shame his race pace was bettered by Sergio Perez who drove very well.

Meanwhile the Red Bulls were not filled up for the whole of the session and didn’t refill their cars when they switched from slicks to inters. As was Kimi Raikkonen who had yet more hard luck when he looked on it all weekend as well. Even the Iceman must be getting frustrated now as the team are not giving him the best chance of extracting the most out of himself and the car.

On the subject of Raikkonen I fell very sorry for him. Not enough fuel in qualifying was a silly error from Ferrari, especially when Vettel was filled up for the rest of Q3. Then in the race, Raikkonen gets hit by Ricciardo at La Source.

The Finn gets a puncture but he has more damage than that. On the team radio he was saying “the rear wing is broken, I want to come into the pits so you can check it” yet Ferrari were reluctant and said “stay out” then it turns out it’s Raikkonen’s DRS that keep opening so Ferrari retire him. This is coming off the back of Germany and Hungary when Raikkonen was given a poor, poor strategy by the team. Are they trying to make him retire from F1 or something?

It was Nick Hulkenberg who instigated the multi-car collision at the start of the race. He was at towards the back because of engine penalties along with a few others. The German simply missed his braking point, locked up and slammed into the back of Fernando Alonso who then went flying over Charles Leclerc whilst clipping the back of Daniel Ricciardo’s car who then hit Raikkonen.

Quite amazing that one silly error caused all of that. He received a 10-grid place penalty and three penalty points on his racing licence which is fair enough.

Meanwhile Valtteri Bottas did a very similar thing by hitting the back of Sergey Sirotkin yet only got a 5-second time penalty, that was applied after the race as well! How come it takes two hours to give a five second penalty? And it is completely meaningless because it didn’t drop any positions!

It’s something I really don’t get and is quite stupid really to give a penalty that doesn’t do anything. A reprimand would be better in this case because it’s more of a punishment.

Anyway, back to Hulkenberg’s incident and it was just a brain fade really. He doesn’t have a reputation of causing crashes and it was a complete accident. After the race, he talked about how you lock up almost immediately with these 2018 cars because you lose downforce from the car(s) ahead. It’s something that needs to be sorted out but he still should have avoided the collision.

http://gty.im/1023851206

Onto the halo. Anyone who is still against it must surely see why it has been implemented. We may have been talking about something very different had the halo not been there to protect Charles Leclerc. The FIA think the halo stopped Leclerc’s head from being hit. They would say that though but I tend to agree with them, for once.

Even if his head wasn’t going to be hit this incident shows exactly why the halo is needed because the risk is still very much there. A similar incident will happen at some point in the future and the halo will be needed to save a driver from injuries. It was a scary accident and it just shows the dangers of the sport that can creep up on you at any moment.

I for one, am used to the halo and don’t even notice it anymore. The onboard shots aren’t as pretty but you get used to it, just like with anything in life. If it can save a life or an injury it should be there. You can’t argue against safety. It’s not extreme and it’s not like the cars have stabilisers. The speeds are as high as ever through the corners which means bigger impacts if there are accidents.

Up front, Hamilton and Vettel were in a league of their own as they gapped the Force India cars and Max Verstappen. Hamilton did everything he could at the start to compromise Vettel’s exit coming off La Source at the start but Vettel had the perfect gap up Eau Rouge and Raidillon to blast past Hamilton down the Kemmel Straight. Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez got a double and triple slipstream and made it four wide momentarily.

They were all so close to a monumental crash but they all judged it perfectly.

Initially, I though Ocon was going to take the lead into Les Combes but he wisely backed out of it. It would have been a very different race had the Frenchman taken the lead.

On the safety car restart, Hamilton had a look into the Bus Stop chicane to take the lead away from Vettel but he backed out of it and couldn’t stay close enough to overtake Vettel after Raidillon. It was his best opportunity of taking the lead back.

Then the gap stayed between 3-4 seconds for the majority of the first stint and when Hamilton pitted he needed to be within two seconds of Vettel but he was around 3.5 which even with an effective undercut, he wasn’t going to regain the lead after the pitstop phase.

I think Mercedes were trying to make Vettel come out behind Verstappen after the German’s pitstop but they miscalculated it slightly. They should have came in one lap earlier.

Hamilton breezed past Verstappen and tried to make inroads on Vettel but he ultimately didn’t have the car pace. Both drivers turned down their engines for the final 10 or so laps of the race to save their engines, knowing that there will be tougher fights to come and they need to do lots more millage on their current engine.

And so to Monza. Another classic and it’s known as the “Temple of Speed”. Ferrari haven’t won there since 2010 with Fernando Alonso and this year is by far their best chance.

They have to be favourites as their strong points are the engine and low speed traction, two of the biggest aspects to a quick car around Monza. The Tifosi will be out in their thousands and a Ferrari win will be something that Raikkonen or Vettel will never forget.

One special record that could be broken is Juan Pablo Montoyta’s fastest ever lap in F1 history which was set in 2004 in qualifying with a lap-time of 1min 19.525 around the Autodromo Nazionale Monza translated to an average speed of 262.242kph (162.950mph). That’s the time to beat this weekend.

Last year it was spoiled with rain so we didn’t get the chance to beat it so even though the halo is going to add lots of drag to the cars, more engine power, more knowledge and the incredible speed that the 2018 cars will be able to do in places like Ascari and the Parabolica should mean that Montoya’s record will be beaten. With small aerodynamic changes for 2019 which will slow the cars down by around two seconds, someone could cement themselves into the history books on Saturday. How fitting would it be if it was a Ferrari driver.

Daniel Ricciardo is set to start at the back of the grid because of guess what… using to many bits of his engine. Just like last year, he will have to come through the field. At least we will see some cracking overtakes from the Australian. Renault have said that their Spec engine will be worth 0.3 around Monza which I find hard to believe given their engine troubles but if it’s true, at least it will be a good step forward as they look to get to the pointy end of the grid.

Most of you won’t agree with me but I actually don’t like the Italian Grand Prix. It’s nearly always a procession, it’s an easy one stop race and it lasts for 75 minutes. You don’t get the slipstreaming battles like in the days of Peter Gethin’s famous 1971 Italian GP victory.

Any overtakes we do see are usually very easy as you can’t race or fightback if you do get overtaken. It should stay on the calendar, don’t get me wrong, but as a racing circuit I’m not a fan of it.

But don’t let me put you off, a Ferrari win will be something special and you will not want to miss it.