Formula 1 2016: Round 13 - Belgium Grand Prix

Harika

Formula 1 is heading to the Ardennes, land of one of the best memorable overtake in recent history and always prone to rain.

TV times, live on Sky and Channel 4

Friday 26th of August 2016

Belgium Grand Prix first practice 09:00
Belgium Grand Prix second practice 13:00

Saturday 27th of August 2016

Belgium Grand Prix third practice 10:00
Belgium Grand Prix qualifying live 13:00


Sunday 28th of August 2016

Belgium Grand Prix Start: 13:00

Main Questions:

Will Hamilton take the engine penalties in Spa or Monza?
Will Ocon be a match for Wehrlein?
Will there be really no rain, as the forecast tells it?

Charlie-Bravo

For those of you on Virgin Media, and I know most VM customers will be tuning into C4, but Sky Sports Mix are broadcasting the Qualy and Race sessions live. Virgin Media Channels 105, 400 or 430. HD on the relevant channel depends on which box you have.

Hopefully they'll continue for the rest of the season showing the races on their Mix channel.

Ghost Train

Mercedes and Force India to test halo

https://twitter.com/suttonimages/status/768862528625672192

Weather looking okay today, sunday forecast shows some thunderstorms in the afternoon

antodeco

It actually looks ok on the Mercedes! The carbon fibre effect with their colouring seems to suit it.

Myrddin

astrofluff wrote: »

For those of you on Virgin Media, and I know most VM customers will be tuning into C4, but Sky Sports Mix are broadcasting the Qualy and Race sessions live. Virgin Media Channels 105, 400 or 430. HD on the relevant channel depends on which box you have.

Hopefully they'll continue for the rest of the season showing the races on their Mix channel.

Smart by Sky...no way will it continue though, this is just to give people a flavour of complete f1 coverage to entice them over.

AMKC

Would love to see Fernando win here this weekend but don,t think its going to be this weekend maybe next year.
The Saubers are looking a bit better and have to say that Estaban Ocan is doing a good job so far in the Manor.
The Force India,s are looking good too.

Adbrowne

Harika wrote: »

Formula 1 is heading to the Ardennes, land of one of the best memorable overtake in recent history and always prone to rain.

funnily enough it was mentioned today in the practice that only 4 of the last 16 Belgian GP have been rain affected.

Myrddin

AMKC wrote: »

Would love to see Fernando win here this weekend but don,t think its going to be this weekend

I've a strange feeling your going to be right there...

skipper_G

With the warmer temperature yesterday and today the tyres seem to be graining heavily. In particular the Supersoft. Might end up with some interesting strategy for the race

Harika

Ferrari could be in a world of pain: http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/spa-scorcher-could-leave-ferrari-with-tyre-headache-809974/ as SS lasts 5-6 laps with full load.

Mike Litoris

That's impressive stuff out of Wehrlein! Q2 is going to be interesting.

skipper_G

Mike Litoris wrote: »

That's impressive stuff out of Wehrlein! Q2 is going to be interesting.

A whopper of a lap from him! There's a statement for his new teammate if ever I saw one.

Also the force india's are looking quick

Ghost Train

A pity Hamilton and Alonso not running in Q2

Wonder will there be some tyre strategy for Q2 for Rosberg

Interesting to a see a Williams up at the top

Mike Litoris

skipper_G wrote: »

A whopper of a lap from him! There's a statement for his new teammate if ever I saw one.

Also the force india's are looking quick

Yeah FI always go well here. Then theres the lap from Massa at the end! Mad session.

HighLine

Genius move by FIA to allow a situation whereby a driver can get a 55 place grid penalty and thus obviously he won't run anymore than 1 lap in qualifying. Great show for the Hamilton fans who showed up today.

Faugheen

HighLine wrote: »

Genius move by FIA to allow a situation whereby a driver can get a 55 place grid penalty and thus obviously he won't run anymore than 1 lap in qualifying. Great show for the Hamilton fans who showed up today.

Think you'll find the majority of Hamilton fans who went today would have known a couple of months ago that this would happen.

HighLine

Faugheen wrote: »

Think you'll find the majority of Hamilton fans who went today would have known a couple of months ago that this would happen.

Really... you honestly think that?

Ghost Train

Button only 9th on super soft (so far)

Mike Litoris

Gutted for Wehrlein if he doesn't get to do a lap.

skipper_G

HighLine wrote: »

Genius move by FIA to allow a situation whereby a driver can get a 55 place grid penalty and thus obviously he won't run anymore than 1 lap in qualifying. Great show for the Hamilton fans who showed up today.

I don't blame the FIA, it was a tactical decision from Mercedes to take the penalties now so as to benefit for the rest of the season.

Mike Litoris

Mike Litoris wrote: »

Gutted for Wehrlein if he doesn't get to do a lap.

Ah well.


Kinda business as usual for Q3. Surprised to see Torro Rosso nowhere.

antodeco

Did grid penalties not used to span multiple races?

Harika

Mike Litoris wrote: »

Ah well.


Kinda business as usual for Q3. Surprised to see Torro Rosso nowhere.

Their engine is now getting really outdated. Another fallout of the RedBull exit disaster.

flazio

Look at it this way, Hamilton sitting out the rest of the session put Button into Q3

Ghost Train

Ricciardo back on third row

Verstappens best qualifying

RobertKK

Rosberg has to win tomorrow from pole to give his WDC run a kick start.
The start with Verstappen next to him should be fun.

Mike Litoris

Good stuff out of Verstappen. Shame for Ricciardo.

skipper_G

We can expect Rosberg to streak off into the distance for the win tomorrow. But we could have a properly tasty battle between the Red Bulls & Ferrari for the podium.

Also pleased with p6 & 7 for force india, need a nice clean start and a dull race to bring home the points and get that gap to Williams closed

Ghost Train

Ricciardo still has better tyre strategy I think

Some rain could mix things up anyway

Harika

Rosberg is in the bad situation that everyone around him has nothing to loose in the WDC so they can drive very aggressivly. So they will exploit every slow start of Rosberg. Hamiltons biggest danger is a first lap incident, besides that he can use some patience to get as much points as possible.

Mike Litoris

Harika wrote: »

Rosberg is in the bad situation that everyone around him has nothing to loose in the WDC so they can drive very aggressivly. So they will exploit every slow start of Rosberg.

Even if he gets monstered at the start he shouldn't have a problem on the straight when DRS is enabled. Then again, it's Rosberg we're talking about.


But yeah, it could be an epic battle for the podium tomorrow. If it's a scorcher Ferrari could be in trouble though. They've no mediums and loads of supersofts which only look good for a lap or two.

flazio

I don't think a Rosberg win is a dead cert. Can anyone tell me if pole is on the outside or inside of turn 1?
I think either way Verstappen could get a run to Eau Rouge.

AMKC

Hope we get an exciting race tomorrow. Want to see Rosberg win this race tomorrow and Hamilton get 6 or less points that would make the WDC interesting again. This is Rosbergs race to win tomorrow so he has to make sure he gets a perfect start. Don,t make a boll,ox of it Rosberg. Saying that I would love it if Kimi went and won the race with Rosberg 2nd and Riccardo or Vettel in 3rd.

Ghost Train

Do hope Hamilton gets punished a bit for the engine changes, if Rosberg has bad race its a missed oportunity

Myrddin

Ghost Train wrote: »

Do hope Hamilton gets punished a bit for the engine changes, if Rosberg has bad race its a missed oportunity

I'm with Brundle on this one, the driver in question has already been punished when it comes to a reliability issue, because either their race or quali will have been ruined. Then they've to get punished again by taking new parts which exceed the quote. It's stupidly ridiculous, and only hurts the show itself. What needs to happen is constructor point penalties for these things which are out of the drivers control.

mickdw

Myrddin wrote: »

I'm with Brundle on this one, the driver in question has already been punished when it comes to a reliability issue, because either their race or quali will have been ruined. Then they've to get punished again by taking new parts which exceed the quote. It's stupidly ridiculous, and only hurts the show itself. What needs to happen is constructor point penalties for these things which are out of the drivers control.

Ah its an issue now when it hurts hamilton.
It would be very difficult to reasonably apply penalties to constuctors. For example, you could take full race points from Mercedes for changing an engine and it would still leave them way clear of the field. The result would be that Hamilton could take a new engine for each of the last 4 or 5 races once constructors championship is wrapped up.

mickdw

Interesting to see the Mclaren split the williams to qualify ninth on such a track where they have not been good.

Myrddin

mickdw wrote: »

Ah its an issue now when it hurts hamilton.

Actually it's Alonso I had in mind when typing that, being forced to the back when it looks like they're finally making some proper progress...but lets not let that get in the way of a good aul anti-Hamilton dig eh?

It would be very difficult to reasonably apply penalties to constuctors. For example, you could take full race points from Mercedes for changing an engine and it would still leave them way clear of the field. The result would be that Hamilton could take a new engine for each of the last 4 or 5 races once constructors championship is wrapped up.

Maybe so, but why punish the driver for something completely and totally out of their control? As Brundle said, they've already been punished once when the component fails, why punish them again...let the team somehow pay the price, not the driver.

mickdw

Myrddin wrote: »

Maybe so, but why punish the driver for something completely and totally out of their control? As Brundle said, they've already been punished once when the component fails, why punish them again...let the team somehow pay the price, not the driver.

Not guaranteed that the driver would have been punished at all.
If you happen to blow up engines on fridays, you will soon get through your engine allocation but without any grid penalties. Sure they usually have worn engines in for free practice but if you start blowing up engines, you will soon get pretty snookered with regard to engines available.
I think they should allow you to take new everything as long as you start from the back but no stacking in terms of taking 2 engines over a weekend and then having them in your engine pool for use all year.

Myrddin

Stacked penalties (spanning more than one race) are even more ridiculous.

Ghost Train

It's actually good to see Mercedes a bit less bullet proof this year, nice to know they're pushing to the limit and other teams can gain advantage when Mercedes have bad day. I think it's important that driver takes some pain if bad luck with reliability falls on his side of he garage, plus sometimes the failure can be down to the way the driver has used the car, style of driving, pushing car to limit to win or stay ahead.

I'm in favour of penalties being for one race only and being limited to being put to back of grid

But can see that Hamilton at the cost of one race qualifying has gained 3 fresh power units, that might now give him advantage for second half of season over Rosberg who still has to manage his existing allocation. Of course rules are same for everybody and Rosberg could do the same at some point. Just given the choice wouldn't like to see Hamilton have an easy race tomorrow over Rosberg, plus gain advantage in terms of car parts for rest of season while he's at it. But could go ether way or maybe both drivers will be happy where they finish at the end of the day.

Maybe rule could be a bit more balanced... still avoid stacked penalties but also avoid stacking up more than one set of fresh car parts per weekend at the same time

mickdw

Yep, carrying over penalties is not the way forward but likewise Getting more than one power unit via sacrificing only one quali is not good either.
One new power unit per race weekend should be maximum. Back to old engine from existing pool if another unit is needed.

Cookie_Monster

Surely the solution is to simply allow more engines... while getting back to the engine per session would be OTT, what would be wrong with 10 or 12 available over the year and not have a ridiculously low 5! The money is still being spent anyway and the cost saving part of it doesnt really seem to have occured

Adbrowne

flazio wrote: »

I don't think a Rosberg win is a dead cert. Can anyone tell me if pole is on the outside or inside of turn 1?
I think either way Verstappen could get a run to Eau Rouge.

Think it is on the right hand side as you look down the grid from the first corner so the outside (racing line) as drivers angle across the straight from the last corner to the first.

If either Ferrari jump Rosberg at the start it could get very interesting

Myrddin

mickdw wrote: »

Yep, carrying over penalties is not the way forward but likewise Getting more than one power unit via sacrificing only one quali is not good either.
One new power unit per race weekend should be maximum. Back to old engine from existing pool if another unit is needed.

It's not a straight up advantage though in Hamilton's case, he now has his engines sorted for the rest of the season...but Nico's next engines will be the upgraded ones planned for Suzuka. If Lewis wants an upgraded engine, that's another penalty he'll have to take.

skipper_G

Opening clip narrated by Sean Bean on C4. Not quite as rousing as Boromir's speech to the men of Gondor but still awesome

Itssoeasy

Jesus ted that was a horrible joke. That women must have taught you were strange.

Mike Litoris

skipper_G wrote: »

Opening clip narrated by Sean Bean on C4. Not quite as rousing as Boromir's speech to the men of Gondor but still awesome

Advert came on shortly after. Switched to Sky, Paul Di Resta, switched back to ads.

skipper_G

Mike Litoris wrote: »

Advert came on shortly after. Switched to Sky, Paul Di Resta, switched back to ads.

Di Resta is really dull. Watched 30 mins of the sky coverage on sky sports mix and saw him on that. It was painful

Myrddin

Give me Di Resta over Herbert any day of the week.

Standard Toaster

Coulthard: "Permission to touch your helmet"

Jesus Christ....