F1 insider: Soaked Spa qualifying
2010-08-28 11:38
Author: Dieter Rencken
It seems almost sacrilegious.
The best drivers on Earth testing themselves to the utter limit on God’s own 7km strip of tarmac.
Cutting through some of the most awe-inspiring topography imaginable, yet the place was almost empty.
Yes, the weather was at its capricious worst (best?).
But that should only have added to the spectacle of the opening day’s running at Spa-Francorchamps after F1’s three-week summer break.
One of the most majestic sights of all is that of a mist-shrouded, ghostly silver McLaren or blood red Ferrari tip-toeing through heart-stopping Pouhon or negotiating the spine-compressing up-down-left-right-left that is Eau Rouge on the very edge of adhesion in streaming rain.
At 300 km/h...
Where were the people?
Yet no more than 10 000 paying punters packed Spa-Francorchamps on Friday despite its 7km length accommodating up to 120 000: 40 000 on stands, and rest in the massive general admission areas, all of which offer awesome breath-taking viewing due to the rollercoaster nature of the longest circuit on the trail.
Worse, Sunday’s forecast crowd is around 45 000, but only if the box office experiences a last-minute surge, for when advance ticket sales closed two weeks ago 41 000-odd fans had committed themselves to a weekend at the last of the real circuits.
So, given the expected weather, what chance another 10% stump up R1500 (for general admission; R3500 for an uncovered seat, R4500 for one with a roof) at the last minute in these straitened times, particularly given zero affordable accommodation remains available within 50km and the alternative is a three-night stay in a soggy tent?
Spa needs to sell 65 000 tickets to break even. To put that into perspective, visibly empty Hockenheim moved 71 000 for last month’s race, while Silverstone packed 120 000 flagwavers into it confines, so Spa’s situation is certainly dire.
The tragedy is that Spa is close to France (which has no grande epreuve and is but 70km away), Germany is even closer, with the Netherlands border 30min and even Great Britain a mere two hours away (true, in the case of the UK that entails a ferry or the Chunnel, but journeys from London to Silverstone take equally long), while the likes of Spain and Italy are a short snooze away by low cost airline.
The greatest GP in peril?
On Thursday a spokesperson for the promoters admitted to a major problem – last year’s race lost EU7m (R70m) against forecast losses of half that, and an equal amount of red ink, if not more, will flow again this year - suggesting this could be Spa’s last Belgian Grand Prix, certainly for the foreseeable future.
In Budapest F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone told Belgian colleagues that, although the contract had two more years to run, he would consider leniency should Spa GP, as the promoting company is known, wish/ need to exit.
Now, Bernie is not known for philanthropy – towards circuits, that is – so what could lie behind this gesture?
Bar Monaco, Spa is believed to pay the lowest of all hosting fees – EU14m (R140m) – and, with F1’s ringmaster looking increasingly east, where dubious governments are eager to cough up vast sums to purchase the veneer of respectability provided by hosting ‘western’ international sporting events.
With the calendar becoming progressively crowded – next year may see up to 20 GPs – removing one of the cheapest races makes perfect sense for Ecclestone, who hardly lets tradition derail his wallet.
Language politics
As with most matters Belgian, the situation is complex: due to its length the circuit runs through two local communes – Stavelot and Malmedy – both of which claim ownership, and thus tax jurisdiction, while the promoting company is an off-shoot of the (French-speaking) Walloon province, which is currently embroiled in acrimonious political negotiations with its (Dutch) Flemish counter-part over economic and cultural matters.
The former is pushing for an even greater slice of the country’s over-stretched coffers as part of any settlement. Chuck a loss-making grand prix, one attracting only a small fringe at that, into the mix, then stand well back...
When Michael Schumacher announced his return to F1, Spa Grand Prix rubbed its collective hands in glee, for therein could lay the race’s salvation: the German was born less than hour’s drive away from the place, made his GP debut at Spa (in 1991, qualifying a Jordan in seventh place), won his first GP here 12 months later and went to score many of his greatest wins at the place, one from 16th on the grid. In short, for 15 years Schumacher and Spa were synonymous.
But, reported the circuit on Thursday, a small surge in ticket sales to Schumacher’s fatherland was experienced in December; thereafter going downhill...
Sales have not been aided by the fact that the Mercedes driver carries over a 10-grid slot penalty after wilfully forcing Rubens Barrichello within millimetres of a solid wall in Hungary – for which, incidentally, he has not apologised in full or face-to-face, merely sent a text message despite the distance between their teams’ motorhomes being under 50m and no less than 14 drivers turning up at Rubens’s 300th GP start celebrations on Thursday.
Alonso and Sutil - the rain masters
Thus few fans were on hand to observe Fernando Alonso dominate proceedings on the opening day.
The Spaniard, clearly revelling in the sort of conditions which saw him take a maiden win in F3000 (precursor to GP2) on his first visit the circuit cutting through the broody Ardennes forests in 2000.
Having set fastest lap before the first real torrents hit the place during the 90-minute morning practice session, he was one of a handful of drivers to improve once the rain stopped. Then, come P2 after lunch, he was again the man to beat, but only after acknowledged Regenmeister Adrian Sutil topped the times for Force India for most of the period.
However, ever the pragmatist, Alonso, whose 42-lap count (virtually a race distance) was the highest of the front-runners, was still not happy. "The times count for little, or nothing at all, because when the track changes so quickly, times can improve or get worse by two or three seconds depending on the moment when you are out on the circuit."
True, but he was ‘on it’ all day, and if ever a driver looked in total command, it was he. However, the outcome of the race will be determined as much by the battle for pole as other factors such as the weather and any Safety Car interventions, and even here he was prepared.
‘I think the weather will play a key part, both tomorrow and on Sunday: anything could happen. We tried to test all the new components we have here. If the track was to be dry tomorrow, then we must try and improve our set-up, because obviously it is not yet at its best for these conditions, given that we only had a few minutes to test on slick tyres.’
Sutil, who has set fastest laps whenever the going gets wet in places as disparate as Monaco and Malaysia, downplayed hopes of a repeat podium place for his unfancied team which last year scored pole position and second to Kimi Raikkonens’ Ferrari via Giancarlo Fisichella.
‘Today was a good day but you don't get anything for Friday,’ the piano-playing German said. ‘I think the podium is a bit too far away. If it comes I will be super happy but I don't expect something like that because it's a hard fight. Any points finish is good. Of course you are aiming more than 10th place, probably fifth or sixth is my aim for the weekend.’
Hamilton shows his class
Lewis Hamilton, another who sparkles in rain, was second in the first session after just seven laps run, following up that performance with third after lunch, having put in just 14 laps in the second session for McLaren-Mercedes. Thus the Brit has a larger stock of rubber available for the balance of the weekend – each driver is allowed three sets of ‘wets’ and four sets of intermediates in addition to eleven sets of ‘drys’ (six ‘prime’ and five ‘options’) – and that could prove crucial as the weekend unfolds.
Robert Kubica scored third and fourth places respectively, providing a fillip for Renault, which on Thursday announced two new sponsors, having had to go cap in hand to Ecclestone for advance funding in July.
Having experimented with the team’s version of the F-duct in the morning, the Pole concentrated on tyre experimentation in the second session, with obvious success. ‘I ran every type of tyre: extremes, intermediates and both compounds of the slicks. The car felt reasonable in all conditions, but I think we can make further improvements to the balance tomorrow.’
The Red Bulls had a mixed day on a circuit which, more than any other, does not play to the Renault-powered R6’s aerodynamic strengths. Sebastian Vettel, who remains title favourite despite iffy races in Germany and Hungary, placed fourth and sixth respectively, while championship leader Mark Webber had an even worse day, the Australian finishing the day seventh and 18th.
"It's always tricky with these conditions, track time is limited and tyres are limited, said Germany’s bright young hope. ‘We would love to run more despite the rain, but we don't have so many tyres and looking at the weekend we might need them for qualifying and the race, so we didn't want to use them all today."
Webber not worried
Webber did not, though, seem to disappointed with his lot, although turning 34 on the day may have cheered his spirits. "Today was a bit messy with the changing conditions, but it was actually pretty good for us."
"It's hard to get a feel for what everyone's doing with the changing weather," he said before echoing the sentiments of all true racers: "It's a beautiful track here, it's special - today we got to sample it in all conditions..."
Jenson Button, who has a patchy record at Spa, came home sixth and seventh, generally running around a second off team-mate Hamilton’s pace, but the length of the circuit magnifies the deficit, while the two may well have been on different work lists for the day.
"Despite the weather, we still got some running done on the Extreme, Intermediate and Option tyre. I'm happy with how the car felt in the different conditions – it's a positive. I purposely didn't do too many laps on either wet-weather tyre, as I didn't want to destroy them. You can't afford to do that," explained the reigning champion.
Mercedes had a fraught day, with Schumacher coming in 12th and tenth and Nico Rosberg picking up a pair of 13th places.
"It's obviously a beautiful feeling to be back on this track which is great to drive. It's also beautiful because I have a lot of good memories linked to Spa. But this doesn't help a great deal with the situation that we are facing here and having a ten place penalty makes it difficult to go into the weekend with big hopes for a good result," said Schumacher, who appeared edgy both on track and in the paddock.
Rosberg was equally downcast: ‘I've suffered with understeer all day and really struggled with the balance on the wet tyres. The inters were better and it's difficult to say for the slicks really. I was quite far off with my car balance with the dry tyres so that didn't help. So a tricky start to the weekend for us and we need to sit down overnight and try to solve the problems.’
Felipe Massa was another to save tyres, the Ferrari driver finishing 11th before lunch before putting a time good enough for fifth in the afternoon, while the Sauber pairing of Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi, together with Barrichello, were the best of the rest.
With so much hinging on the weather and thus the interaction of tyres with the surface, how does sole supplier Bridgestone see the situation?
‘Today we were able to evaluate our full range of tyres that we have here in Spa, so this gives us and the teams useful data when looking to the rest of the weekend. Over the years we have seen a lot of rain here at Spa, but today it has been very wet indeed,’ said Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgetone’s director of motorsport tyre development.
"As we saw today, one part of the track can be nearly dry, whilst another very wet. A wet tyre wears very quickly when used on a dry track and a dry tyre is not very good when the track is very wet, so the drivers and teams have a lot of work to do in these conditions."
What with mixed conditions forecast for the entire weekend, a thrilling two days surely awaits at the most majestic circuit on the trail. P3 takes place at 11:00 12:00 today, Saturday, with qualifying running for 60 minutes at 14:00. The 44-lap race starts at the equivalent time tomorrow.
