Belgian GP – THE POINT

The Belgian GP was very strained. Three world champions scored a podium finish and Fernando Alonso delivered excellent performances. That is the Alonso everyone is willing to see, the one who speaks with actions and gets results instead of speaking with a microphone. He has to demonstrate all his talent through results, even if his main rival, Red Bull, is an unbeatable team. The Spaniard was excellent in the first laps, as he was able to exploit all his car’s potential and got a good result, which was unexpected until Saturday night. He managed to make it up for the mistakes made by him and the technicians during qualifying.

Even if the slue round hadn’t happened on Saturday, his final result would not have changed, but that episode made us have more fun. His second place was a very good result, since he is now ahead of Hamilton. Unfortunately the gap with Vettel is still so far to be reduced, but 8 GP are yet to be raced, so anything can happen. Vettel outdistanced the Spaniard by 17 sec., while Massa was outdistanced by the German by 50 sec. That is a clear proof of how a driver can really make a difference on technical tracks like Spa. He really pushed hard to get a podium finish between the German and Hamilton. This result has to bring back a little peace of mind to the Maranello’s team. I’d like to see Fernando to be less gloomy, especially after achieving such a great result. He doesn’t have to fuel anxiety.

Mercedes set off on a bare foot, but managed to get the pole thanks to Hamilton who was expected to deliver better performances on Sunday. Anyway, the English team is still a title contender and it’s second in the constructors’ championship. It will be an exciting run-up to Vettel and Red Bull till the end, what’s important is not to waste points as much as possible. It will be a hard fight against aliens such as Vettel and Red Bull.

For what concerning Lotus, Grosjean was overtaken by Massa in the last laps. Unfortunately Raikkonen had a front brake issue because of which he was forced to abandon the race after achieving 27 good results. He could have scored important points for the Championship. The room left vacant by the Finn was achieved by a very performing Ricciardo who got the better of Perez, scoring one point for Toro Rosso.

Thanks to Button’s 6th place, McLaren got the better of Force India in the constructors’ championship (the Indian team is now 9th with Sutil), jumping up to 5th. The McLaren’s Englishman hasn’t signed any contract for the next season yet; he had previously stated that he was thinking about taking a sabbatical year. Ferrari will hold the balance of power of the drivers’ market. As soon as the Italian team puts the driver “matter” right, we’ll have some news about the drivers’ market. Next season McLaren will experience a phase of transition before switching to the new Honda engine. The two world champions Raikkonen and Button will have the possibility to continue to race alongside two competitive teams such as Lotus and McLaren, however they will wait for Ferrari’s decision, too.

Next GP will be raced at Monza; the good results achieved by Ferrari in the Belgian GP could be an incentive for Ferrari’s fans to go to the circuit and support the Italian team. Ferrari’s goal at Monza is to score a win, given the fact the Italian track doesn’t suit Red Bull very much.