While Lewis Hamilton cruised to an 89th win in his Mercedes-Benz, Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix was made interesting by the changed fortunes of the sport’s two other factory teams – Renault and Ferrari.
Congratulations are due to Valtteri Bottas, matching my total of 51 podium finishes. I have no doubt he has many more victories and podiums to come this season and next.
Spa is a very quick track which tends to reward a lower downforce set-up, and this played a role in the strong result for Renault – and the minor disaster at Ferrari. Renault gave Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon a very quick car which looked a lot more consistent to drive.
Around 30% of Spa is the high-speed run from the La Source hairpins through the famous Eau Rouge corner and down the long straight to the Les Combes chicane. It is vital to have a fast, stable car that enables you to fully commit through Eau Rouge and Radaillon. We could see that Daniel had that in qualifying, qualifying 4th with Esteban in 6th, and pushing the Red Bulls.
It was great to see Renault making this step forward. Pat Fry, their Chassis Technical Director, was part of the McLaren engineering team when I was racing, and his appointment ahead of this year seems to have had a really good impact on the team.
They will go into the Italian Grand Prix next weekend feeling positive, although it is important to remember that in Spa neither Mercedes nor Red Bull ran their lowest-downforce aerodynamic set-ups due to the predicted rain – which never arrived. Renault is likely to find the gap to Mercedes and Red Bull increase in Monza.
Ferrari, down on power this year, had a terrible weekend in Spa. Team boss Mattia Binotto said that they were struggling to get their tyres to work properly. In playing around with aerodynamic downforce in an effort to get the most out of the Pirellis they seem to compromise their straight-line speed even more.
"The entire team is responsible, myself as team principal first"#BelgianGP #F1 https://t.co/av0Z448tz5
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 31, 2020
It looked like a perfect storm – a lack of grip, power and straight-line speed. Considering that Alfa Romeo Racing is operating on a budget around 50% of the size of Ferrari’s, watching Kimi Raikkonen overtake Vettel and finish ahead of the two red cars showed just how much trouble the Italian team was in. Using the same engine, Kimi’s car was simply more competitive.
Ferrari does not compete in Formula 1 to qualify and finish in 13th and 14th positions so I know that this weekend’s performance was a shock for fans to see. Considering that we now have three Grands Prix in Italy – including Ferrari’s 1000th Formula 1 World Champion Grand Prix in Mugello – Ferrari will be urgently looking at ways to at least generate the tyre performance and aerodynamic balance they need in order to return to the top 10.
The lack of engine performance is not something they can easily fix due to the restrictions on development, so this is something that will continue to affect Ferrari throughout the balance of this year and into 2021. Faced with that, they need to focus on perfecting the rest of the car.
At the front of the race Lewis was fully in control, the only problem coming at the end of the race when his tyres – like that of team mate Bottas and Max’s Red Bull – were at the end of their life.
His pole position on Saturday was a dominant performance, half a second faster than Valtteri and Max, but then it was pointed out to me that I took pole at Spa in 2000 by 0.7 seconds and my team mate at McLaren-Mercedes was 0.9s off. I always enjoyed Spa – it’s a track that rewards speed and flat-out commitment – and the fact that I took three pole positions there starting in 1998 shows how much confidence I had in my car.
Pole #93 ♂️ pic.twitter.com/LAwomd52qt
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) August 30, 2020
After taking pole position in 2000 I led the race only to suffer a spin at Stavelot corner, losing the lead to my favourite rival – Michael Schumacher – although he was not my favourite person that day because when I caught him he blocked me quite badly several times. This is why I decided to be a little more creative in overtaking him, placing Ricardo Zonta’s slower car between my McLaren and Michael’s Ferrari on the Kemmel straight.
As I said in my Unibet podcast back in May, that overtaking maneuver felt like a race victory, and taking the win that day was very satisfying indeed. Fans will remember that, after the race, I spoke to Michael and explained why I was not happy with some of his tactics. I am not sure he appreciated the points I made, but for sure he did not like to be beaten. We had a great rivalry, and races like that one were very tense, but ultimately satisfying.
Looking towards Monza this weekend I expect that Lewis and Valtteri will continue to push hard at the front, with Max and Red Bull their only major threat. As Lewis pointed out on Sunday, Red Bull needs to find a way to help Alex Albon support Max. This would help Red Bull to develop some alternate race strategies – they really need two competitive cars to put pressure on Mercedes.
The mid-field battle in Spa was very close again, with McLaren, Racing Point and Alpha Tauri producing some very good action, and I expect this to continue in Italy. Let us hope that Ferrari are in the mix too. Another weekend like Spa is unthinkable at their home race.
