Belgian GP - McLaren Mercedes - PreviewThe next stop for the Championship sees the sport return to the much celebrated and dramatic Spa Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Following a sabbatical year due to construction and improvement works, the longest
track of the season returns for the final race in Europe, prior to the remaining three fly-aways of Japan, China and Brazil.
McLaren Mercedes arrives at the legendary track with 166 points in the Constructors’ Championships, 23 ahead of Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton and
Fernando Alonso sit atop the Drivers’ standings with 92 and 89 points respectively.
Lewis Hamilton
"Spa is a track that everyone has always talked about and it is with good reason. I love the circuit, it does require a compromise with the set-up to account for the fast straights and corners whilst also ensure you can have the right amount of traction through the slower sections, and it is all about being precise. Eau Rouge is just awesome, it is so quick and I look forward to it every single lap. It is definitely one of the pleasures of being a Formula 1 driver! You always try to go that bit quicker, and as it is flat out now with no lifting, the only way to do this is by steering as little as possible. The forces that are placed on your body feel a bit weird, but you don’t really think about that after the first lap."
"I raced here in 2005, race one was in the wet, race two in the dry, so I have some good experience and won race two.
We tested here in July and completed some positive work with Bridgestone. Now I am just waiting to get out there and race in a Formula 1 car for the first time. The situation in both Championships is very close, and people keep talking about pressure, but it just provides me with extra motivation, I certainly don’t feel any stress. There are four races to go, including Belgium, and I will take them all individually and do my best to try and win them."
Fernando Alonso"I am really excited to be going back to racing at Spa, it is my favourite track. It is very demanding and with the long lap and all the different characteristics, you need to work hard with the team to get the right balance. Everybody always talks about Eau Rouge, and yes it is a great corner, but I think the whole lap is special, you are on the limit the whole time and as a driver that is a great challenge. You need to have total concentration for every lap and I am motivated to get there and fight for the win. Last weekend in Italy was a special result for me and the team. The car was really fast and we are working to take that performance to Spa."
"There are some similar characteristics between Spa and Monza, as both demand a lot of power, so hopefully we will carry that over and be quick. The Championship battles are really exciting, after this race we have only three left, so it is very important to have another good result here, but of course it is the same for Lewis, Kimi and Felipe, so we will have to wait and see how it goes. There are a lot of laps to be raced still, my goal is to win as many races as possible and I hope we can have an exciting end to the season for the fans."
Martin Whitmarsh, CEO Formula 1, McLaren Mercedes
"The performance of the team at Monza was faultless and a demonstration of the effort that every single member of the team is putting into this season, whether they are at the races, tests, or the facilities in Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart. It is great for the sport that the Championship is going down to the wire, it is leading to some dramatic and exciting racing and we hope that continues here in Spa. It is a challenge for both the drivers and cars alike, placing a lot of quite unique pressures on both. With some similarities to Monza, we hope to transfer our performance to Belgium, but with the race renowned for torrential rain due to the tracks location in the Ardennes forest, the result is definitely unpredictable."
Norbert Haug, Vice President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“Spa has everything for an interesting and challenging race track from long straights like Kemmel where the cars reach speeds of more than 300 kph, to long and sweeping corners like Pouhon and tight hairpins like La Source. The weather often is like crazy here at Spa. The track is the longest on the calendar at over seven kilometres after the modifications, and therefore when it rains it isn't necessarily wet everywhere.”
“Our results balance at Spa is not bad – the team’s drivers won four out of the six most recent Belgian Grand Prix. As required by the rules, Fernando and Lewis will race in Spa with the same engines they used last weekend in Monza, which is similarly demanding for the engines as the circuit in the Ardennes; Monza and Spa combined represent the highest strain for the engines since the new V8 engine generation has been introduced. Three out of our seven Grand Prix wins this season we have achieved in the respective second races for the engines, in Malaysia, Canada and at the Nurburgring.”
Source McLaren Mercedes
