Belgian GP Qualifying Thread

[vcs316]

I believe Ferrari would prefer to win the WDC then the WCC, maybe im wrong, but to me the WDC holds more prestige.

What this about Mcheaters cheating again, pointless telling the FIA anything, it will be another reprimand.

You are wrong, when a driver moves to another team he takes the WDC and the number 1 with him. Ferrari would like to win both the WCC and the WDC. For Ferrari, WCC holds more prestige

ps - More WCC points = More money at the end of the season from Bernie

[FFFerrari]

As I said in the other thread I missed qualy but I don't really understand why Alonso is on a full wet weather set-up, if he is. Is the car not good enough in Spa? Massa got 6th and he is usually a few tenths slower than Alonso in Q3, even more when it's so cold as Massa's main problem is heating the tyres.

He isn't on a total wet setup, it's just Alonso-fanboys dreaming. He claimed that they only had one good set of tyres for the Q3 and when they tried to use it at the end the patch of rain came and that try went sour from running a bit wide. Of course this didn't stop a few others doing better lap times at the very end (namely Lewis claiming P2).

[Ferrari Man]

As I said in the other thread I missed qualy but I don't really understand why Alonso is on a full wet weather set-up, if he is. Is the car not good enough in Spa? Massa got 6th and he is usually a few tenths slower than Alonso in Q3, even more when it's so cold as Massa's main problem is heating the tyres. I think 3rd for Alonso would have been a possible result with a normal set-up and a good lap. Why is Alonso or Ferrari so obsessed with the weather, why not a conservative approach to avoid a ZERO as much as possible. I think they didn't learn a lesson from qualy in Malaysia.

This is really annoying, we're not going to win WDC tomorrow but we've got a good chance of losing it.

Its a big gamble they are gone with but Rosberg is on a wet weather set up as well so hopefully ferrari and ross brawn know something that every body else dosent..

[Jack]

I agree 100%. Whats was the thinking behind using the hard???

I heard something about having a set of used tyres. It seems that completely new tyres are not as good as if they have been used a bit. I might be wrong.

[Ferrari Man]

As far as I know a brand new set of softs are considerably faster on the first lap than the hards. After that then the performance was slowly falling away..

[Tech_Skill]

You are wrong, when a driver moves to another team he takes the WDC and the number 1 with him. Ferrari would like to win both the WCC and the WDC. For Ferrari, WCC holds more prestige

ps - More WCC points = More money at the end of the season from Bernie

I agree with you that WCC= more money.

More prestige, I disagree.

The F1 drivers championship is the main focus of the season, can lead doing very well in the drivers championship naturally leads to doing very well in the constructors.

Which would you prefer, Ferrari to win the WCC and no WDC, or Alonso to win the WDC and Ferrari to be top 3 in the constructors?

I go with the second option, of course I support Ferrari, I just feel that success in the sport is measured on which team helps its driver win the WDC.

[Grillo]

Hmmm... Interesting, Marc Gené said before the qualy they were expecting 5th or 6th on a dry track, even Renault had a good chance of doing better than Ferrari (thumbs up for Massa).

[Paulpg87]

who did say alonso has wet set up? Imo we just suck.

[flam147]

Quick question.. Anyone know if the race is being repeated tomorow evening on BBC 3.. Have a christening to got to so will miss it live..

sometimes the full race is repeated on red button

[netlord]

who did say alonso has wet set up? Imo we just suck.

Alonso said.

[Hermann]

who did say alonso has wet set up? Imo we just suck.

I think its a wet setup but that doesn't really explain his P10. Ferrari said he had only one pair of new tyres left but that doesn't explain it as well. It started drizzling before his last try but still, no real explanation. Yeah maybe we just suck

[DIEK]

(Click to enlarge)

[Grillo]

Alonso said.

Any link?

As far as I know Alonso just said he had more rear wing down-force/drag than all the others but I didn't hear him talking about wet set-up. Both Button and Hamilton improved in their last attemp on soft tyres, there's a reason for that.

I think Alonso knew he would never finish on podium on a dry race so he's going for all or nothing.

[Alfettafan]

Love your video clip of Pinnochio....

[RockyRaccoon]

Seems like Alonso did a poor job today and we aren't on the level of Ferrari or Mclaren. Even if Alonso was running more wing he was still nowhere in sector two, although he was better through there compared to sectors 1 and 3. Did he make a mistake on his first run or was he just slow? Fingers crossed for a bit of rain tomorrow, it's our only chance really.

[crewskas]

Major wing difference...
If wet setup is true, then it isn't only wings. It's also stiffness of the car, suspension etc...
I really hope this stands...
Don't want to see the car beneath our title rivals again...

[Agron]

Maybe as he didn't get all the updates for this GP Massa got, due to being unable to change the gearbox, and they saw the RB and McLaren cars were faster, his side of the garage decided that it was time for all or nothing and risk losing a 4th or 5th position for the chance of being on the podium if it rains.
Truth is he has quite a large margin of points to recover, and with the third fastest car in this particular track it doesn't look good for his chances, so it's a reasonable risk.

Maybe he ***** up and made a mistake too, as haters all over the web are saying .
We'll see, here's praying for a good result from both cars, and some DNFs for the opposition to help both championships.

[RockyRaccoon]

Part of me hopes that Alonso's lack of speed was down to a wet setup but I think a bigger part hopes it was a simple mistake! The way I see it if he has a wet setup and it is dry he will be slaughtered down the straights, however if he has a normal setup and it rains he would still be a contender because he is great in the wet. I guess all will be known tomorrow, I'll just be hoping for a good race from Fernando and Felipe and I hope Fernando can finish in the top 5 to keep the championship hopes alive.

[RedRebel40]

Alonso's banker lap was too coutious, on the 2nd run he couldn't improve like everyone else except for Hamilton.

[Grillo]

Alonso's banker lap was too coutious, on the 2nd run he couldn't improve like everyone else except for Hamilton.

Yes, Hamilton did it but don't forget Button improved too.

[NJB13]

Weather sites such as here weather.msn.com are predicting 95% chance of rain for the start of the race and for the rain to continue until after 5PM
Looking more and more like our team made a good call

[Hornet]

Ferrari should rent an aircraft to do some cloud seeding or something to encourage rain

Seriously the title is slipping away from us, if we don't win, our chances will be as close to none, with so few races left. And IMO, under normal conditions, the red bulls and mclaren are too fast for us anyway, so its understandable why Ferrari would want to gamble on their luck which will either make us a hero or zero.

[Naeem]

Weather sites such as here weather.msn.com are predicting 95% chance of rain for the start of the race and for the rain to continue until after 5PM
Looking more and more like our team made a good call

I pray you are right

[voiko]

Off F1.com

"Ferrari have brought a new lower-downforce rear wing to Belgium, which will be used by Felipe Massa during qualifying and in the race. The revised endplates feature Red Bull-inspired gills, while the wing's main profile has a smaller flap and no longer features a slot."

looks like alonso is on the old one still? unusual...

[steelstallions]

He better move over, or he can race for Sauber next year, seriously, hopefully its being planned out behind the scenes, I would tell Massa straight up ''Fernando gets near, let him slipstream you or run wide or whatever, and dont make it blatant''. If Ferrari brief Massa correctly before the race, there is no need for another batch of ridiculous radio transmissions with Smedley apologising over the radio and such like.

This seems one of a long line of posts saying how Massa should concede his place to Alonso, as I support both drivers is it not time you might question how the (in some posts described) 'inferior' driver is finding himself in front of Alonso?
Yes MS had help but it wasn't every other weekend as Mclaren fans and RB would make you believe. Maybe its time to cut Massa some slack regardless of how much any of you are a fan of Alonso.
We all want the WDC and WCC at Ferrari, but unlike Barrichello, Massa missed the WDC by the closet margin possible. In fact you could say he was the 2008 champion for all but a few seconds. He deserves more respect than many seem to be giving him on this Ferrari board and as he is racing NOW for Ferrari, this should not divide opinion like when we talk about an ex-driver.

[FFFerrari]

Off F1.com

"Ferrari have brought a new lower-downforce rear wing to Belgium, which will be used by Felipe Massa during qualifying and in the race. The revised endplates feature Red Bull-inspired gills, while the wing's main profile has a smaller flap and no longer features a slot."

looks like alonso is on the old one still? unusual...

Using new wings also carries a risk, so it's wise to atleast test run them on the no.2 driver of the team. Or they wanted to give an olive branch to Massa and try to make him feel better. This more or less confirms that Alonso isn't on full wet setup since he would have been way more back on such a setting (much more wing, different ride height, etc.). He just messed up the last try on the fresh tyres, try to live it and hope for a rainy race.

[goferrarigo]

Off F1.com

"Ferrari have brought a new lower-downforce rear wing to Belgium, which will be used by Felipe Massa during qualifying and in the race. The revised endplates feature Red Bull-inspired gills, while the wing's main profile has a smaller flap and no longer features a slot."

looks like alonso is on the old one still? unusual...

Yeah i have heard about that. It is so stupid because everybody knows that fernando is our only chance of winning the championship. Even ferrari admitted it during the German gp.

[vcs316]

I agree with you that WCC= more money.

More prestige, I disagree.

The F1 drivers championship is the main focus of the season, can lead doing very well in the drivers championship naturally leads to doing very well in the constructors.

Which would you prefer, Ferrari to win the WCC and no WDC, or Alonso to win the WDC and Ferrari to be top 3 in the constructors?

I go with the second option, of course I support Ferrari, I just feel that success in the sport is measured on which team helps its driver win the WDC.

WCC means Ferrari as a constructor & TEAM has done better than everyone in a particular season. I would prefer us winning both the championships any given season.

[Lithium]

TWC are predicting 60% chance of rain, starting at noon and continuing into the evening. They're saying it is not going to be strong, but very constant. No strong showers. Anyways, I'm sure it is going to be a great race. If Alonso gets into the top 5, I'll consider this race to be a huge success. And besides, this is Formula 1, plus it's at Spa, NOTHING is lost yet. The most important would be for Alonso to keep out of trouble at the start and I'm sure he'll do fine afterwards. Although he'll probably take some risks, maybe even strategy wise, doing something different from the others. Maybe stopping earlier or much later? full wets or intermediates if the track is not flooding? Plenty of variables...
Hour by hour forecast:
http://fr.weather.com/weather/hourBy...nière-BEXX0029

[Nathan]

Well, forecast says it will rain...but as they say...


Never trust the weatherman! (or weatherwoman)