Category: Formula One

152 kilometres outside the Belgian capital of Brussels in the middle of the Ardennes Forest sits one of the most beautiful and historic circuits in Formula One: Spa-Francorchamps.

Spa has been home to the Belgian Grand Prix since 1925 and it is the longest track on the calendar at just over seven kilometres. For this reason, the race is only 44 laps long.

Though the track has changed considerably over the years – there were a lot more high-speed and adrenaline-filled corners before – one thing which has always been there is the brilliant Eau Rouge.

Spa did not appear on the calendar in 2006 due to radical changes to both the circuit and surrounding infrastructure, including a change to turn one and the addition of the bus-stop chicane.

The area’s unpredictable weather has given us some fantastic races over the years, most notably in 2010, 2008, and of course the crazy race in 1998, which saw an almighty multi-car pile-up at the start, and a crash between Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard which led to a heated confrontation in the pits afterwards.

Speaking of Schumacher, he is the most successful driver at Spa with six wins, and Ferrari are the most successful team. That being said, Mercedes have won the last three races at Spa, courtesy of Lewis Hamilton in 2015 and 2017, and Nico Rosberg in 2016.

What’s happened in the summer break? Quite a lot, really. First of all, Daniel Ricciardo announced he is leaving Red Bull at the end of the season and joining Renault for 2019. The biggest news of the summer, however, came from Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard announced that he will be leaving F1 at the end of the season after a frustrating three-and-a-half years with McLaren. His compatriot Carlos Sainz, currently at Renault, will take his seat after being displaced at the French manufacturer by the inbound Ricciardo.

The favourites for Spa? Well, that is a tough one. Ferrari and Mercedes will be very well matched, with the power gains Ferrari have made this season coupled with the tight middle sector being more suited to Mercedes making this a seemingly very competitive weekend.

That is exactly what Sebastian Vettel will need. the German lost the win at his home race in Germany after crashing on a damp track, while champion Lewis Hamilton, who started fourteenth, took the win along with the championship lead. Hamilton’s win in Hungary gave him a 24-point lead in the championship coming into the last nine races, which means Vettel needs to hit the ground running upon F1’s return.

This will be the home race of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, and expect plenty of Dutch support for Max Verstappen of Red Bull as well, who retired from last year’s race with an engine issue.

Fernando Alonso is well acquainted with the track in 2018 already, having won there for Toyota in WEC earlier on in the year, although it’s safe to say a win is not quite on the cards for him this weekend.

What is also safe to say is that we are all very happy to see the return of Formula One after a four week break that has felt like an age, as the championship battle between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastan Vettel resumes.

Featured image courtesy of Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

After the news that Fernando Alonso will be leaving McLaren at the end of the season, on has to ask; how on earth the Woking team will fill the boots of one of the most enigmatic and talented drivers that Formula One has ever seen.

Alonso has provided a racing know-how that took the car to greater levels than were expected, and frankly, he has made the team look an awful lot better than it really is. Frustratingly for McLaren, the arrival of Renault engines to their car has provided little more than Honda did for three abysmal years, which has bought about the valid suggestion that perhaps it has been the team at fault all along, which has thus frustrated Alonso.

With someone like Alonso in the car, points finishes can still be achieved, but as Stoffel Vandoorne has proven, the car is not a legitimate points scorer, and it most certainly is not a car that gives any kind of indication or even any hope that success will return to MTC any time soon.

Of course, if you’re in the Belgian’s shoes, there’s absolutely no shame in being out-done by a legend like Alonso, but the fragilities of the McLaren-Renault are highlighted every race weekend, which has been the cause of much frustration for him as well as Alonso let’s not forget.

Losing Alonso will have a big effect on the team; they’re losing one of, if not the best to ever have raced in the sport, and the quality of the Spaniard, which at times paper-covered the enormous cracks in their performance, is sure to further expose the lack of harmony between the chassis and the engine, which has already been glaringly obvious even with Alonso in the team

However, is there light at the end of the tunnel? Well, when we say that Alonso’s enigmatic, that didn’t half bring pressure upon McLaren’s shoulders. There have been an awful lot of occasions since 2015 in which Alonso has savagely slated the Honda engine, making the team look disjointed and putting his team in a position where they really have no choice but to stand with him in squabbling with the engine supplier. Now of course, Alonso was not the reason for the problems, but if we have to be honest here, his complaining on team radio has never helped his team.

What happens with Vandoorne now? His future has been cast into doubt amongst the media, but this news may well just aid the Belgian in terms of keeping his seat in the orange car, and now that the superhuman Alonso will be leaving, we will get to see Vandoorne stand out as himself, rather than compared to such a great.

Who replaces Alonso? There are two main candidates: Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris. Sainz has learned this summer that he will lose his seat at Renault to the incoming Daniel Ricciardo from Red Bull – there was even speculation at some stage that Alonso was to make a sensational move to the Austrian team. Sainz, who is a good friend to compatriot Alonso, would surely much prefer to trade places with Ricciardo and move to Red Bull, but if this becomes an impossibility, McLaren would undoubtedly see Sainz as a brilliant replacement for Alonso. However, Lando Norris has been one of the most promising rising stars in all of motorsport in the  last few years, and he is currently second in the Formula 2 championship for Carlin Racing; the young British driver has been nurtured as a young talent for McLaren up until now, and he will certainly see this as the perfect opportunity to move into Formula One and make a name for himself, perhaps even to surpass Fernando Alonso’s talent.

Either way, Alonso is going to leave a gaping hole in this McLaren team, which will inauspiciously add to the concerning amount of holes that already exist, and there are lot of unknowns for this brand new chapter for the McLaren Formula One Team.

Featured Image courtesy of McLaren