Ferrari running out of chances to win: Five Belgian GP talking points

Will Ferrari finally get their first win of 2019? How will Alexander Albon fare on his Red Bull debut? Here are five talking points for this weekend’s race.

Ferrari need a win

The red cars finished a full minute behind Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in Hungary. Fortunately for them, Spa is pretty much the opposite of the Hungaroring.

It’s not just that it boasts several long, flat-out sections where Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc can tap the best from the Ferrari 064 power unit. It also has far fewer of the slower corners which expose the car’s most significant vulnerability.

The team therefore are cautiously positive about this weekend. But they know the competition won’t have stood still, and sure enough, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the engine facility at Brixworth had “worked straight through the F1 summer break to improve the performance and reliability of our power unit”.

Nor can the threat of Red Bull be discounted. The team made a major step forward in performance between the French and Austrian Grand Prix. This weekend will provide a fascinating measure of how competitive they and Honda are at a circuit where power is vital.

Red Bull’s driver swap

The last time Red Bull swapped two of their drivers in the middle of a season the incoming racer, Max Verstappen, won his first race. Given their form in recent races, with two wins from the last four, Alexander Albon arguably has an even better chance of doing the same than Verstappen did three years ago in Spain.

While such heroics would undoubtedly be welcomed by Red Bull, the realistic expectation of Albon is he’s going to be a more regular contender for the top six than Pierre Gasly.

As for the driver moving in the opposite direction, Gasly at least has an opportunity to rescue his reputation at a team he thrived in 12 months ago. But he only needs to look across at Daniil Kvyat on the other side of the garage for a reminder that Red Bull don’t often give their drivers second chances at the top team.

Silly season 2020

While Albon seeks to demonstrate he deserves to spend the 2020 F1 season at Red Bull, many other drivers are vying for places on next year’s grid.

Rumours persist that Valtteri Bottas will get an extended stay at Mercedes, meaning a place will have to be found elsewhere for Esteban Ocon. Renault seems a likely destination, as they came close to signing him 12 months ago, but it remains to be seen what that could mean for their current line-up.

There is also speculation around a possible change in line-up at Haas, whose drivers have collided three times already this year, and Williams, where the gulf in performance between the two drivers speaks for itself. And the rumours Sebastian Vettel may not stick around for a sixth season at Ferrari haven’t gone away either.

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Williams finally in the mix

Hungary signalled a major change in fortunes for Williams. They had lagged far off the pace of the next-slowest cars earlier in the season, but finally out-qualified and out-raced some of their rivals on merit.

This was not expected. As Robert Kubica pointed out before the race, the car’s Mercedes power unit is by far its greatest strength, and the Hungaroring is not exactly blessed with opportunities to use it. Spa, therefore, could be another good weekend for them.

Qualifying tactics

Those long Spa straights make running in the slipstream of another car especially important during qualifying. On several occasions this year we’ve seen drivers jockeying for position ahead of their final flying laps, and sometimes drivers have had their qualifying efforts spoiled.

The high-speed run through Blanchimont into the very slow chicane at the end of the lap could make late moves like this risky. Keep an eye on the action there at the end of each phase of qualifying.

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