Rogue Review, Belgium 2007: McLaren demoralized?

Since the FIA has imposed its fine on the - at least from their point of view - innocent McLaren team nothing has really changed out on the track. Ferrari and McLaren still lead the way around the track for most, if not all of the race.

Belgium was no exception. The result has made the championship closer still with Hamilton (championship leader) having his lead cut to a teeny tiny 2 points.

From the outset the positions where fixed, Räikkönen, Massa, Alonso and Hamilton stayed in these positions for most of the race. The order was mostly set by Alonso who made sure Hamilton stayed away by forcing the rookie wide at La Source just after the start. This action resulted in a heart stopping side by side battle through Au Rouge which almost ended in tears for one of them. With race order set it was up to the rest of the field to provide the action. There was, unlike the last few races, enough to keep us entertained. Wurz provided comic interlude as he managed to make it off and on the track a number of times. Not looking like his usual self he was undoubtedly suffering handling problems. Robert Kubica should get a prize for the best up and coming driver. He drives like he always needs to be somewhere else. And the somewhere else today was the bit of tarmac in front of David Coulthard. DC was not to be put off though and drove calmly while the young Labrador of a driver tried to mount his leg.

In this race there seemed to be a fairly high in the number of retirements into the pits. Now we at F1Rogues have now developed a theory about this. The longer and more mountainous the terrain between most of the track and the pits will see more drivers driving into retirement in the pits. Wurz, Vettle and Button all decided they would rather drive the car home than get lost in the woods Blair Witch style. Credit goes to Vettle who retired after discovering that he could not turn to the right; a situation he described as “scary” when referring to the run up Au Rouge.

What's hot and what's not in the race

Stay away from email Frantic For Austria (again) Icy shadow Ice cool Alonso Kubica Wurz Massa Räikkönen Careless email costs points If it moves, overtake it The grey bit, use the grey bit Ice man is out of reach? "Oops, I did it again!"

Posted by Jules at September 16, 2007, 4:22 pm - Comments (0)
Tagged as: formula one, formula1, f1, 2007, belgium, spa, alonso, kubica, massa, raikkonen, hamilton, coulthard