Circuit Spa-Francorchamps
Date 26.08.2018
Laps 44
Distance 308,052 km / 191,456 miles
No Driver Ferrari S/N Team Result
5 Sebastian Vettel SF71H Scuderia Ferrari 1.
           
7 Kimi Raikkonen SF71H Scuderia Ferrari retired/accident

 

Belgian Grand Prix – Spa-Francorchamps 26 August

Posted: 26.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

Maurizio Arrivabene: “That was a fantastic win today, with a great race from Seb and the whole team which, both at the track and back in Maranello, fought back from yesterday’s difficulties in a strong, calm and determined manner, while the car showed all its potential. What happened to Kimi is a real shame and, but for that, we might have had even more to celebrate and the Constructors’ classification would look a bit different. Now, the important thing is to carry on working with determination and humility, without ever giving up. Now we come to Monza and right from Wednesday, we will get the chance to get close to our fans during the event at Darsena di Milano. I am sure that will be able to count on the support of all our tifosi, as the championship goes on, getting more and more interesting. We hope that, come the end of the year, we can give them something to really smile about.”

Sebastian Vettel: “I’m very happy because we had a great race, the car now has proved to be robust on all tracks and this weekend we got a little more power from the new engine, which I think also helped us down the straights. At the start I tried to stay close to Lewis, getting a good exit out of Turn 1 and then taking advantage of the slipstream to get past. After the Safety car pulled out, it was just the other way round, so I looked after the exit of Turn 1 to stay ahead. The first stint was very close, only a couple of seconds between us; but then the guys did a fantastic pit-stop, I could not believe the light had turned green so fast, and that gave our rivals no chance. The second stint was more about managing the car and the tires for both of us. This is a great win for the whole team and hope in Monza it will be the same, but we need to keep fighting to be always up there.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “I don’t know what happened at the start: the only thing I know is that somebody hit me from behind and straight after that I got a puncture. I had a lot of damage to the rear wing endplate and the floor; at that point I could not go fast and the DRS stayed open all the times, it was hard to remain on track. It was pointless to continue, the damage was too big, so we decided to go back to the garage.”

 

Belgian Grand Prix – Ferrari selects fifth

Posted: 26.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

Seb wins in Belgium, Kimi unlucky to be hit at start

Spa-Francorchamps, 26 August –And that makes five. Five wins so far this season for Seb Vettel and Scuderia Ferrari, who had not won in Belgium since 2009. Seb has closed the gap in the Drivers’ championship to 17 points, while the Scuderia has lost a further 5 in the Constructors’ because of Kimi’s retirement, after he was hit by Ricciardo at the start. He could have got a great result given the pace of the SF71H, even though he was starting from the third row of the grid. And now we come to Monza.

FILM OF THE RACE . Seb was second on the grid, with Kimi sixth. The start went off normally, but a McLaren was soon flying through the air: it was Alonso, who had been hit by Hulkenberg. Other cars were also damaged and Kimi came on the radio to say he had a right rear puncture (probably after colliding with Ricciardo.) But at this point, all eyes were on the leaders as Sebastian immediately got past Hamilton on the Kemmel climb, to take the lead. Immediately after that, the Safety Car came out. The number 7 car pitted to fit the Medium tyres, showing signs of some damage to the floor and bodywork.

Four laps went by before the restart, when Vettel fought off the advances of his pursuers and was able to build a slight lead. However, his team-mate was struggling to drive his damaged car and returned to the pits to check the damage while work was done on the front wing. But it was all in vain and he was soon back to park up in the garage and retire.

The two leaders were lapping at almost identical pace and the two teams watched one another, waiting for the pit stops to begin. Hamilton was the first to come in at half distance, fitting the Softs. Seb stepped up the pace, prior to pitting. He also went for the yellow tyres and the driver congratulated the team on its perfect work, as he emerged still leading the race by 1”9. On lap 25, Seb a fastest lap.

With 15 laps to the flag, the Ferrari led by over 4 seconds and the key would be tyre management, but the battle was far from over. On lap 35, it was time to lap the backmarkers. There were five laps to go, the gap was 7” and growing. David Sanchez, the head of the aerodynamic engineers was sent up to the podium. “Great job everyone,” said Maurizio by way of words of thanks.

 

Belgian Grand Prix – “We can find the right way”

Posted: 25.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

Weather played a role – again – in today’s qualifying result for Seb and Kimi

Spa-Francorchamps, August 25 – At the end of a messy qualifying session, Scuderia Ferrari drivers came away with Seb in P2 and Kimi in P6 for tomorrow’s race. Given the conditions, the team tried to split strategies between its two drivers to cover both scenarios, as everybody in the pit lane assumed the rain would come midway through Q3, but that was not the case and Kimi was caught out in the garage, while Seb found traffic in the shape of Ocon at the end of his final run. Both the drivers and the team are now fully focused on the race and the opportunities it should offer.

“Today was ok”, Seb commented: “we had the pace and we managed to stay on track and maintain control even if the conditions were tricky. I could have done much more but I made some mistakes, therefore I am happy with second position, albeit not completely of course. When it suddenly starts raining as it did today, everything gets more confused and there’s more traffic on track. You know that every lap is important, but you also know that the last one could be the best. However, we have a good car, our people are pushing very hard and I think we have taken another step forward here. I believe that speed is the main aspect that can make the difference. We’ll see how we get off the line tomorrow in the first lap, but I think that if we have better speed, then we will find the right way to pass. We’ve been very close so far, so I think we’ll see the real pace tomorrow in the race”.

“The weekend so far had being going in the right direction and the car was fine”, said Kimi. “The result of this qualifying is far from ideal, but not a disaster. For sure this is not the place we should have finished today. In the end we only had fuel for one lap and we had to come in. This is what we have got and there’s nothing we can do. It’s just a matter of getting it right and being there when the track is faster. At the moment, it is difficult to find a positive side, but the race is normally a different story and we’ll see what happens. Tomorrow we’ll try again, learn from our mistakes and keep going. First of all we need to come through the first corner without any issues. Yesterday it was surprisingly difficult to overtake, but in the race it is a different story”.

 

Belgian Grand Prix – P3, Ferrari in front

Posted: 25.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

6 hundredths split Seb and Kimi

Spa-Francorchamps, 25 August – Sebastian Vettel was fastest in the third and final free practice session here in Belgium, with a time of 1’42”661. His Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was second in 1’42”724. Both drivers ran the same tyre programme, using two sets of the red banded Supersofts. The session was red flagged 7 minutes from the end, when Vandoorne went off the track, but it was restarted for the final couple of minutes. Next up is qualifying for the Belgian GP at 15:00.

 

 

Belgian Grand Prix – “Going the right way”

Posted: 24.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

Kimi and Seb pleased with first day back in the car

Spa-Francorchamps, August 24 – The first day of practice after the mandatory summer break went smoothly for Scuderia Ferrari and its drivers. Both Kimi and Seb topped the time sheets in P2 and P1 respectively and the two SF71Hs, on which several new Power Unit components had been fitted, went through a full program of aero comparison, set-up changes and tyre evaluation on both fast laps and long runs.

Kimi: “That was our first day of practice after the break; we did our pretty usual job to get a feeling for the car once again. I enjoy driving on this track, it has a good flow and this generation of cars are pretty nice to drive here. I think Spa is a great circuit, but obviously this doesn’t make you faster or slower!  We always say that Friday is Friday and times don’t really matter today; it was ok, but for sure we still have some work ahead of us. Tomorrow we’ll try to do our best and see where we end up.  We expected some rain today but it did not come. But the weather can still be a key point this weekend, as it changes very quickly here”.

Seb: “Overall, I think it’s going the right way. Today it was a bit difficult to figure out where we are and I think we’ll have to wait for tomorrow to have a better idea. The new engine has done what it was supposed to do. Today everything was working well. Now we’ll see about tomorrow: rain shouldn’t give us any more problems and, should we have wet conditions, it would be quite nice to have confirmation that we found the right things to do. On this track everything seems to happen faster, so it should be a lot of fun and if we have dry conditions tomorrow for qualifying, we should be ok.
There are still some special tracks on the calendar and for sure this one in Spa is very exciting in terms of cornering speeds. We still need to do some work, but we have time to do it”.

 

Belgian Grand Prix – Friday action concludes at Spa

Posted: 24.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

1st and 5th for Kimi and Sebastian

Spa-Francorchamps, 24 August – Kimi Raikkonen was fastest in the second free practice session with a best lap of 1’43”335. In the other SF71H, team-mate Sebastian Vettel posted a 1’44”129, good enough for fifth. Unlike the morning session, this afternoon, the drivers ran different tyre programmes. The Finn started on Mediums before switching to Softs and Supersoft. The German began on the yellow banded tyres, before trying the Supersofts and then Mediums for long runs. Tomorrow’s final practice session gets underway at 12:00 before qualifying starts at 15h00.

 

Belgian Grand Prix – Back on track for P1

Posted: 24.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

Vettel fastest, Kimi 4th

Francorchamps , 24 August – The second part of the F1 Championship got underway after the summer break, with the first free practice session here in Belgium. Sebastian Vettel was fastest for Scuderia Ferrari with a best lap of 1’44”358 and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was fourth in 1’44”718. The two drivers ran the Soft compound tyres throughout, running the final part of the 90 minute session in race trim. Second practice gets underway at 15h00.

 

 

Belgian Grand Prix – “Keep up the speed everywhere”

Posted: 23.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

Seb, Kimi and the team back to work-with an eye to the rest of the season

Spa-Francorchamps, August 23 – Summer’s not over yet, but the Formula 1 summer break of definitely is. Scuderia Ferrari went back to work in full swing this week and now its drivers, Seb Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, are preparing for the race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, a track that everyone loves.
“I spent my break relaxing with the family, swimming, running and biking”, Seb explains. “Now we’re back to work on a circuit that we like so much because it’s a drivers’ track, where you can make a difference. As is customary after the break, we will have some developments on our car. The key from now on will be to keep the speed everywhere. I think we did a god job so far in progressing as a team, and that’s why I’m confident for the rest of the season. There have been races in which we had the upper hand in terms of performance and we didn’t get as many points as we could have, but the same applies to our competitors”.
Four-time Spa winner Kimi added: “I really like the layout of this circuit, driving here is great. I preferred the old part of the track , at the Bus stop chicane, but apart from that bit, the circuit hasn’t changed too much. This place always brings good racing, so it’s nice for us and also for the spectators. We’ll see what the weather holds; here it can change very quickly, it might rain in one place and the next corner it can be dry. We’ll need to adapt the best that we can. As any other race it’s a bit of an unknown where we are going to be against the others; we will find out over the weekend and especially on Sunday. We’ll keep doing the same job we have done so far and then we’ll see what the outcome is”.

 

Belgian Grand Prix – Off again with a piece of history

Posted: 23.08.2018
Source: Ferrari

Objective Spa: A circuit and temperatures from the past

The cogs of Formula 1 have started turning again. At the start of this week, the logistics and catering advance party set off for Belgium, along with the “mini-team” that does all the set-up work at the track. The bulk of the team goes on Wednesday afternoon. The summer break is over and, right away, we’re dealing with another back to back. Two races in two weekends and it’s an important sequence for Scuderia Ferrari, given that, after Spa, we have our home race at Monza.

The novelty this weekend might be the cold weather. Over the past few years, the Ardennes have been more like the Antilles, with unusually high temperatures for this time of year and in this hilly terrain. This time, the forecast, which always has to be taken with a pinch of salt, is for maximum temperatures no higher than 14 to 16 degrees. At the moment, the risk of rain is quite high for free practice on Friday, lower for qualifying and virtually nil for race day.

The track is a part of history, having been in use for over ninety years, albeit with different configurations. It’s the longest track on the calendar at over seven kilometres and the most “swoopy” with over a hundred metres of elevation change. The current cars’ levels of aerodynamic downforce have made it easier to tackle corners such as Eau Rouge, Raidillon and Pouhon, but the circuit maintains its challenging nature, while the crowds help make the show.

 

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