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vro0m · 1 year

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vro0m’s rewatch - 159/310

2015 Belgian GP

Alright. We're back after the summer break, it's round 11, officially the second part of the season and we have minimal broadcast as always nowadays. NOPE FOUND IT.

I remember I hated 2014 Belgian GP because I started by writing I think I like Spa and then everything went to shit– OH RIGHT WAIT I'd already forgotten it was the season turning point with the Long Review, Jesus. I don't know what to hope for this time.

It fucken wimdy. To the point we have a full shot of just the Spa forest undulating to really Show Us.

A little bit of context. It's Ferrari's 900th GP. They celebrated by announcing Raikkonen's 1-year contract extension in the week prior. Merc came with a new low-downforce rear wing. RBR tried two different new rear wings. McLaren came with a new power unit and a new engine cover but warned that the gains might not be visible until Singapore + a tray design for the front of the floor, lower sidepods and a new radiator positioning to cool the ERS.

New regs were also introduced : drivers are now only allowed to adjust one clutch level after leaving the pit for the starting grid. I'm unsure what it means.

The Lotus team has had legal troubles with Pic that I think I mentioned in the 2015 context in the Australian GP review. He claimed some breach of contract or something. Because of the legal proceedings, there was a possibility that the Lotus cars would be impounded after the GP. In the end, Bernie stepped in "to ensure staff were paid" and the cars were returned, allowing the team to race in Italy after this GP.

Verstappen managed to get through Q1 even though he complained of a loss of power. Raikkonen stopped on track during Q2 due to a loss of oil pressure, qualifying in 15th on the grid. Max did not take part in Q2 due to his car's issues and was ranked 14th. Lewis' first hot lap was almost half a second faster than Nico's, and that's about how they qualified. Valtteri was 3rd, 1.3 seconds behind Lewis. Then it was Grosjean in 4th and Perez in 5th. Seb was only 9th.

BUT WAIT because there were penalties. The McLarens had already been given exceptional permission to use an additional PU in 2015, using their 6th in Hungary, and then came back with completely revised 7th PUs on both their cars. It meant a 50 place grid penalty for Jenson and a 55 place grid penalty for Alonso. Yep. You read that right. Verstappen also received a 10 place grid penalty for a 6th PU. Grosjean and Raikkonen both received a 5 place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

In the end, the top 10 at the start was Lewis, Nico, Valtteri, Perez, Daniel, Massa, Maldonado, Seb, Grosjean and Sainz.

Lewis thus became the first driver to get on pole six consecutive times since Schumacher, who did so in-between the '00 and '01 season, while Mika Hakkinen was the last one to do it in one season in '99.

Alright now let's see what I missed in the build-up at the time I wrote this.

Of his quali Lewis said the first lap was great, and he hoped it would be enough. He knew it put a lot of pressure on Nico for the next run. The next lap he did was one of the closest to perfect he thinks he's ever done.

Ted has been filmed walking around a forest at night to tell the tale of the curse of Spa aka a recap of all the times Lewis got unlucky at this track. And yeah. That's a lot. In 2007, he was pushed wide by Alonso in Eau-Rouge. In 2008, he won but he was penalised after the race for cutting a chicane and lost the win. In 2009, Alguersuari crashed into him. (In 2010 he won so it's not mentioned.) In 2011, Ted says he was slow on track. I mean sure but more notably he spun and crashed and DNFd. Oh sorry, now he mentions it, I thought he was done talking lmao. In 2012, Grosjean managed to take 4 cars out with him in a crash, including Lewis. In 2013, he was on pole and got a good start but got overtaken by Seb, who won. And in 2014, of course, he was taken out by Nico. So that's 4 DNFs in 6 Belgian GPs. Well well well.

Lewis and Nico are doing a joint side track interview again. He's very happy about the qualifying performance but he needs to translate it into race wins, he says. Johnny says to them they must have bad memories of last year, are they gonna stay as aggressive? Nico says of course, they're gonna keep battling. Johnny asks Lewis if he has plans for the start. Lewis jokes that if he did he wouldn't tell him.

Johnny says he seems to be the man of the moment and then stutters on the word momentum. Lewis makes fun of him. Then he says qualifying has been great as he said and he's happy they have a great crowd today and he hopes they'll put on a great show for them. Then Johnny says today's very important for Nico's claim on the title, how hungry is he? He says of course every race counts.

Back to the broadcast, Simon says that was a bit earlier and Johnny is now lurking around behind the camera. "What were you doing?" he asks, "rapping?" They laugh. He shrugs with a smile. It happens.

Well there really wasn't much in this broadcast but here you have it anyway. Let's get to the race.

Formation lap.

Hulkenberg is already reporting no power, he was already having issues during quali if I understand correctly. He's told to pit. Then he's told to take the start and not pit.

They're all ready but Hulkenberg is waving in his cockpit. Aborted start.

Second formation lap.

Hulkenberg left his box but then stopped. His team tells him they'll pull him back in the pits. Now it's Sainz saying he has no power. He's called into the pitlane as well.

Both cars are into the garages and may or may not join the race at some point.

The others are racing!

It seems like a normal start but in the end, three cars are ahead of Nico into the first corner. That's weird. OH MY GOD AND PEREZ OVERTAKES LEWIS FOR THE LEAD A FEW CORNERS LATER WTF. No wait he didn't, he was shown as such on the graphics but he actually had to fall back phew. Seb also got a great start btw he's up in 6th. Lewis is now flying away and Nico overtakes Valtteri for P4. He attacks back but it's Seb getting ahead of him now. Maldonado has lost the engine and is very slow on track. He retires. Verstappen overtakes Ericsson for P10. Kvyat overtakes Massa for P8. Sainz came back out on the track from the garages but he's now also slow af. Lewis is setting fastest lap after fastest lap. Daniel pits from P3, they're trying to undercut I guess, but it seems early to do that. Grosjean overtakes Valtteri for P5. Perez pits from P2, and it worked for RBR as Ricciardo is ahead. Yellow flags blinked shortly as Kvyat went wide after a lock up. Massa is called in.

It's lap 10. Lewis is 8.4 seconds in the lead ahead of Nico. Seb is not far behind in P3. Then it's currently Grosjean, then Kvyat and Massa and Verstappen all pit as I'm writing, then Raikkonen, Ricciardo and Perez. Raikkonen is called in from P4. Nico is called in as well, before Lewis. Crofty thinks it's because Daniel, who's currently P4, is really pressuring them. Nico is out ahead of him as well as Perez, but Perez attacks! He can't make it though. Lewis is called in, he stays in the lead. Oh. Valtteri gets a drive through for "incorrect tyres fitted"? Seb pits. Nico sets the fastest lap. Grosjean overtakes Ricciardo for P4.

Lap 20. Lewis is leading by 3.1 after the pit stops, still ahead of Nico. Behind them Grosjean is attacking Perez for P3 and overtakes him easily. Daniel is P5 ahead of Seb, Kvyat, Massa who's being attacked by Raikkonen and Verstappen is P10. Oh! And Daniel was attacking for P4 but as we're watching his on-board, he locks up and then stops completely on the main straight! That's a bad place to stop too, just at the exit of the corner… DRS is disabled, VSC, the gaps are frozen. Of course a lot of people dive in the pits. Perez actually pitted as Daniel had his issue. Massa pits. Grosjean pits. Raikkonen pits. Lewis asks how Nico gained a second under VSC. It's a good question, but the VSC is over now and people are racing. Perez is told they need to make his tyres last to the end, that's 20 laps, not impossible. The sky is darkening. Are we gonna see rain? I'm kinda bored. Oh no Seb is having issues? He's told to change some things on the steering wheel and he answers a bit high pitched that it doesn't react. Kvyat pits. Seb, much calmer : "Think about an extra stop if that makes sense" and he's told they're looking into it.

It's lap 30. Kvyat overtakes Valtteri for P9. Lewis : "Track has changed, I think I need another half hole back in." It's about front wing specs. Kvyat sets the fastest lap. Lewis is called in. "My tyres are still good, can I do one more?" he asks. "Negative Lewis, this is the fastest race, Nico will take the stop otherwise." He obeys. He's out in P2. Nico is called in, and Lewis is back in the lead.

10 laps to go. Nico sets the fastest lap. Behind the Mercs the order goes Seb, Grosjean, Perez currently under pressure from Massa, Raikkonen not far behind them, then Kvyat, Valtteri and Verstappen. Sainz finally retires. Kvyat overtakes Raikkonen. There's a four-way fight over P5.

5 laps to go. Grosjean is told to go get Seb. He's indeed only half a second behind but come on I'd rather have a sewis podium please. To make up for the boring race. Kvyat is warned over track limits. Verstappen overtakes Valtteri for P9. Kvyat overtakes Massa for P6 and they almost make contact. And Kvyat overtakes Perez for P5. OH NO! SUDDEN PUNCTURE FOR SEB ohhh nooooooooo. There's just a lap and a half to go… Sucks. Verstappen overtakes Raikkonen for P7 but locks up, goes wide and drifts onto the run-off area. Back in P8.

It's the end of the race.

Lewis wins ahead of Nico for the Nth time this season. Grosjean P3. Welp it was an eventful start but actually kinda boring after that.

The video glitches just as Nico and Lewis shake hands so I can't gif it lol. Grosjean seems baffled to be here. Nico and him talk in French, obvi. Nico says something about "ta caisse" (your car, but slang) and Grosjean says "incroyable, incroyable ! J'partais 9 en plus !" (incredible, incredible! I started 9th on top of that !) then it's drowned out by the hostesses applauding outside and then he says "j'étais derrière lui, derrière lui, derrière lui, pfiou" (I was behind him, behind him, behind him, phew) The merc representative says he's very lucky and Grosjean nods as he pours water into his mouth and all over himself like a toddler. Lewis is nowhere to be seen.

Bono is in the crowd looking very proud of his boy.

It's DC doing the interviews. It's Lewis' 39th win, his 80th podium, equalling Ayrton Senna. Lewis asks the crowd if they're good. They roar. He thanks them as usual. He says he's had a great weekend, "again, an amazing job done by the team." He's drowned out by the fans cheering and chanting his name. It's unbelievable!

DC says the only time he thought Lewis could get concerned was after the virtual safety car when Nico somehow got closer. Anything else? He says Nico had obviously good pace but he was able to answer to him most of the time. The car was feeling great so he was relaxed and just mostly looking after the tyres, and especially at the end after he saw one tyre had exploded on another car he was really cautious, and that's why Nico was catching him at the end. But he felt really under control the whole time and great assistance from the team.

Nico gets a lot of noise from the crowd too. As does Grosjean wow.

DC asks Lewis if although it's still close with Nico he's starting to feel like he might get another title. He says it's definitely way too early for that. He says you just wanna get these pole positions and translate them into wins.

After the race, Seb criticised Pirelli's tyres, pointing out that Nico also suffered a failure during practice. He deemed it unacceptable and said if Nico said he didn't go off track then he didn't, as he has no reason to lie and that he himself didn't go off track and the tyre exploded out of the blue. He saw it as a safety risk. Pirelli's director Paul Hembrey said he did not want to start a war of words with Seb but that they were concerned when they saw that the teams intended to do a big number of laps on one set of tyres, as nothing suggested to them that they would go for one-stop strategies but rather two or three stop strategies. Nico backed Seb saying this shouldn't happen and pointed out it also happened in other categories. He said they both were "so lucky" as if it had happened a bit earlier or later it would have caused bad crashes for them, something Seb also mentioned. He called for immediate action as the next GP was to be Monza, which is a very fast one. Pirelli reacted by asking for a maximum stint length for their tyres, something they'd already suggested at the end of 2013. They then announced that they'd found cuts on other team's tyres, especially the rear ones, and that they were investigating the cause. Seb reiterated that his team was not at fault and that their strategy wasn't risky. Ultimately, Pirelli's conclusion was that Seb's blowout was due to debris and not excessive tyre wear.

Max was singled out for his overtake on Nasr in Blanchimont. He ultimately received an Action of the Year award from the FIA at the end of the year ceremony for it.

I've found Lewis' interview with Will Buxton. He asked him how it felt to be back on the top step after the summer break. He says it feels amazing. "Sometimes you wonder if a good thing is followed by another good thing."

He says he had an amazing holiday and so he was wondering if the happiness would last and it has. He says qualifying was ridiculous, and he smiles, and it gets a chuckle out of the journalist amassed around him.

He's happy with his race, he didn't have to overpush or overdrive. The balance was really nice and he's very happy with the outcome. Will Buxton or whatever journalist says last year Nico got the pole trophy and this year nobody can seem to beat him and he's said he's been on top of sector 2 this weekend which he never was before. The question is how much does he feel that with each passing race he's becoming more and more complete. He hums. He says generally this year he's growing into his thirties, "the start of a new era for me", he thinks he's growing wiser and stronger, mentally also, with the pole positions he's getting and the results he's getting. "I think I'm growing generally as a man so that's reflecting in how I drive and the decisions that I take and a lot of things I do." He smiles. "How worrying is that for everyone else," he's told. "Hum… Hopefully it should be very worrying," he laughs.

I also found the BBC interview. The journalist tells him Niki said he absolutely raised his game. "You must agree with that," she says. He says it feels good and the weekend has definitely been fantastic.

He says he as always has to take his hat off to his team that's has done an incredible job again this weekend. From the ones building the cars to the engineers. "Me and Nico wouldn't have been able to do that without them."

He says he's coming back from the best holiday he's ever had with such a facial expression that I'm wondering what happened there,

and that it gave him even more drive to get the pole positions and turn them into wins. He says he's really happy within himself because he drove his heart out. She asks if this is the strongest he's felt in his F1 career. "I think so, yeah." then he adds : "I mean… I felt good today, when I woke up, I was like 'yeah. I got this'".

He remembers it wasn't the case in the last race. "But definitely I feel… Not only the strongest just, but in general the happiest I've genuinely been in my life." He says he loves his job, he's grateful he gets to drive F1 cars every other weekend, it's the greatest job in the world and he has to seize it with both hands and enjoy, which he does, "and in my personal life enjoy it as much as I can!"

He's truly in a very good mood.

(This gif is just for me because I have a thing for intense staring, don’t mind me.)

She says when things are so good he's not wishing his days away to Monza, "you're in a great place at the moment." He says even when the days weren't good he wasn't wishing days to go by (it's a lie but it's okay, we all wanna forget about 2009) because he's "very very aware" that time flies by, "I'm already halfway through my career if not more"... Oh my god. Wait. I can't with this interview. "Erm in my formula 1 career, and it feels like it was only yesterday that I started in Melbourne so I really want to… I don't want it to go…”

“I'm not looking forward to the day that I hang my helmet up but erm…"

"There's room for a few more championships before then." – "I hope so, I hope so."

(btw given this was 2015 so his 9th year, according to this interview he's stopping in 2024 lol, 2023 being his 17th year in F1.)

Anyway let's see the postrace content now that it’s been uploaded.

Hill says Lewis is watching Nico all the time, as he's been able to tell he gained 1 second under VSC. It shows how in control he is.

Ted tells Niki they got a perfect result. It's unfortunate for the Ferraris but they score no points. Niki says they went very long, he has to say. But Lewis, Nico and the whole team did an incredible job. "Mercedes is back, I have to say, after Budapest so..." He just thanks everybody. Everybody involved is working hard. They were a bit depressed after Budapest but now it's fantastic, it's the way it should be.

Let's hear from Lewis. (Again.) He says he'd definitely say this is a "so-so circuit" for him, he's not won a lot here and it's never been easy, but he's happy with this weekend's performance. Particularly qualifying. The race was managing what he had, the gap he had, the tyres… "Nico was exceptionally fast today, but I didn't really feel like I was incredibly under pressure, I was able to match when I needed to so erm… Super happy." He says he was 5 years old when he started watching Ayrton, and he doesn't know what age he was when he wanted to emulate him, but thinking he has the same amount of podiums doesn't feel real.

She asks about the start because in the last race he apparently said having to do a second start it affected his clutch. He says he wasn't nervous, you can't allow yourself to get nervous for the start anyway, but he did the restart and was focused on keeping his car cooled and when he did the restart he did the appropriate sequence to make sure he wasn't overheating it and it turned out "relatively good". He says he did get wheelspin, like Nico did, but he managed to control a bit better and maintain the lead. She asks if he was surprised to see Perez alongside him. He says he was generally happy, and starts laughing, that it wasn't Nico.

He says Sergio was great, he says he thinks if it had been Nico it might have been a different outcome. (He says both ‘obviously’ and ‘probably’ in the sentence, you interpret that as you want lol) He's really glad the day went the way it did. She reminds him of the WDC standings and asks at what point he allows himself to think of a third world title. He says you really have to take it one race at a time. At no point you can get overly excited and think you've got it. But he's very happy with the car, so as long as he continues doing what he's doing and stays focused and healthy, he feels good about it, he finally admits.

Later, he says he's had such a good break and feels super refreshed. He has to interrupt himself to wave to the fans that are yelling. He says they can't imagine how at peace he feels in his heart after coming out of this great break, getting pole and it translating into a win. Brundle says it just seemed easy, he seemed in the groove. He says you don't always get the car where you want it but he did this weekend and same in the last race. He says he and his engineers are gelling more than ever and are working better than they've ever worked together. Together they've put a really good package and the car was feeling beautiful.

Brundle asks him about his position on the tyres given Seb and Nico's comments. He asks for clarifications. Brundle says Seb especially has been very punchy. Lewis says "yeah I'm sure, I'm sure." with an empathetic tone. He says both of them had "fairly big incidents" and that it was just lucky that both of them happened at a stage when it wasn't too detrimental or unsafe. They never ever want that to happen. They always want to be able to go out there with confidence that there won't be any problems. However he says he's heard that for Seb, they went too long on the tyres. So it's not necessarily fully down to the tyres. But if it had happened just a bit before it would have been in Eau Rouge which could have been "quite nasty". He says the FIA and the teams work closely with Pirelli and Pirelli will learn from this weekend.

Simon says he's had a fair share of bad luck in Spa. He nods with a smile. He asks if it's nice to have the perfect weekend here. Lewis says it's a very difficult track. For some reason there are tracks that really suit you and tracks you struggle at more. This is one of those tracks he's struggled at a little bit more (full emphasis on a little bit). He says he's had good results when it was raining, "it makes it easier for me" he half-jokes, but this weekend he thinks he did the best and extracted the most he could out of what's a weaker circuit for him.

Brundle asks what about Perez breathing alongside him in the first lap. Lewis smiles and tilts his head. They're all chuckling a bit like it's really really weird that he did such a thing.

Lewis echoes his earlier answer to that. "Well, better him than anyone else." He says again Perez was very fair. He tried to keep everybody behind but he followed him aaall the way. Brundle says he went wide a little bit. Lewis says he went in there nailing it then the back end bottomed a little bit and slid and he still kept it going, "I was like 'I'm NOT lifting'!"

And Perez slowly caught him but as long as he covered the inside, that's all he could do, and then he fortunately outbraked him. He's grateful for the way it came out because it made the race much easier, he chuckles. Brundle says the only other break in his serene afternoon was the VSC, he thought Nico might have gained on him? Lewis says what happens is you hear beep beeps and the screen changes and you have to brake very heavily to slow down to hit the delta. When you're driving at some point you see the other driver behind you appear so you know what the gap is. And when the VSC started he was maybe four seconds behind but during it he was closer than ever so he thought surely he'll have to fall back for the restart which he never did. Which is why he wondered. Because he did not make a mistake so there was no reason for him to be that much closer. He says he needs to go figure out where he lost that second but dismisses it saying it wasn't a big problem anyway.

Simon says he's 28 points ahead in the WDC standings so one DNF clear and asks if that's something in his mind, wanting to keep it above that. Lewis says he doesn't look at it that way because naturally as a team you never want a DNF. Simon insists that it gives him leeway though. He says for sure, but last year he crashed in this race and was 29 points behind when he came out of Spa. So it's been way more positive up until now. His goal coming back from this great holiday (seriously what did he do?) into this part of this season was to translate the great laps he does in quali into results and wins. And hopefully today was the start of it. Brundle asks if he's got on top of Nico, does he think mentally Nico realises he can't beat him? (way to put him in a tough spot) He says he thinks as a driver you never– it's very rare you see a driver fall to that belief. They still believe that they're better and all that, "whether it's true or not". He says he remembers when he was driving with Alonso. "Fernando could never believe why sometimes I was quicker, he was like 'there must be something wrong with the car cause I'm the best'. That's what he would say. To himself, I know. For sure." He says Nico's very strong, he's gonna come back and keep fighting, he knows that he still has that belief in himself, which is fine by him, no problem.

For some reason they start talking about Notting Hill carnival and twerking. I'm at a loss.

#f1 #lewis hamilton #vro0m's race reviews #2015 #2015 belgian gp

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