Ferrari came into the weekend in high spirits. With winning last time out,in Hungary, they were hopeful of a title battle with Mercedes in the second half of the season. They had secured their driver line up for 2016, with Kimi Raikkonen kept on to partner four-time champion, Sebastian Vettel. It was also Ferrari’s 900th Grand Prix, and with six Spa wins between Raikkonen and Vettel, the Scuderia were hopeful of adding to their record 16 Belgian victories.
2015 Belgian Grand Prix Ferrari Review
In FP1, Raikkonen was fourth fastest, less than four tenths off pace-setter Rosberg. Vettel was a further four tenths off his team-mate, in fifth place. In the second Friday session, Raikkonen was over a second off Rosberg, again the fastest driver, in fifth place. Vettel set the tenth quickest time, behind both Sauber’s, who had Ferrari updates on their cars. In Saturday practise, Ferrari showed more pace, as they came in third and fourth fastest, with Vettel and Raikkonen respectively. They were still over six tenths slower than the Mercedes pair, and a challenge for pole position seemed unlikely.
Both Ferraris made it safely through to the first qualifying session. In Q2, an oil pressure issue with Raikkonen meant he stopped on track and couldn’t set a time. In Q3, a mistake at the chicane costed Vettel precious time, and was the difference from him qualifying ninth instead of third-place. The German got promoted to eighth-place, due to Grosjean’s five-grid penalty, but Raikkonen was demoted to 16th, due to a gearbox change.
The big talk of the weekend was the new start procedures, on which put more emphasis on the driver’s ability with the clutch. Ferrari had mixed fortune at the start. Vettel went from eighth to sixth, and was unlucky not to gain any more places, whilst Raikkonen went backwards to 17th position. Vettel got by Bottas for fifth-place on the start of the second lap, when the Williams driver locked up trying to pass Rosberg. Raikkonen started to make up ground, and took Alonso for 12th on lap four, and Ericsson on lap five for 11th, place. Raikkonen pitted on lap 12, from sixth-place, for soft tyres, and came out behind Massa in tenth place. Vettel briefly took the lead of the race, as he was the last of the top runners to have pitted. He came in on lap 15 for the medium tyres, and ended up in sixth-place, ahead of Bottas. The Williams driver, due to incorrect tyres fitted on his pit-stop, suffered a drive-through penalty. This eased the pressure from behind on Vettel, and promoted Raikkonen to ninth-place. Raikkonen pitted for the medium tyres, and came out in eighth-place on lap 22, whilst the race was under Virtual Safety Car conditions due to Riccardio stopping on track. With Riccardio’s retirement, and Grosjean pitting for a second time, Vettel moved to third-place. Kyvat pitted to hand Raikkonen seventh-place, but then the Russian reclaimed the position back on lap 37. It was clear that Ferrari were trying to get Vettel to just do the race on one stop, as it was the best chance of a podium. It was a decision that Vettel questioned, and on lap 42, his fears were confirmed. Under pressure from Grosjean, who had closed up to within a second of the German, Vettel, whose tyres were 27 laps old, had a failure on his right rear coming at Kemmel . Raikkonen, the third-placed car in a four-way battle foe fifth-place, got overtaken by Verstappen at Les Combes, but the young Belgian-born driver overcooked it, and the Finn took the place back. Raikkonen came home in seventh-place, nearly a minute behind the Mercedes pair, whilst Vettel, due to his tyre explosion, was 12th, a lap down.
With Ferrari losing further ground in both championships, the outside possibility of a title charge is now over. The focus now will be on next year, and to give the outfit a proper run for the title when lights go out at Melbourne. For now, Ferrari’s focus will be consolidating the best-of-the-rest tag, and with a 81-point gap over third-place Williams, then that looks likely. Ferrari aren’t a team to settle for second best though, and there will still be a push for the next eight races to claim more victories. Whether and where that will come is hard to see at the moment, as Mercedes seems miles ahead of the Maranello outfit at present.
