Belgian Grand Prix talking points

20 August 2015 10:31

The Formula One circus parks up in Spa-Francorchamps for round 11 of the championship this weekend. Here, Press Association Sport looks at five talking points heading into the first race back after the four-week summer break.

So, Kimi Raikkonen is staying at Ferrari - none of us saw that coming did we?

In a word: no. Raikkonen has had a pretty dour campaign with Ferrari. He was out-classed by Fernando Alonso last season, and new team-mate Sebastian Vettel has dished out the same treatment in 2015. Vettel has won two races - in Malaysia and Hungary - and finished on the podium five other times. Raikkonen on the other hand has been on the rostrum just once. Indeed, the 35-year-old Finn has just 76 points in comparisons to Vettel's 160 at the midway stage of the season.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams was heavily linked with his seat, but it is claimed Ferrari stalled at Williams' hefty asking price to release Bottas from his contract. The most likely scenario is Raikkonen will get one more season at Ferrari with Bottas joining in 2017.

Will Raikkonen's new deal now have a domino effect on deals for next year?

Much of this year's transfer activity depended on Raikkonen's future, so, Ferrari's decision to keep the surly Finn could kick the driver market into life. That said, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes next year, Ferrari sticking with Vettel and Raikkonen, Red Bull unlikely to change their line-up, and Bottas odds-on to remain at Williams, the big decisions now centre around Felipe Massa and Jenson Button. Both have options for 2016 - at Williams and McLaren respectively - but is still unclear whether they will be taken up. If they are, there's every chance the field could look relatively unchanged for next season.

And what about this weekend? Lewis Hamilton was all over the place in Hungary. do we expect him to be back on track in Spa-Francorchamps?

Hamilton conceded his display in Budapest was his worst in seven years. It was a chaotic performance from the 30-year-old, but miraculously he got away with it, crossing the line in sixth and somehow extending his lead over team-mate Nico Rosberg, who limped home in eighth, in the world championship.

Hamilton will be desperate to avoid a repeat of his performance in Belgium this weekend. He has shared contrasting fortunes in Spa - winning in 2010, but crashing out on the first lap the following year before his now infamous opening-lap collision with Rosberg last season.

What's this new rule about the starts?

Drivers will have to set the clutch bite point themselves rather than rely on a mechanic to determine it for them. It should lead to more unpredictable starts and more dynamic racing. The best two races of the year so far - at Silverstone and then the Hungaroring - came after Hamilton and Rosberg were slow off the start-line. Hamilton however, has warned that the unpredictable nature of the new start system could be dangerous with some drivers likely to be much quicker off the line than others. Spa-Francorchamps played host to one of the more terrifying opening corner shunts in recent memory when Romain Grosjean went flying over the top of Fernando Alonso in 2011. It led to a one-race ban for the Frenchman.

How is the weather looking in Belgium?

The weather often plays its part here and this year is likely to be no exception with the wet stuff currently forecast to land in time for Sunday's race. Arriving on the outskirts of Spa on Wednesday night I was informed by one of the locals that "so far this week it has been sun, sun, sun, but from Thursday onwards it will be rain, rain, rain." Probably best to pack a mac then.

Source: PA