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2010
BELGIAN Grand Prix preview
Jenson
Button
“We
come into the Belgian Grand Prix knowing that we have some catching-up do
to; we didn’t have a particularly strong race in Hungary, and the whole
team wants to get back to the front again as quickly as possible.
“While
we’re optimistic that the bodywork rules clarification will close the
gap among the top teams, and that both Spa and Monza should suit our
package better than the Hungaroring, it’s still important that we regain
the momentum we’d reached earlier this season.
“I
love racing at Spa – it’s one of the truly great circuits, and a grand
prix that I’d love to win. I didn’t have the best race here last year,
when I was punted out at the top of the hill on the first lap, so that
just gives me additional motivation to do well here.
“While
I don’t think these two European races will be pivotal to the title
fight, it will nonetheless be harder to introduce bigger upgrades to the
car at the end-of-season flyaways, so it’s important for the whole team
that we score well in both events.”
Lewis
Hamilton
“Although
it’s been great for the whole team to have had the factory shutdown and
a well-deserved holiday, I think we’re all really looking forward to
getting back into the title fight.
“The
break gave us some valuable thinking time to consider how to improve our
car for the remainder of the season – and we head into these two races
not only optimistic of some better results, but also of stronger pace for
the rest of the year.
“Neither
Jenson or I had a great race at Spa last year – I didn’t see much of
it from the cockpit, but I think Jenson was pushed into a spin from behind
at Les Combes and the resulting accident took me out too. So it was weird
to watch the whole race back in the garage.
“For
this year, too, I head to Spa off the back of a disappointing non-finish
in Hungary. We’ve investigated the causes, and think we’ve identified
the reason and are confident that it shouldn’t happen again.
“Personally,
I think Spa is one of the ‘great’ Formula 1 tracks, and one I’d
really love to win. I’ll be going flat-out to try and get us back into
the hunt again in Belgium, and it would be fantastic if we could take home
another win at the end of the weekend.”
Martin
Whitmarsh
Team
principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“The
summer break was extremely welcome for a number of reasons – firstly, it
provided the whole team with a much-needed rest period after some
particularly relentless races; secondly, it gave our engineers time for
consideration and thought ahead of the closing run of races; and, finally,
the downtime proved very useful in enabling us to carry out some
maintenance work to our windtunnel, which should improve its correlation.
“After
a disappointing Hungarian Grand Prix, we are pushing hard to regain the
performance relative to our rivals that we had enjoyed earlier this
season. While we believe our recent upgrades have given us a downforce
improvement, it appears that the package hasn’t yet delivered to its
full potential, particularly in terms of providing the drivers with a
consistent, confidence-delivering platform.
“We
were able to carry out some useful evaluative tests during practice in
Hungary, which provided us with some useful data and avenues for
experimentation. And we’ll take that programme further in Spa, running
floor rakes during practice to supply us with more information.
“As
we’ve always stated, we believe there are some large areas of
performance locked within the car and its recent upgrade, and we are
confident that our solid-engineering approach will enable us to fully
unlock them sooner rather than later.”
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