Belgium: The Race Seen from the Pits

McLaren

Jenson Button – Winner

Lewis Hamilton – Retirement

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal: Jenson was majestic all weekend.

The track was washed out on Friday, but Jenson didn’t put a single wheel in the wrong place under these conditions. The Saturday morning session was also tricky, but he superbly rose to the challenges it posed. On Saturday afternoon, he completely dominated the qualifiers. And finally, to top it all off, he drove flawlessly to secure the most commanding victory of the season; in fact, from start to finish, he was never threatened.

In doing so, he made things visibly easy. But when a driver manages to win from pole position, leading the entire race, the excellence of his performance isn’t always as obvious as when he wins by attacking from the back. But Jenson was super-fast all weekend, and he controlled the race with authority, managing tire wear with plenty of skill throughout. It wasn’t easy, even if it seemed so, and I’m extremely proud of him, as is everyone at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

He scored 25 points for us this afternoon – which are really very valuable both in our pursuit of the constructors’ championship and for his own campaign in the drivers’ championship – but of course, we should have scored much more than that. And, if Lewis hadn’t been involved in a collision in which he had no responsibility, we would have collected those additional points. The accident was really damaging for Lewis, and for the other innocent parties whose races were also ruined, but that’s racing.

We take a lot of positives from this 2012 Belgian Grand Prix – not least the fact that we won it, which means we have now won two Grand Prix in a row. Our car is clearly very fast. Now, we aim to continue this form at Monza, where, in just a few days, we are looking to achieve a triple victory.

Believe me: both championships are within our reach.

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Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 2nd

Mark Webber – 6th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « A great recovery – we had good pace in the race. We hadn’t planned on making only one stop, but we managed to make that strategy work with Sebastian once the mid-race point had almost passed. His ability to overtake was excellent and our drivers were even wheel-to-wheel at one point, which was good and fair. Starting 10th and finishing 2nd is a great recovery. With Mark, we hoped for a bit more, but I think our gearbox ratio choice was probably a bit too short today, which penalized him a bit when overtaking uphill. Nevertheless, he managed to score good points today; I think with clear air, he could have been very fast, but he found himself in traffic for most of the race. So overall, after a disappointing Saturday, it was a positive Sunday. »

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 3rd

Romain Grosjean – Retired

Eric Boullier, Team Director: « It has been a tough day for the team but we fully respect the decision of the stewards. Romain will not race at Monza but he still has our support. We will announce the name of his replacement a little later in the week. Regarding the race, unfortunately, we were not fast enough with Kimi to compete with Jenson (Button) or Sebastian (Vettel). We had to study very closely during the race to see if we could make it on just one stop, but in the end, this podium brings us good points. Obviously, everyone talks about ‘the victory’, and it is something we all want. We were not fast enough today to win, so we must continue to work hard to achieve this goal. »

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Force India

Nico Hülkenberg – 4th

Paul di Resta – 10th

Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: Spa generally offers crazy races and great battles, and today’s Grand Prix delivered both. Nico drove a brilliant race to finish in fourth position on a day when it was important to capitalize on the first corner incident that affected some of our rivals. He stayed out of trouble and was even in second place for a time after the safety car period, showing good pace with a perfect two-stop strategy. We’ve been waiting for such a result for a long time, and it’s a great reward for Nico and the entire team. We could have scored more points if Paul’s race hadn’t been compromised by his KERS issue, and he did well to bring home a point today. The result is important for our fight in the constructors’ championship because we have now moved ahead of Williams. We will try to continue this momentum in Monza next weekend.

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Ferrari

Felipe Massa – 5th

Fernando Alonso – Abandon

Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: « First of all, the good news: Fernando is fine. All of us, and I think all Ferrari fans as well, went through a difficult time after the accident, especially because we couldn’t communicate with him. We could only feel relieved once we saw him get out of the cockpit, and then we started breathing normally once we saw him return to the garage. Clearly, a great disappointment followed due to this incident because a podium was within our reach, and it was our objective after yesterday’s qualifying. Today, the F2012 had a good pace, as Felipe demonstrated by running a great race. We are happy for him because a good result was what he needed at this point in the season.

Regarding the accident, all I can say is that the decision rests with the FIA; what is certain is that it would be better if, starting with the junior categories, the rules related to on-track behavior were applied inflexibly, so that drivers are better prepared when they reach the highest level of motorsport. My role as team director is to ensure that everyone stays focused on their task, especially in difficult times; now, we must quickly put this day behind us and start thinking about the next Grand Prix, which will take place in Monza, a circuit that is obviously very special for us.

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Mercedes

Michael Schumacher – 7th

Nico Rosberg – 11th

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: It was an exciting race for Michael and a great demonstration of his skills for his 300th Grand Prix. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a fast enough car to contend for the podium today. Michael also encountered a gearbox problem towards the end, which prevented him from being in the battle after his second stop. Nico put in a great effort to get into the points and almost succeeded. However, with a lack of dry running and without a car set up to his liking, it would have been difficult anyway. We will now look towards Monza and continue to work on improving our performance.

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Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – 8th

Daniel Ricciardo – 9th

Franz Tost, Team Principal: « For the first race after the summer break, we managed to score as many points as in the first part of the season! We benefited from the misfortunes of others, with the first corner accident, because Ricciardo and Vergne completed the first lap in sixth and seventh positions despite starting 16th and 15th on the grid, respectively.

From there, the two drivers did a good job building on that, making some decisive overtakes, and our pit stops were also quite good. The whole team performed well, and this result is a source of motivation for everyone working in Bicester and Faenza.

From now on, I hope that we can continue on this path in a few days, as many of our employees will make the short trip to Monza to see us compete in our home race.

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Williams

Bruno Senna – 12th

Pastor Maldonado – Abandon

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: « Pastor’s race ended very quickly after a collision with Glock that forced him to retire. Bruno got off to a very good start from 17th on the grid and pushed hard on a one-stop strategy, unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace today for it to work. A few laps from the end of the race, we noticed a drop in pressure in Bruno’s rear-right tire due to a puncture. This forced us to pit again, with Bruno finishing outside the points in twelfth position. »

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Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi – 13th

Sergio Pérez – Retirement

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: « It’s disappointing that once again external factors have ruined our race. We must focus on the positives from this weekend, namely that we didn’t make any mistakes, in qualifying we can be at the front, and this must be our goal for the next race. »

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Caterham

Vitaly Petrov – 14th

Heïkki Kovalainen – 17th

Mark Smith, Technical Director: « Both cars started on Medium tires and made the right decision by navigating through the cars after the first corner incident. We had issues with the first pit stops for Vitaly and Heikki, but both cars had clean second stops, and the team responded well by putting the problems behind them and ensuring that the issues did not reoccur during the second round of pit stops. Vitaly’s final 14th place was the best we could have hoped for today since we didn’t have the pace at Spa to compete with the cars in front, but we know what we need to do to improve. Now, we have the next race at Monza to work hard to place ourselves where we should be at this stage of the season. »

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Marussia

Timo Glock – 15th

Charles Pic – 16th

John Booth, Team Director: « We predicted that we would be stronger in the race than in qualifying, and that was indeed the case today. For a large part of the race, the substantial improvements introduced here allowed our drivers to keep pace with our immediate rivals, so we can be pleased, overall, that the gap is closing. Also, we only saw a few blue flags and quite late in the race. These additional improvements will bring more performance, which will significantly help us stay on the leaders’ lap and reduce the time lost due to blue flags at the end of the race.

The very turbulent first lap made life a bit difficult for us with our two cars having to navigate through the debris at turn 1, which led to the deployment of the safety car. Then, the collision between Maldonado and Timo pushed him to the back of the pack, behind the HRTs, which was not ideal considering our current goal was to compete with the Caterhams at the restart after the safety car. We decided to switch Timo to a two-stop strategy to give him a clear track to develop the car’s potential in the second stint and close the gap. It worked well, and Timo did an excellent job.

We opted for a one-stop strategy, more conservative, for Charles and that meant our two drivers were relatively close at the end of the race. Charles was on more worn tires and Timo was able to pass him on the last lap, but by then, the gap created by the race incidents meant there was no longer any hope of him catching Petrov.

We have shown that we have reached a new milestone with our improvements, thanks to the hard work of the team in Banbury, as well as our partner, Cosworth. I am sure this will be a huge source of motivation for everyone before Monza and with a normal working Friday, to fine-tune our car, I am confident that we can continue to see further progress.

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HRT

Pedro de la Rosa – 18th

**Narain Karthikeyan** – Retirement

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Director: « It was an exciting race for us because we fought with some of our rivals for a large part of the race. Unfortunately, after Narain’s last pit stop, we encountered a problem, and he had to retire while he was having a sensational race. The positive aspect is that Pedro was able to finish the race, and the car’s performance was good, so I am happy because we are on the same positive momentum as before the break. »

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