Belgium 2011 - GP Preview - Sauber Ferrari

Refreshed after the summer break, the Sauber F1 Team is looking forward to racing on the spectacular circuit of Spa-Francorchamps where the Belgian Grand Prix will take place on the weekend of the 26th to 28th of August. With a lap of slightly over seven kilometres it is the longest track of the season. Summer in the Ardennes doesn’t necessarily mean sunshine, as the weather is traditionally difficult to predict at Spa. The Sauber C30-Ferrari will appear with a Spa specific new rear wing, updates to the front wing – and two drivers who love the circuit.

Kamui Kobayashi: “Spa is a very beautiful circuit, and one of my favourites. It has a lot of high speed corners which should suit our car well, because it has a similar average speed to Silverstone. Normally the temperatures are not very hot there, so for the tyres it should not be too difficult. But the weather is always very unpredictable, as it was in Silverstone, at the Nürburgring and in Budapest, so this could be another very tricky race. Sometimes you are in a situation where you have to decide for which conditions you set up the car before you are sure what the weather will be like. If they are difficult, we have to stay cool in the race and make the right decisions. Then we can score a strong result.”

Sergio Pérez: “After quite a long break when everybody was on holiday, it is nice to get back into the car again and to the race rhythm. I’m very much looking forward to the Belgian Grand Prix. Spa is a very special place. I think we can pick up again the momentum from before the race in Hungary, and do well there. It is one of my favourite circuits because I love Eau Rouge and the other fast corners. I won in Spa in Formula 3, and also last year in GP2. Personally the break was good for me to fully recover from the Monaco accident.”

James Key, Technical Director: “We’re looking forward to getting into the next part of the season and going to Spa, which requires a medium to low downforce level. To date it will be the lowest downforce level the teams have run, but a lot will depend on the weather conditions, because they are very unpredictable. As always in Spa, we have to monitor the weather closely over the weekend. The circuit itself is very popular with the drivers, and a great place to engineer a car. The track is primarily high speed with long straights and well known corners. This should suit our car reasonably well. The Pirelli tyres are the soft and the medium compounds. We know from Silverstone that the soft tyre works well with the high speed corners, but we have some work to do with the medium compound. The car will have updates to the front wing and a new rear wing which is Spa specific. After a difficult race in Hungary we’re hopeful of a better performance in Belgium.”