There´ve been only two raceless weekends so far and there´s no denying it: my withdrawal symptoms are getting worse every day! Still two more raceless weekends to come... Aaargh! So to ease my withdrawal symptoms I decided to sit down and write a few lines about Formula 1... Maybe that´ll help ;)
What to expect from the second half of the season? There´re definitely many question marks. One of the most interesting questions is, how much of an advantage Lotus´s brand new "double DRS system" will be. The team has tested it in the Friday´s free practice both at Silverstone and Hockenheim and the results have been promising. The "double DRS" certainly will make the E20s fly faster than ever but will the system be reliable as well... We´ll see about that. But I´m convinced that the system increases Kimi´s chances to win at Spa significantly! Already during the first half of the season the E20 has been quick enough to win a race but it takes more than just speed to get the first win for the team! Hopefully the "double DRS" will help Kimi to qualify higher at the remaining races. The key is to make it to the first or second row on the grid! When Kimi succeeds in that he´ll be unstoppable! Knowing Kimi´s history at Spa I´d say it´s even probable that the Iceman will clinch his first win of the season in Belgium at the beginning of September! :)
Another question mark is whether Ferrari´s (=Alonso´s) success continues after the halfpoint of the season. Ferrari
technical boss Pat Fry has admitted that weather conditions have played
a part in allowing Fernando Alonso to lead the world championship by 40
points. If it had been a dry race at Malaysia it would probably have been a different story... And it was specifically at wet qualfying sessions at Silverstone and Hockenheim where Alonso was able to conquer pole. So the question is, will there be more wet races in the remaining half of the season? I guess everyone thinks that Ferrari isn´t definitely the quickest car on the grid, that´s for sure. The weather has certainly helped out... But if it rains at Spa I would still bet my money on Kimi taking pole! Ferrari will have some upgrades for sure as well as all the other top teams but I don´t think they will become the fastest car on track at any point of the season! 40- point lead is a big advantage though because Alonso tends to score points in every race and Ferrari has turned out to be almost 100 % reliable!
The third question mark is whether McLaren manages to solve their tyre degradation issues. The key factor behind the problem may be the Mercedes engine as also Mercedes and Force India have suffered from similar problems during the first half of the season. Despite the tyre wear issues Hamilton has driven pretty impressively so far. The pace is definitely there and McLaren is sure to bring some upgrades to the upcoming races. The next GP weekend at Spa will be crucial: how fast will Lotus be with their "double DRS" system and will the other top teams be forced to develop a system of their own to be able to fight for the championship...?
I´m anxious to find out what will happen during the rest of the season! I hope Lotus´s "double DRS" turns out to be a huge success but there´s always other alternatives that it doesn´t work properly or it makes the E20 unreliable... Or it even could turn out to be a worst case scenario: huge fuss with no real advantage. All I can really do is to keep my thumbs up for Kimi because I know the huge success is there to come one day!
