So the summer F1 break is almost at an end….Yay!. I love Spa, its my favourite race of the season, its nearly always eventful and usually a good race. I found it interesting that Red Bull, on a track which should have suited them through the fast corners they have been talking down their chances. I wonder whether this has anything to do with the more stringent checks the FIA are introducing from this weekend on the front wings. Personally I would have preferred the FIA to surprise the teams with the new checks at the race and not give them time to prepare.

Last year Force India had a great race here and although they have played down their chances of achieving the same result this season I would still expect this to be one of their strongest races of the season. While Lotus are already concentration on 2011 Virgin I believe are still bringing updates in a real bid to finish top of the new teams.

Spa really is a fantastic circuit, It is long, has fast and slow corners, the magnificent Eau Rouge and is a real challenge to drivers and has a long history. It will be an interesting race as it's situated just after a four week break which includes a two week "enforced" shut down period where the factories has to be closed. Now I'm sure no-one actually believes that no work goes on during this time, laptops can be taken home and manufacturing work can be out sourced to external companies.Here is a video of the 2007 Pole lap from Kimi Raikonnen.

Ferrari I think will be a strong team here as they were just before the break however they have the World Motor Sport Council meeting to look forward to before the Italian grand prix where it is possible they could be kicked out of the championship. More realistically I expect them to lose their points from Germany and told not to do it again.

Renault bring their version of the f-duct to Spa and were quick in Hungary so if it works well they might be quite on the pace. Williams have steadily improved this season and Barrichello will want to put in a good showing in his 300^th Grand prix.

One of the stupidest things I have seen since the last race was the fine Lewis Hamilton got for "Hooning" in Australia, £288 is probably less than an hours work for Hamilton, perhaps some community service doing road safety would have been better. Michael Schumacher has a 10 place grid penalty instead of kicking him out of the last race which he deserved. Still at least he didn't get points by almost running Barrichello into the wall which might have killed him. Still he's got off lightly in my opinion, and not for the first time.

Nigel Mansell is guest ex-driver steward at this race and it promises to be as eventful as ever and I can't wait to watch.


By Steve Jarvis