FIA blah blah blah McLaren blah blah blah $100m blah blah blah.

That was going to be the only mention of it until I recieved a telephone call yesterday from a mate asking if I thought it was dodgy that Alonso wasn’t at the track. I said that I didn’t think so. Alonso had to be at the FIA press conference and they fine you massively if you don’t show up. No said the friend, he’s not at the track he’s having a massage or something. It’s fair to say I was a bit confused by this information. Only after a minute or two did we happen on the cause of the confusion. The guy had read, or at least thought he had, that Alonso was at a spa.

So on to the main event, you know, the race. Here is the situation:

• Spa is normally known as a McLaren circuit
• But Ferrari’s package is more suited to this kind of circuit than others.
• But McLaren normally do well here even in seasons where the car is a dog.
• But Kimi loves the circuit he’s won here twice
• He was driving a McLaren
• Ferrari need this win they’ll do everything to get it
• McLaren want to prove beyond doubt that they would have won the championship. They want this win too.

And the BMW will be best of the rest. The renault and williams will be close behind but…

• It might rain (watch out for Jenson)
• If it does rain somebody could do a Winklehock by having gambled on a rain setup
• If it does rain it can be raining on one bit of the circuit and dry on another. Somebody could be very brave.
• And regardless of rain you can usually overtake here. And the new modifications might make that easier too.

Good Luck!