Renault have excelled this season so far, all thanks to a man that was worried he wouldn’t have a seat this season.

Although the latter part of the first part of the season was mixed, Robert Kubica is still enjoying being in the contention for best of the rest come the end of the season.

The Renault team were in a little bit of a mess at the end of last season because of the ‘crashgate’ scandal, and this was a problem for the team in recruiting new drivers after former World Champion Fernando Alonso left for Ferrari and then there was a long and anxious wait for Kubica as the Formula One world had all eyes on what the punishment would be for the team.

It was good for the sport when the team were left to continue with their F1 career, and this was great news for Kubica and his team mate, and new F1 driver Vitaly Petrov.

The team have enjoyed a mixed season so far, which has seen the Russian, Petrov struggle, but the experienced Kubica excel as the season has continued. Kubica has been in a class of his own, showing why he is the teams number one driver, and filled the boots left by his close friend Alonso as well as could be expected.

The team will be hoping that both drivers finish the race after the summer break as Kubica had a terrible time of things in the Hungarian GP, whereas Petrov was ecstatic with his career best finish of 5^th.

It is fully expected that the team would’ve improved the car, and both drivers will be anxious to get back in the hot seat in Belgium at the weekend.

Spa is one of the most successful tracks for Kubica, who will be hoping to get back on top of Mercedes driver, Nico Rosberg, who is currently leading the group behind the big three teams of Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull.

It will be a challenging prospect this weekend as all the teams around Renault will have made improvements to their cars and Mercedes will be hoping that they can get the pure straight line speed back up to the standard it was at before the season began, as well as Williams GP hoping to be more consistent on the finishing straight of the season.

This is the 13^th of 19 races in the F1 calendar this year, and Renault will be hoping that they can get further up that pit lane for next season’s races.

TEAM PREDICTIONS

Robert Kubica will be looking to wipe the slate clear after the shambles in Hungary, and will be looking to keep his qualifying stretch in the top 10 up. After a reasonable qualifying session Kubica will start the race in 8^th and climb up one place to finish the weekend in 7^th.

Petrov will be hoping his car gives him the same consistency over the weekend and will just miss out on Q3 and start the race in 11^th, and after a great start will consolidate a 9^th place finish which again shows his consistent improvement in his first F1 season.

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