The holidays that ended today, just before leaving for Belgium, have been very relaxing. Immediately after the Hungarian Grand Prix, I was in Maranello to work on the simulator and with my engineers, from where I headed for home, via a stop off at Madonna di Campiglio for a presentation of the book about twenty years of the Wrooom event. In the days that followed, I split my time between Switzerland and Spain, trying to avoid any long journeys: we can expect the final part of the season to be quite stressful and I wasn’t keen on the idea of seeing even more hotels and airports.

In fact, the means of transport I used most was the bicycle. Apart from the usual training, I had some fun doing a “mini Vuelta” in the area around Oviedo: along with my best friends, we tackled five stages and it was great fun. Three weeks is more than enough time to unwind, at least after the first few days. I made the most of it to recharge the batteries in preparation for the final part of the season, which I think was the same for everyone: it was much needed, after a particularly hectic month of July.

Now, I really want to get back on track, but in a positive sense, without any feeling of anxiety, but in a very calm way. I am happy that the return to racing means going to two particularly special venues which host the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix. The Belgian track is possibly the most appealing of the entire season, while Monza will be something special for me, given that it will be my race debut as a Ferrari driver in front of the Italian crowd, in addition to the circuit itself having played such an important role in the history of motor sport.

I have a good feeling following on from the positive results obtained in Germany and Hungary. As the saying goes, we have to keep the momentum and that should be our aim in Spa, to ensure we carry on the way we started just before the holidays. The Hockenheim and Budapest results were important not just in terms of the classification in both championships, but also for the confidence it has given us. We have to keep pushing on this way.

I am preparing to leave Sao Paolo to return to Europe for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, having spent all my free time since the Hungarian Grand Prix at home here in Brazil. Usually, when you go on holiday it involves some sort of journey, but with all the travelling involved in my job, for me the ideal holiday is being at home and not having to see an airport, sit on a plane or stay in a hotel. Therefore, staying at home with my family was the ideal break for me, catching up with everything going on here and meeting up with old friends. During the year, when I get the chance to stay in Brazil for a while, I admit that I miss my home country for a while after I leave, but knowing that I am returning to racing again is all the incentive I need to get on the plane back to Monaco.

It’s winter time now in Brazil, but to put that in perspective, the daytime temperature is still around 23 or 24 degrees, so nothing to complain about! Apart from keeping up my fitness training, I really managed to switch off for a while doing very little, although last weekend, I was at the Interlagos circuit that hosts the Brazilian Grand Prix later this year: my family organises a racing event so it was good to hear the sound of racing engines again. We run three different race categories here, in conjunction with FIAT. One is an open-wheeler category, similar to Formula 2, called Formula Future, which as the name suggests is aimed at finding young racing talent from the next generation. It is an important step for racing here, as for many years there was no “school” class with single-seater cars, which is why we wanted to do something for motor sport in Brazil. There is a category for Touring Cars also, using the FIAT Linea and finally there is a 600cc motorcycle class. It was the third round of the season and it was fun to be at a racetrack without all the pressure of racing myself.

Although it was a very quiet holiday, I am fully prepared for this weekend in Spa, as I kept in touch with the engineers, even though they were not working in the factory. We look in good shape, with some new parts coming as part of our constant development programme on the F10. The last time I raced here was in 2008 and it’s not just because I won the race that I love this track. I think all the drivers look forward to racing on this fabulous circuit. It is high speed, requiring less downforce than at many of the other tracks and fortunately, in the last few races, we showed that we have returned to being very competitive, even better than we had expected. But it is very hard to predict what could happen, as the small differences between the top teams means that performance has been very much track specific in terms of who had the slight advantage over the rest. As usual we need to wait and see how free practice goes before knowing what to expect.

There are only seven races left to go and I think that for the spectators and viewers at least, it should be a really exciting final part of the year, even if it might be a bit more tense for those of competing. But myself and Ferrari have been in this sort of situation before and we know how to deal with the pressure, by concentrating on the job in hand. Now we must build on the way we ended up just before the break, being competitive and putting ourselves back in the fight. I am definitely really motivated to get back in the cockpit because, even if I enjoyed the short holiday, I have to say I missed driving my race car and I can’t think of a better place to start again than at Spa. Even if it rains – and when didn’t we see water at Spa? – this is still a very enjoyable track to drive and actually it can be good fun in the wet. We just have to make sure we are ready to make the most of whatever the weekend throws at us.

Twenty six days after the Hungarian Grand Prix, the sound of Formula 1 engines will be heard once again this Friday, echoing around the Ardennes, as the World Championship resumes after its summer break, with round 13, the Belgian Grand Prix. This year’s event will be its fifty fifth running, the forty third at Spa Francorchamps, with the first Grand Prix dating back to the start of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1950. Scuderia Ferrari has won here sixteen times and even if the sport moves so quickly that past form is not really a pointer to what might happen this year, the Prancing Horse can face the weekend with confidence, arriving in Belgium on the back of a hat-trick of Spa wins, courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 and ’09 and Felipe Massa in 2008. The Brazilian also finished second in 2007, one place ahead of Fernando Alonso, for whom this was his best finish here.

Although the cars that Felipe and Fernando will use this weekend have not turned a wheel in over three weeks, the F10 will nevertheless feature some changes on the technical front, apart from generally running in a lower downforce configuration to that last seen in Budapest: Friday’s free practice session will be the time for the Scuderia to evaluate some new aerodynamic parts, with the most significant change being an update to the diffuser. As usual, in this era of the testing ban, it will be the data from Friday’s track time which will decide whether or not the team will use some or all of the new elements for qualifying and the race. Naturally, the aim of these latest developments on the car is to continue the positive performance demonstrated by the Scuderia in the races leading up to the summer break. However, with both championships, Drivers and Constructors, so closely balanced, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s rivals will also be working hard and the effect of the latest batch of technical changes on the hierarchy in the pack will not be clear, at least until after Friday’s free practice sessions. The official Formula 1 break ended for Ferrari last Sunday at midnight and all members of the Gestione Sportiva have been back at work since Monday, preparing for the resumption of hostilities in Spa. The only concession to the longer than usual gap between the last race and this one is that the bulk of the team, who would normally have arrived at the race track on Thursday morning, will actually arrive in the Spa area on Wednesday afternoon. This will allow them to make an earlier start in the garage the following day, given that apart from the usual pre-race preparation, there are new parts to be fitted and there was not much time available back in Maranello, in between the return to work on Monday and the cars’ departure for Belgium on Tuesday evening.

The fast and flowing nature of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit should suit the characteristics of the F10, although as usual at this circuit there is always a question mark about the weather: indeed “fast and flowing” is a phrase that can often be attributed to the water running across the track surface! This key element to the Belgian weekend is further complicated by the fact that, at 7.004 kilometres, the track is the longest on the calendar and, as it rises and falls through the forests, it is not uncommon for rain to fall on one part while being completely dry on another. The length of the track also affects the work schedule for the teams, given that one lap takes around 1m 46s to complete, which drastically reduces the number of laps that can be completed in a session, meaning less opportunities to change components or make adjustments to the set-up. This year’s layout at the Bahrain GP was also very long, but in the desert, at least one could rely on perfectly dry conditions, whereas in Belgium, the chance of rain making the lap even longer is an ever-present threat. Currently the forecasters are predicting a chance of showers on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday’s race will be a special occasion for a couple of former Ferrari drivers: for Michael Schumacher this weekend will mark the nineteenth anniversary of his Formula 1 debut in the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix. It will also be a landmark race for Rubens Barrichello, Michael’s former team-mate in the Prancing Horse squad and indeed the two men hold the record for the highest number (24) of one-two finishes for a driver pairing. “In Spa, Rubens celebrates his three hundredth Grand Prix participation, which is a remarkable achievement,” commented Team Principal, Stefano Domenicali. “On behalf of everyone at Ferrari, I congratulate him and wish him all the best, as he was part of our team when it was living through a great period in its history and he made a very significant contribution to our success at that time.” That contribution can clearly be seen from the statistics: during his time at Ferrari, Barrichello drove in 104 Grands Prix, winning 9 of them. He started from pole 11 times, finishing on the podium 55 times, with 71 points finishes to his name, as well as setting 15 fastest race laps and scoring a total of 412 points. He twice finished second in the Drivers’ World Championship, in 2002 and 2004.