Formula One Vault

PRIXVIEW – Belgian Grand Prix

Round fourteen kicks off the second half of the season at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, a circuit which is unique and one the drivers love. The circuit has always been one of the iconic and most challenging circuits, the modern circuit running for 4.3 miles through the Arden Forrest.

Spa boasts iconic races, accidents, and corners, making it one of the highlights of the season as it creates close racing and one where anything can happen. The drivers love this and always have, it’s an old-school circuit with gravel and barriers meaning any mistake can be costly but overtaking rewarding.

A high-speed following rollercoaster ride through the Arden Forrest has created many memorable races as well as tragedies. It’s a demanding circuit and often said the race is about driver v car v the Arden Forest, anything can happen, and this circuit punishes any mistake and rewards the brave.

It’s a circuit which requires skill and bravery, as well as strategy, drivers who attack the circuit can be rewarded, but get it wrong you can crash or lose position. Overtaking at Spa is more easy with hard braking zones at the end of the straights and following set to be easier because of this year’s regulation changes.

This year’s race is set to renew the battle between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, both drivers have won here though the Dutchman’s win was controversial given it featured no racing.

It’s also a power circuit where you need the car to be good in a straight line, and in the hybrid era dominated by Mercedes in qualifying but there were also flash points in 2014-16 as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg battled for championships. But its an old school circuit, with grass and gravel meaning mistakes are common.

The short run from the grid to La Source and up at Les Combes/Malmedy on the opening lap are common sites of accidents. As the cars bunch up through Turn One crashes can happen, famously in 1998 when the race was stopped after an accident involving thirteen of the twenty-two runners at the first corner.

Murray Walker famously saying, “This is the worst start to a Grand Prix I’ve ever seen in the whole of my life.” That race saw Jordan take their first win after Michael Schumacher crashed into the back of David Coulthard admits the poor visibility and spray.

Les Combes is the scene of several retirements on the opening lap in 2009 and 2013, both involving Romain Grosjean, in different places. In 2009, Grosjean, after going into the back of Jenson Button, as Hamilton backed off Jaime Alguersuari to run into him; both crashed into the barrier and retired.

While in 2013, after going around La Source the Frenchman squeaked himself between the wall and Hamilton, when they touched they both lost control. The chain reaction sent Hamilton into the back of Kami Kobayashi and Alonso, while Sergio Perez knocked Pastor Maldonado into a spin

Last year’s race’ was one of the most controversial as the wet weather caused the race to be abandoned without any racing, becoming the shortest Formula One World Championship race in history and the only World Championship Grand Prix not to have any running under full green flag conditions in its duration with only two full completed laps completed behind the safety car before the race was red-flagged on lap three.

Spa held its first Grand Prix in 1925 with Alfa driver Antonio Ascari, whose son Alberto would win the race in 1952 and 1953. The Grand Prix did not come back until 1930, and the circuit had been modified, bypassing the Malmedy chicane. The race was won by Louis Chiron, and in 1931, the Grand Prix had become something of an endurance race, with Briton William Grover-Williams and Caberto Conelli winning.

The final pre-war race in 1939 saw the birth of the eye conic Raidillon corner, contrary to popular belief the whole section isn’t called Eau Rouge. Rather Eau Rouge is the kink at the bottom with the climb up the hill being Raidillon. Only the small kink to the left at the bottom of the drop is named Eau Rouge, which directly leads into Raidillon, a very long right uphill corner; and the tricky left blind corner at the top has no name.

However for modern F1 cars, the famous corner isn’t a real corner in modern F1 cars, creating a flat-out section from La Source to Le Combes, but the changes following Anthonie Hubert’s f crash could make the drivers more careful as the gravel has been reintroduced

Spa was one of the circuits which featured in the first season of the championship, dominated by the Alfa Romeos of Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio and Italian Nino Farina. Their closest challenger, Alberto Ascari, ran into fuel problems and fell back. The race was won by Fangio, and Farina won the next year’s race in his works Alfa after Fangio dropped back with hub problems.

1960 race is one of the darkest weekends in the sports history, along with Imola in 1994, it one of two occasions in which two driver fatalities have occurred at a Formula One race meeting, and the only one where both occurred during the race itself.

F1 left Spa following 1970 as the GPDA deemed the circuit as too dangerous prompting a boycott by the British, French and Italians prompting the race to move to Zolder, originally alternating with Nielles, but after two races the street circuit near Brussels became unviable.

The first race at the modern Spa we know today was in 1979, with a new section being built between Les Combes and Blachimont, the new Spa was a hit with fans and drivers. Alain Prost won the race at the new shortened Spa. 1985 marked the move to the late August to mid-September slot we now have for the race.

Ayrton Senna took the first of five wins in 1985, Nigel Mansell dominated the 1986 event, and he and Senna took each other out the following year when Mansell attempted to pass the Brazilian on the outside of a wide corner. Senna won the next four Belgian Grands Prix, the first two being rain-soaked events.

Schumacher made his debut at Spa in 1991, the following season the german would go on to take his maiden win for Benetton. The seven-time champion would go on to take five more wins and his final championship in 2004 at Spa.

The 2008 race saw a dramatic conclusion as the rain started to fall, Sir Lewis Hamilton lost the Räikkönen with an early spin but fought back in the closing laps to re-take the lead with two laps to go. On a soaking track, Hamilton passed Räikkönen, lost the lead again with a spin, re-took it and then saw Räikkönen crash. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa took second leaving him eight points behind Hamilton.

Hamilton had been deemed to have passed Raikkonen by cutting the Bus Stop Chicane, demoting him to third following a twenty-five-second penalty. The following season saw another shunt at Les Combe caused by Romain Grosjean, after going into the back of Jenson Button, as Hamilton backed off Jaime Alguersuari to run into him; both crashed into the barrier and retired

The safety car came in on lap 5 with Fisichella still leading and Räikkönen right behind him. Raikkonen retained the lead following the final round of pit stops, holding off the Force India to take his final victory for Ferrari until Austin 2018.

Mercedes, like many circuits in the hybrid era, would dominate at Spa, apart from when Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg were crashing into each other. The German team went on to win the next three races with Hamilton winning two and Rosberg winning in 2016. Charles Leclerc took his first F1 victory at Spa in 2019, admit difficult circumstances following the death in the F2 race of friend Anthoine Hurbert. The Monegasque driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix, after holding off the Mercedes, partly helped by a collision between Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen.

His teammate also played his part in allowing Leclerc to retake the lead, of the race with eleven laps to go. On his debut for Red Bull, Alex Albon finished fifth working his way up from fifteenth after penalties for the car for exceeding its engine allocation.

Hamilton took victory at the last proper race in 2020, the Mercedes driver dominated the race to take victory by eight seconds. He lead every lap after winning the drag race from the exit of La Source to the braking point at Les Combe defending off teammate Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull appeared to struggle to find the same race pace as Mercedes, Verstappen in third unchallenged for much of the race finishing seven seconds behind.

Race & Circuit Guide

Fast fact

• Last year’s race was the only World Championship race not to have any running under full green flag conditions in its duration. Max Verstappen’s win was Red Bull Racing’s fourth win at Spa and their first since 2014 win as well as the first F1 win at Spa for a Honda-powered car since the 1991
• The fearsome Eau Rouge/Raidillon corner, arguably the most famous on the current F1 calendar, features an elevation change of 35 meters from its lowest to highest point.
• Fernando Alonso has never taken a victory at Spa during his F1 career.
• his F1 career at the Belgian Grand Prix in 2012. Strangely, that’s something which his Uncle Ayrton never achieved, despite winning five Grands Prix at Spa.
• 12 of the last 21 Belgian Grands Prix have been won by less than five seconds. The largest win margin here came in 1963, when Jim Clark won by 474 seconds!

Event timetable

What happened in 2021?

Max Verstappen took pole in what would be the only competitive action of the weekend, the Red Bull driver went three-tenths faster than the Williams of George Russell. Russell had taken a surprise provisional pole after Hamilton failed to improve on his last lap, while the Williams driver set two personal bests to go seven-thousandths of a second faster. That was before Verstappen went under the two-minute mark for the first time in Q3.

Russell’s second place gave Williams their first front-row since Monza 2017, and his first front-row since standing in for Hamilton in Sakhir last December. Lando Norris had looked like a serious contender for pole, but the wet conditions which plagued the whole weekend saw him crash, the Englishman after topping Q1 and Q2 looked correct a snap of oversteer through the exit of Eau Rouge sent his car spearing left and into the barriers side-on just before Raidillon and the top of the hill.

That resulted in him being spun into the barriers serval times before stopping at the side of the track. That lead to a forty-minute delay before the session was restarted. It also resulted in a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change meaning he starts fourteenth.

The conditions only detreated on Sunday, the first attempted restart was after a twenty-five-minute delay with two formation laps but the drivers reporting poor visibility and a lack of grip, the race was red-flagged at 15:30 and all drivers returned to the pit lane.

There was no racing the only race in the history of not just F1 but Grand Prix racing to feature no green flag race conditions. Verstappen took the win ahead of George Russell, who scored his first podium thanks to the incredible qualifying effort yesterday. While Lewis Hamilton was third, with his lead narrowed to just three points between Verstappen and Hamilton

The race set a new record for the shortest race in F1 history, which had been the 1991 Australian Grand Prix and the first race to be run to under half distance since Sepang in 2009

Race Result – 1) M. Verstappen, Red Bull – Honda, 00:03:27.071, 2) G. Russell, Williams – Mercedes, +01.995, 3) L. Hamilton, Mercedes, +2.601

What to watch for?

This weekend you need to say is a reset almost with the teams and drivers needing to restart the second half of this season strongly, we are in a triple header and that makes momentum very important with the races coming after Singapore very quickly. This is a triple header at old-school circuits meaning mistakes are going to be costly, Charles Leclerc needs to put the errors behind him as Max Verstappen is just looking stronger and stronger.

Spa is a real drivers circuit, it rewards the brave and punishes mistakes. Drivers need to remain focused and take calculated risks, but we don’t have these large modern tarmac run-off areas. The challenge is doing that on the longest lap of the season, that also means drivers need bankers as accidents and changeable conditions are key, and we know there can be accidents.

Mercedes is coming back, this weekend is going to be a real test of how far they have come it’s a bumpy and hilly circuit which hasn’t favoured them partially well this season. You need to hope they get on top of that this weekend as Zandvoort is another hilly and bumpy circuit, I think they are pretty much in a stable position in third.

The other midfield battle to watch, for real competitive action, is Alpine and McLaren in my view Alpine have been more consistent across the first half of the season. Whereas McLaren’s performance has been a bit hit and miss, plus as we know Daniel Ricciardo is under pressure and needs to start delivering results.

The whole midfield has been a bit race and circuit dependant, but you have to say looking at the consistency I think its swinging towards Alpine

This weekend we have a new directive coming in designed to restrict excessive car bouncing, the FIA will introduce measures aimed to halt the phenomenon by enforcing an Aerodynamic Oscillation Metric (AOM) that teams cannot exceed from Spa. This is slightly different to porpoising as we know caused by the ground effect, but this is to stop teams purposely running their cars too low putting.

Off track, the big story is likely to be reaction from the main story over the summer of the saga around Oscar Piastri’s contract. We still haven’t heard from Fernando Alonso who was the cork in the bottle in this saga, I think we may get him facing these questions, but he will in typical Alonso style brush it aside.

2020 vs 2021 Race Data

2021 Lap time comparison

Tyres