Raceweek Recap — Spa
Circuit de Spa Francorchamps, one of the oldest, most prestigious and historic circuits in motorsports, is a 7km long track located in Belgium. The Eau-Rouge-Raidillon corner and the Bus Stop chicane are two of the most famous corners in the sport. The track has been the site of many interesting, compelling races in the past and a rainy weather forecast meant we were in for yet another memorable race.
Free Practice — Friday 27/08/21
FP1
There was cloudy weather from the beginning of the weekend to the very end. We, as F1 fans, prayed for the rain to fall for our race to be spiced up more. After all, who doesn’t love a bit of action during a race.
It did in fact begin drizzling during the closing stages of FP1 and its effect was felt to a small degree, Raikkonen and Tsunoda both spinning their cars around. Kimi was also involved in another minor incident where hit the wall while entering the pitlane, a mistake many of the people who play the Formula One games will be familiar with.
It also caused a huge wheel lock up for Mick Schumacher, who was wearing a tribute helmet to his father, whose debut was exactly 30 years earlier at the same track.
FP2
The rain left the track damp for FP2 but conditions were dry enough to use the usual dry tyres instead of the wet weather tyres. The two Mercedes drivers and Verstappen were close in terms of performance. Incidents came from reigning race winner Esteban Ocon, who spun his car around and Charles Leclerc, who crashed into the barriers and caused a red flag.
The session restarted and Verstappen, who led the timing sheets in FP2, crashed at exactly the corner after the one where Leclerc crashed, this time red flagging the session for good.
FP3 and Qualifying — Saturday 28/08/21
FP3
The rain didn’t let up and even more drivers went off track or spun. Kimi Raikkonen had limited running because of an issue with his brakes. It was Red Bull 1–2 in the final practice session before qualifying with Hamilton in third. Bottas was nowhere to be seen on the top 10 fastest laps, finishing 11th fastest.
Qualifying
The wet conditions meant there was 5 minutes of the red Mercedes AMG GTR safety car driving around the track to create a dry racing line, Bernd Maylander at the wheel, as he has been for decades now.
Williams was the only team on intermediate tyres while everyone else was on the full wet-condition tyres. Latifi, the first one to start a fast lap, went off track which brought out the yellow flags and ruined Russell’s lap.
Russell went again and his second lap was over 4.5 seconds quicker than anyone else because of the tyre choice. Soon enough, all the drivers began pitting for intermediate tyres
Norris was the fastest man out on track during Q1, while his teammate Ricciardo ended Q1 in 12th place.
There were a lot of last minute runs for getting out of Q1 and into the next round and it was Giovinazzi, Tsunoda, Raikkonen, Schumacher and Mazepin who were the ones finally eliminated in Q1.
Q2
Both Mercedes drivers started on used tyres to conserve their fresh tyres for later but pitted immediately upon releasing the rest were using new tyres anyway. Norris, Verstappen and Russell carried over their strong performances from Q1. Vettel, too, put on a good showing in Q2.
Mercedes had messed up their strategy and only were just about in the top 10 with 5 minutes of Q2 left. Bottas was pushed into the elimination zone with 4 minutes left
The Mercedes’ both pitted for new tyres again for their fast laps by which time both of the drivers were in the elimination zone. In the end it was Leclerc, Latifi, Sainz, Alonso and Stroll. Disappointing performance from Ferrari but equally great to see Latifi in a decent position after qualifying.
Q3
By the time Q3 came around, the track was wetter than it had been anytime during the weekend. Multiple drivers called for the session to be red-flagged but went ahead with their laps since there was no call taken. The first of them, Norris, went ahead with his lap and while heading up the fast Eau Rouge-Raidillon corner, lost traction and crashed into the barriers and the session was red-flagged.
The car was destroyed in the crash and needed a gearbox change, meaning Lando, who was easily the fastest man on track, would be starting 15th after taking a penalty for a gearbox change. Thankfully, he had no major injuries and was declared fit to race on Sunday.
Vettel, who was to go after Norris, was furious. He too had called for the red flags like Lando but to no avail. He drove up to Norris’ car wreckage to check if he was alright before the medical car arrived.
This was not the first crash at Eau Rouge-Raidillon corner complex in the recent past. It revived the already fresh memories of the six car crash at the W-series race on Friday, and Anthoine Hubert’s fatal crash in F3 two years earlier. The question of the corner being too dangerous was brought up on Friday, and is a question still under debate; is the corner safe enough to race on?
Many people have made their opinion clear that the corner cannot go unchanged. Some suggested widening the corner, adding a gravel trap, adding a chicane to slow the cars down before Eau Rouge and many other solutions. Now whether as a result of the complaints, or because of their own realisation, the circuit committee have decided to make changes to the track, which is now set to receive updates including a gravel trap at the corner to prevent cars from flying back out onto the track and avoid a multi-car pileup.
Eventually, the debris was cleared and the session was restarted. On his first attempt Hamilton was the fastest on track.
Russell was extremely quick on his second attempt, quicker than Hamilton’s first in fact. George Russell had just set the fastest lap of the session in what is otherwise the eighth fastest car. Hamilton’s second attempt was not quick enough still and he remained second.
However, Verstappen did set a faster lap and pushed Russell to second, and Hamilton to third. Ricciardo qualified fourth fastest with Vettel. Birthday boy Bottas was down in 8th place, and would drop to 13th place after serving his penalty for causing the Hungary crash.
The (not so) Grand Prix — Sunday 29/08/21
Drama on Sunday began before the race could start. Sergio Perez crashed before the race start while heading to the grid. Fortunately for him, the rain had come down rather heavily and the start would be delayed. The safety car was sent out yet again to create a dry line on the track.
To say the start was delayed was an understatement. Fans waited hours in the rain for the conditions to improve and the race to start but they witnessed no on track action besides a race of Mercedes Benz vehicles including the AMG GTR safety car, the C Class medical car and even a truck to soak up the water.
The start was so delayed that Red Bull had even fixed Sergio Perez’s car. Around three hours of waiting later, a decision was made to have a 1h time window within which a race must be either completed or called off.
The cars were sent out on track for another attempt at starting the race. The drivers reported that there was just too much water spray to race. In what was a very controversial move, the race directors decided to keep the cars out to complete the minimum number of laps so that they would not have to refund the spectators’ money and could declare a result. All the drivers were sent out for laps behind the safety car and were called back in without not a single lap of actual racing.
The drivers were given half points based on their qualifying position and four hours of waiting and zero laps of racing later, they called it a day.
The Winners
Williams — Their car is one set up well for a good qualifying position and George Russell takes full advantage of it every time. While the car is not great over a full race distance, it didn’t need that ability to bring home 9.5 crucial points from Russell’s side and another point from Latifi’s. Ironically the only team to have both drivers in the points across Hungary and this race. A well deserved podium for Russell after the whole incident at Sakhir last year.
The losers
Alfa Romeo — Alfa Romeo had a bad qualifying and while they typically made up during the race, they had no opportunity to do so this time around
Ferrari — With both drivers out of the points, Ferrari lost out to their championship rivals McLaren with a 6 point deficit this race.
The fans — While it was the right decision to not carry on with the race and we avoided an otherwise certain crash, it was not right to keep the fans out in the rain for 4 hours while a decision was made and to do a bare minimum laps according to the rulebook, that too behind a safety car without any actual racing taking place and to give a result based on that is something I absolutely cannot get behind.
This is what Lewis Hamilton had to say about the matter and it sums up everything I had to say about the matter. This is not coming from a fan of Hamilton, this is coming from a fan of a sport who spent hours to go to watch the sport live only for bad conditions to dampen the spirits of the crowd, and a cover up consolation award of a show to be put up in its place just to avoid refunding the fans. I empathise with the fans and I hope the rules are revised in favor of the heart of the sport; the audience.