Belgian: raincheck
Rain, as always!
Did that feel like the world's longest race for anyone else? Well, I’m here to debrief it! Here’s what happened during the Belgian Grand Prix!
🚥Lights out and away they.. didn’t go?
As always, the rain had come and disrupted the race! The drivers were all lined up on the grid and went away on their formation lap before race control had decided to suspend the starting procedure. Due to the rain and the spray many of the cars were creating, the visibility was too poor to allow for a safe race beginning. Red flags were out as the cars had all returned to the pits, parking up in the fast lane, in hopes to get racing soon. Well, that wasn’t quite the case… Many drivers had agreed upon the reasoning regarding the red flags, and were happy to wait for the rain to pass. Yet Max? Not so much. He had said over the radio,
“Well that’s a bit silly, I mean, you should just run a few laps, Jesus. They’re way too cautious, now the heavy rain is coming, and then it’s going to be a three-hour delay”.
He certainly wasn’t wrong about the delay, as the race had begun one hour and 20 minutes after the original scheduled time! At least the fans were in high spirits, keeping the track's vibes up! Once the long wait was over, the drivers all got back into their cars as they drove out onto the track, following the safety car, as they completed two laps behind it with a rolling start after.
🏁 Away we go
The race was finally underway, with Piastri immediately attempting to make moves on pole sitter and teammate, Lando Norris, and he was successful! He quickly overtook Norris on the Kemmel Straight as he now leads the race. Oscar had managed to increase his gap from Lando pretty quickly, already being 4 seconds ahead. Me and many other fans were wondering how all this could’ve happened so quickly? Well, it’s said that Lando had a battery pack issue, using up the power during the safety car restart, which allowed Piastri to have that extra advantage on him. The race continued as many cars began pitting on lap 13, Oscar being one of them. He had medium tyres put on, whilst Lando received hard tyres when he pitted on lap 14. Some may say Lando's tyre choice was a risky decision, as they take the longest to warm up, yet also smart, as they would last him till the end of the race. As the race continued, around lap 22, Oscar’s race engineer had come on the radio to say, “It’s your call really on whether we try to get to the end on this tyre or we consider a pit stop for another one.” Due to it being a sprint weekend, the teams and drivers haven't had a chance to fully test out the durability and grip of many tyres, as there was only one practice session on Friday. Still, the team has all the data and analysis regarding Oscar’s current tyre states, so wouldn’t they know if he would make it to the end? Sainz had made a comment on the radio saying “The medium tyres are degrading fast”, along with seeing Franco Colapinto and many other drivers struggling on them. Despite this, Piastri continued on with the race, sticking to the tyres and avoiding any unnecessary pit stops that may make him lose his current position.
Lando Norris was having a few struggles of his own. His tyres were getting tricky as he was told to “not push the brakes too hard.” This was regarding the front lockup he had earlier going into the first corner, causing him to lose eight tenths of a second! Another lockup occurred on lap 42, going into La Source, making him lose even more time! This is not an ideal situation to be in here as it’s all coming down to a last lap battle between the McLaren boys. Both their tyres were gone, with no grip or pace left. Yet, in the end, Oscar Piastri crossed the chequered flag and was the winner of the race! The smooth beginning, along with the errors Lando made, allowed him to take that P1 position on the podium!
🥉 P3 winner
Right off the bat, Max had been desperately trying to find a gap to pass Charles Leclerc for P3. This battle lasted up until lap 14, where both drivers had pitted for slick tyres. Max is known to be an amazing driver in rainy weather, so what happened here? The amount of water left on the track played a role in the failed overtake attempts, as both drivers also had quite low grip in their tyres, along with DRS being disabled due to how risky it could be to use. On lap 17, Max had mentioned that “clipping is bad on the straights.” Clipping is a limitation of engine power at the end of the straight. It certainly didn’t help with earlier energy deployment issues and struggles he had mentioned too. It seems like a few drivers had energy and battery issues this race. The race ended with Max in his original P4 position and Leclerc ahead of him in P3. Charles didn’t let the pressure get to him this race, keeping cool, despite the tense radio messages as he asked his race engineer to “leave me alone.” During the post race interviews, Charles Leclerc had said,
“The pressure is high, especially in those conditions because as soon as your are 10/15 centimetres out [from] the right line then it’s wet or greasy, and then you can lose the line and do a very big mistake.” “At one point I just told Bryan to leave me alone, but obviously he is trying to give me the most information - sometimes I need them, today I didn’t and I let him know.”
Quite understandable, as he wants all his attention on the race at hand, and be 100% concentrated to not allow for any errors to occur.
🔎 Red Bull or Mercedes
Now, if you’ve been keeping up with the rumours surrounding Max Verstappen and his future in Red Bull, then you may have heard about the exit clause in his contract. The supposed clause is if he is lower than third in the championship standings going into the August summer break, then he is able to leave. Where would he leave too you may be asking? Well, it’s said that there is a potential seat for him at Mercedes! However, all rumours were debunked this weekend, with Max responding to a question about whether there was a chance he would drive for Mercedes next season, saying,
“There is also a possibility I don’t wake up tomorrow. Life is unpredictable, and in general, I am happy with where I am at, and the target was that when I signed my deal [to 2028], I would drive here until the end of my career.”
Honestly, anything could happen at this rate. Nobody was expecting or even could’ve predicted that Lewis Hamilton would race for Ferrari in 2025!
🎉 Driver of the day
With the small mention of Lewis, let’s talk about his fabulous race today! He, along with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Antonelli, had started from the pit lane after a power unit change, with Carlos Sainz also starting from the pits, however, due to a setup change instead! Despite this small setback, Hamilton managed to finish in P7! How impressive! He was also the first to make a gamble on changing his tyres to slicks on lap 13. This allowed for the other teams to see how he’d manage on them before making any decisions, and clearly he was doing well, as all the drivers followed suit. Not many issues for Hamilton apart from being asked to lift and coast. This is a technique where drivers ease off the accelerator earlier than usual before a braking zone, which helps conserve fuel and reduce brake wear.
📈 Difficulty
Spa-Francorchamps is a challenging track, especially for many rookies who haven’t had a chance to race on this track and test it out before, considering the one practice session this weekend. Kimi Antonelli is someone whose confidence was low going into Sunday’s race due to the poor qualifying he had. He had qualified 18th, yet started in the pit lane. The unfamiliar track provides a lot of pressure with it to succeed at. Lewis Hamilton had visited the Mercedes motorhome to talk to Kimi and offer some advice and support after the tough and emotional qualifying. Truly a heartwarming moment, I love it when the older generation of the sport helps out and supports the newer generation.
Well, a not so eventful race, yet I’ve written so much! For me, the race felt like it was dragging on, but then I remembered how the circuit is 7 km long! Thank you for reading my post! Let me know if you have any suggestions or improvements for me! What else would you like to see me write about? See you next time for the Hungarian Grand Prix!
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