Spa Francorchamps promised much at the weekend. It was the return from the summer break, the intense championship battle would resume, the weather forecast was for rain which always makes the racing exciting and the wet qualifying threw up a mouth watering top ten.
Alas though the weather gods went too far and the only “action” we saw on Sunday was Sergio Perez putting his RedBull in the barriers on his way to the grid. His RedBull mechanics again showed the world why F1 teams and the best in the business as they performed repairs in record time but that was it in terms of interest for the day.
Any other running was behind the safety car and the official record will say that the cars left the pitlane at 6.30 to attempt to get some racing laps in and we officially had the shortest “Grand Prix” in history. I’ve put that in inverted commas because what we saw yesterday was most certainly not a race. Three laps in which the cars couldn’t overtake and circulated at reduced speed does not in anyone’s book constitute a race and the fact that points were awarded was quite frankly stupid.
Most drivers themselves seem to agree with this and there has been widespread criticism of the way that F1 sent the cars out to get the required number of laps completed so that they could declare a race result. The powers that be will refute this claim but we all know why it happened and it is a situation that F1 must learn from. At the time the cars left pitlane the weather wasn’t significantly better than it had been earlier and it would have been known that racing wouldn’t be able to happen. Suggesting otherwise is disrespectful to fans, most notably the fans at the track who had waited all afternoon in the appalling weather.
Rules must be changed so that points can only be awarded if a significant portion of the race has been able to take place. If this cannot happen then the race either needs to be called off or rescheduled. And paying fans must be compensated for the price of the tickets.
I would like to stress that I have no argument against the decision not to race. No one can logically refute that the conditions were too bad to race, on that I totally agree with race officials. But in such an event a tidier more satisfying outcome must be found. Remember as well that we are trying to find a world champion here and points earned while not actually racing do not sit well in that scenario.
Putting all that aside though the season moves on to Zandvort this weekend for Verstappen’s home race where the orange army will be out in force. It is a race that I am looking forward to because I believe that it will be a real spectacle to witness the cars at full pace around the sea- side track. Overtaking will likely be difficult so qualifying will be vital but for me the real pleasure will be the drivers tackle a track that can be categorized as a drivers circuit.
The championship is close, the tail end of the season is fast approaching and there is much to look forward to.
I think that is all I can write about a race that did not happen. Hopefully next week there will be lots more to discuss. Bring on Zandvort….
My F1 talk 