The sounds of roaring V6-hybrid engines return to the rolling hills of Belgium’s countryside as the Belgian Grand Prix begins on Friday. Topping the bill is Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who leads the World Drivers Championship with an 80 point margin on the rest of the field, not so closely followed by Ferrari Scuderia’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
A month away from racing means there’s been time for drivers to relax, enjoy other hobbies or train hard ahead of the final stint of nine races until the end of the season. The engineers won’t have had the same privileges as they will have been working hard to develop upgrades for the existing cars, with the new F1 technical directive meaning that some teams like Ferrari and Red Bull will have to readjust their car floor and rear ride height, with the potential of them losing a few tenths per lap to bring them closer to the field.
One team hoping this is beneficial is Mercedes, who haven’t gone down the ambitious route of floor design like the two leading teams. With the changes coming into place, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton should be getting in amongst the podium finishes and take some points away from their title hopeful rivals. Hamilton has never finished a season without winning a single race, so he’s got nine races to maintain that incredible record. On a similar note, Russell has got a top five finish in every race he’s finished, with back to back podiums in France and Hungary in the last two races.
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The title battle is firmly in the hands of Red Bull. Mistakes on track or faults by the team will be the only route to victory by any other driver. Sergio Perez proved in Monaco he is a race winner that is capable of taking the Red Bull glass cannon to victory, however he’s rarely performing on Saturday’s as he finds himself further from the front row of the grid. Ferrari will be hoping that the Mexican’s pace issues continue, with the most improved Carlos Sainz hoping to build on his maiden F1 victory at Silverstone. Second-placed Charles Leclerc will be praying for strategy improvement from his own team to give him more of a chance of winning races rather than falling over his own engineers.
Elsewhere, McLaren have announced that Daniel Ricciardo will be leaving the team at the end of the season after a year and a half of struggling to get to grips with the car he’s driving. The Australian is set to be replaced by compatriot Oscar Piastri, but in the meantime, he’s got nine races to earn a new contract offer from another team (assuming he doesn’t already have one.) This weekend’s trip to Spa is a blank slate for both McLaren drivers. Norris can focus on keeping up with the top four, Ricciardo can try and expand on his four points finishes this season and try and top the midfield battle in the constructors' championship.
The situation at Haas is an interesting one. Gunther Steiner has already reportedly shown interest in other options than Mick Schumacher for next season, with the German being told that he needs to earn more points if he wants to keep his seat and earn a new contract. Kevin Magnussen has got his head down and cracked on with this season’s action, but a change in race engineer begins in Belgium as Ed Regan is replaced by Dominic Haines, the former engineer of Romain Grosjean and Nikita Mazepin.
Fernando Alonso will be attempting to keep Alpine happy for the rest of the season after he announced his surprise departure to Aston Martin at the start of the summer break. The two teams aren’t really comparable in terms of results and pace, with Esteban Ocon and Alonso sitting on 99 points this season compared to the British brand’s 20. It’s a write-off season for Aston Martin but Sebastian Vettel’s swansong will be iconic for himself, his fans and everyone involved in F1 over the last 20 years.
AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo and Williams have had quiet summers in the grand scheme of things. Yuki Tsunoda, Nicholas Latifi and Guanyu Zhou are all awaiting new contracts and Belgium is the breeding ground of superstars. A classic track with fantastic wheel-to-wheel racing opportunities and elevation changes to keep the most adventurous drivers happy, finishing a race in the midfield unscathed is an achievement at a track like this.
€25 million has been spent adding changes to a track that might not even be on the calendar next season. The first change you’ll notice is at the top of the crest at turn 4, also known as Raidillon (famously NOT Eau Rouge.) It has been resurfaced after flooding last winter and the barrier to the left has been pushed further back, creating further run-off in case drivers find themselves off-track and will hopefully prevent further accidents. This turn took the life of F2 driver Anthoine Hubert in 2019 and this safety measure will prevent any further dangerous crashes.
The turn 1 hairpin has another extended run-off and gravel trap, turn 11 has a new layout designed in mind for motorcyclists, but won’t be used this weekend, and turn 17, named Blanchimont, also has a similarly extended run-off and gravel trap added. It will be hard to not notice the revamped grandstand overlooking Eau Rouge and Raidillon, with works ongoing throughout last season.
Finally, the weather. Last year was the shortest Grand Prix on record, with just a single lap being completed before the tremendously heavy Belgian rain caused the race to be red flagged and called off. The weather up until Friday is warm and sunny, but the first day of practice sees dark clouds arrive. FP1, FP3 and qualifying should just be cloudy, but the second practice session will see rain hit the track. Sunday will be surprisingly clear with track temperatures sitting at around the 22 degree mark.
*18+ | BeGambleAware
