F1 2021 Round 12: Belgian Grand Prix

Didn't Prost win one of his titles by half a point. Don't know the details but probably a stopped race.

So if the criteria for stopping a race is no longer aquaplaning like it used to be (as the consensus from the initial formation lap was that there was no aquaplaning), and crystal clear visibility is now what’s required instead then there’s simply no reason to bring wet tyres to the circuits anymore is there?

So many of the best races I’ve ever seen wouldn’t have occurred under those requirements.

Exactly, they could easily have tried to run that race. If they’d kept running behind the safety car at the beginning they would have cleared enough of a dry line to get racing, Max (who had the most to lose if the race was started under dangerous conditions) was very clear that there was actually plenty of grip and the only complaints others had were visibility, something that was exaggerated by being bunched up behind the safety car and something that has existed for every wet race in the history of F1 and drivers have always just gotten on with it. Between field spread and a dry line starting to appear the visibility issues would have been manageable.

And if they did another ten laps or whatever behind the safety car and indications were that it wasn’t drivable, then at least they could say they’d made an honest attempt to run the race.

Another point why FIA was listening to drivers is what happened on Saturday. Vettel complaining the situation is bad, two minutes later he spot checks landos crashed car.

Verstappen himself complained about visibility behind the safety car from the little spray he experienced. https://youtu.be/Xo56nW11tD0

Hamilton claiming not seeing the lights of the people ahead of him.

A delay to Monday not possible and moving it to November? Good luck with the weather then.

The safety car is a total advertisement job. There's absolutely no need for an actual physical safety car. They could just set a time for the lead driver and have the same rules for staying with the lead car.

The physical safety car could be an actual f1 car which is set up for wet weather. It could be capable of doing 120%, (for example) of an f1 lap and keeping the field bunched up but still stopping them racing.

The actual physical safety's is primarily about selling the rights to Mercedes or whoever else to run a road car as an advertisement.

So much wrong with what you just said there but I'm not going to unpack and move on to then ask about Lando Norris,

both Martin Brundle and Mark Webber said that the angle of impact saved him from injury in that smash. Do you reckon, despite currently sitting third in the championship, that he's unworthy to sit in a race car? And that 4 time world champion Sebastian Vettel is a snowflake for calling for a red flag?

I mean there’s rarely a year goes by that someone doesn’t crash there, wet or dry. As Brundle pointed out, Norris didn’t aquaplane he just got out of shape. The throttle works both ways as they say.

If the race should be stopped because some drivers in another series crashed in non-wet conditions and one driver crashed in qualifying, then they should just take Spa off the calendar.

There are generally two reasons to stop a wet race - if there is too much standing water which causes aquaplaning, or if the medical helicopter can’t fly. Neither was the case at Spa. As the race leader himself said in the formation lap, it really wasn’t that bad, it was wet but it’s fine to race. While everyone moaned about visibility, he said he was hanging further back from the car in front to improve visibility. Because an F1 driver should know how to drive to the conditions.

Seeing as the track was so long any hope of getting a dry line was impossible, 3+ odd minutes a lap behind the safety meant no chance of that. The issue wasn't the track conditions per se anyways it was the vast amount of spray being kicked up from the cars. To have started the race would have been a disaster.

All the drivers apart from Max felt the conditions were inappropriate for racing but they’re all little bitches according to you? Which team do you race for again?

I have no idea to be honest. The rain only got heavier as the afternoon went on.

Its not about missing context it's more you using an aggressive tone and bringing ridiculous arguments and scenarios into everything.

There was no real chance of a race there yesterday, the spray was never going to clear with the level of rain and that track with sections like eau rouge it would have been suicidal. Max was the only driver that wanted to go race, and he said that once while following the SC. If I was there yesterday and I nearly was but that's another story I'd have been gutted but I certainly wouldn't be blaming F1 or the drivers.

Thinking a bit, if they put a permanent "double yellow zone" from the pitlane exit line to the line where DRS should have activated on the Kemmel straight I reckon the race could have been run reasonably safely. Neutralise the race after turn 1,down the back pits, through Eau Rouge and onto the straight and let them race the rest. If they come together or off anywhere else it's unlikey to be fatal.

The accident in W Series was due to sudden rain right at the start of the session. First time through on a quali lap and the track was damp.

The drivers are all good enough for the series that they're racing in.

So what you’re saying is, if that happened in the dry, then they should not race at Spa in the dry? Because it clearly had nothing to do with the weather.

< deleted post >

But in Imola it stopped raining, therefore giving it the chance to clear up

It never stopped in Spa, and you're dealing with a long track where wet laps would be taking the guts of 2 mins 30, so you'd have parts of the track being rained on for maybe 2 mins at times without a car coming through to clear any water

Formula 1: grip is fine but we can’t race because of visibility

Formula 3: on the same track on the same day