F1 2021 Round 12: Belgian Grand Prix

It’s a fair point that a race was held earlier that day on the same track in the same conditions! Not saying it was or wasn’t safe enough to race (my minds not made up) but the conditions remained the same all day and they managed to put a race on! The F1 cars surely don’t kick up much more water??

Very poor show by F1 yesterday, 2 Laps behind the Safety Car is not a Grand Prix, Happy for George Russell but another PR disaster for F1.

Race should have run on Monday. Full refund to fans who cant stick around, i'm sure they could 'get' marshals. Unless forecast was the same for Mon, then wait a day and run full race.

In the US they cant run races (Nascar etc) on Ovals in the rain so they give fans a 'Rain Check' which can be used for next years race, or turn up when they run the race on Monday. They also did it recently with Daytona 24hrs (race was run on Mon) F1 could take a learn from the US on how to look after its fans.

Lewis is right fans should get a full refund..... and Max and himself (Belgium is 2nd home GP for Dutch fans) should make a gesture and stump up a few million each for the loyal F1 fan's refunds.

I thought I was going mad with the start time times had change. Is it for foreign audiences or so Sky can fit more adverts in between waffle?

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Race control didn't have a grip on the rules yesterday imo.

I think they were should have been challenged on a good few points.

The idea that the race distance be reduced by 1 lap for every delayed start - Brindle was on the money here staring that this rule related to where the cars needed to go around again for a second or 3rd formation lap. Yesterday they shortened the race by a lap everytime they announced a delay.

The whole Perez fiasco. Red bull contacted masi and told him they would be withdrawing due to excess damage. He later came back in with much confusion. I figured Perez would have needed to have been allowed to overtake the safety car to do his extra lap like many safety car restarts but there was no mention of that being required with Masi firstly giving a definite no to Perez rejoining and later saying it's ok.

I thought the rules re race running time and overall race time were straight forward. My understanding which may be outdated was that race was 2 hour max running with a 4 hour period to run the race once started as per Canada 2011. I don't know what went on yesterday. It started but it didn't and then they decided to stop the clock too.

Masi just doesn't appear to have the experience to get it right under pressure like Charlie Whitting did. I realise they have a whole team but yesterday was bad.

TV schedules probably main big one. Sky has a dedicated TV channel but others are scheduling it alongside other programmes and sports events. Moving it at short notice is bound to affect viewing figures and ad revenue. Plus loads of people who would tune in an hour into the race would be miffed.

This weekend was unfortunate but it was just a freak of nature that prevented the race going ahead. Knee jerk reactions aren't the solution either and chopping and changing the start time with little notice would make anyone happier (apart from the fans in attendance). I just chalk this weekend up to one of those rare things. Hopefully they can find come up with some sensible contingency plans for the future.

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It is remarkable that this is the first time in more than 10 years we have lost any racing, and the first time in a long long time we have lost all the racing!

I personally enjoy changeable conditions more than dry warm races. So I am happy to accept cancellation once a decade in return for generally more exciting racing!

They could have made an honest attempt at running the race.

F1 has raced in far far worse conditions many times before. F3 raced in those same conditions on that same track on that day. The race leader said grip levels were totally fine, which nobody really disputed. The most experienced driver on the grid said visibility levels were no worse than any other wet race. A lot of the comments coming from other teams and drivers were entirely partisan - people like Russell not even pretending they wanted anything other than a short procession that guaranteed a podium, while those who were in position to lose ground on their championship rivals wanted the entire race nulled out, so a lot of those comments really have to be taken with a large pinch of salt.

They could have done what they've done for every other very wet race in the last couple of decades and stayed behind the safety car for 10-15 laps to see if a dry line formed, and to be ready to immediately start racing when the rain eased (because there were times when it eased, just not long for enough for the whole 15 minute notice that's needed to get the cars running again), or they could have showed some initiative and ran double yellows on the wettest part of the circuit and allowed them to race on the other 95% of the track.

They also could have known what their own rules were rather than looking like complete idiots when it came to the simplest of questions like whether the race had started, how many laps were left or how much time was left.

The ridiculous things were indeed that at some point nobody seemed to know if the race had started, nobody seemed to know how many laps there were to go and nobody seemed to know how much time was left. There ARE indeed some regulatory takeaways from this one:

• there needs to be a minimum amount of racing laps completed (not behind SC, VSC and whatnot) to assign points
• The "3 hours continuous time from race start" limit is absolutely idiotic and needs to be gone; Besides weather, it's not uncommon for barrier repairs
• The rulebook needs to be rewritten in daily English and not "Legalese"; The concept of interpretation of the rule will always exist but there should be a limit.

The main contention points will be around...well, the points. If Verstappen goes on to win it by less than 5 points at the end of the season, there'll be quite the controversy; At the same time, teams like Alfa Romeo and HAAS have a reason to get quite a bit annoyed by the lucky break Williams had. These are all points coming out of a non-race.

Finally, the whole debate "it was not too bad / they raced in worse conditions / they should've tried" is moot, as the issue was the track and the precedent. The Raidillion has this issue where a crashed car will most likely be bounced right in the middle of the track, due to how the barriers are shaped - they pretty much create a "funnel". After Hubert in 2019, Aitken, the W Series...there was never a chance in hell they'd even try. Had it been a different track, with wider spaces, they probably would've at least tried to green flag the race for a few laps.

The lack of clarity over the rules was silly. It's a very rare occurrence, but they should have known the rules or at least been able to figure them out very quickly on the fly. That was silly.

Yeah, they should be looking to pry Beaux Barfield from IMSA or Eduardo Freitas (current Le Mans 24 Hours, FIA WEC, ELMS and Asian LMS Race Director).

but have you seen wetter

I've seen many wetter GPs for sure.

run the race. If any driver thinks its too dangerous they are welcome to withdraw

Ya I figured I might be out of date on the 4 hour thing but it seemed to work at 4 hours.

With the delayed start, it appears you are correct but only makes sense in the case of where cars have been waved off for another formation lap. Reducing laps when you simply notify a delay is silly but appears to satisfy that rule

The Perez thing makes no sense.