FORMULA 1 ROLEX BELGIAN GRAND PRIX 2021....RACE....▄▀▄▀▄▀ SPOILERS▄▀▄▀▄▀...

Wow, never thought I'd see that, especially counting it as a "race" when the pace car decisively won. So, that small regional series, NASCAR, seems to have a much better braintrust and ways to deal with wet tracks. They only race on slicks, which makes the decision a lot easier - if the track isn't dry (or reasonably close) they red flag the race. If it doesn't get dry they cancel it until the next day. If it isn't dry then they cancel the race & move on. F1 has intermediate and wet tire choices, which strongly insinuates they will race in wet conditions. If they aren't going to, they should eliminate those tires and copy those beer-swilling NASCAR guys and do the same.

I've driven in heavier rain in rush hour on the 405 in LA with less visibility. Didn't feel horribly safe, but I had on all-season tires, so all was (sort of) well. If the rain was flooding the track, they shouldn't race. If it was wet due to the rain, and they have wet tires in two varieties, that seems to be the way it was (originally) intended. If not, get rid of those choices and the decision is easy. Moving it to the next day was the easy choice, and they could have called it a day after the first two hours. The announcers said that would be unlikely because of the need to move stuff to Zandvoort. Boo freaking hoo, they're delayed a day. The distance between the two venues isn't much longer than a day trip in the country. Too bad you can't decide what stuff could be sent there earlier (Sunday night), and they'd have to work hard for the week to get things ready, but that's way better than pretending to have a race and award points and trophies afterward IMHO. Instead, they did something so embarrassing we'll refer to it foe years, and they will be the laughing stock of the motor sports world for rigging a "victory". If it comes down to that point spread to determine the driver's championship, stand by.

 

Get over it, you can have a race without racing, especially in 2021.

In the age of alphabet and acronym nonsense that level of risk is seemingly unacceptable.
Just as the cars are more important than the drivers, the solutions will be largely technological.

1. 'smart' tarmac to absorb and regulate surface water. Reverse function to 'perspire' water for artificially wet races
- the irony.

2. mechano-adaptive tires to control spray pattern

3. selective traction control and augmented vision, deployed like DRS

4. hybrid / virtual races when conditions are inopportune - half of the gladiator grid was on their phones anyway

5. find solutions to the problems created by 1-4 and reminisce about a past when individual valor was a thing


33. Hopefully Max takes the WDC and the guy with water in his helmet moves on.

 

There should be a thread about how this non-race was conducted and the outcome, and what can be done to prevent it in the future.

But I guess the silly and outmoded “spoiler” rules would prevent that. Seriously, is there any F1 fan who doesn’t know the results by now?

 

I wonder how much it cost Mercedes to have the FIA cancel the race.

 

I hope that we will hear more about this in weeks or months to come, but I won't be holding my breath.

I guess the FIA officials behing this shenanigan will close ranks, and agree to kick any investigation in the long grass.

 

Yesterday, the pinnacle of motor racing fell off its pedestal.

 

Nicely written, nothing is better than giving input and data to a solution rather than screaming at a wall. Paradoxical or not

 

I included my own comments by each section............

10 things we learned from F1's 2021 Belgian Grand Prix
By: Luke Smith
Aug 30, 2021, 8:36 AM
Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix will go down as one of the most memorable events in Formula 1 history, but for all of the wrong reasons. Autosport picks out the major talking points concerning the rulebook, the weekend's rare bright spot and another significant off-track development that was overtaken by events

1. F1 needs to ditch its two-lap minimum rule - (Why do they even have a rule of such absurd status)


The weather is something that F1 cannot control. While it has faced delays in the past due to the elements, dealing with torrential rain, typhoons and even some snow in pre-season testing, it has never come on race day. F1 has been lucky - until it wasn’t.

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff called Sunday a “freak” day for F1, which is accurate. It is the kind of eventuality that you can never plan for until it actually happens. At that point, you then need to react.

The weather forecast made it clear from quite early on that we were never going to get a true ‘race’ at Spa on Sunday. But the fact that just two laps were needed to make the race official and award half points dangled a carrot in front of those in charge, giving us, by technicality, a race. Race director Michael Masi denied the laps done behind the safety car were done purely to meet the two-lap minimum, saying they were “aiming for a window” to try and get some racing in.

But the real issue here is the two-lap minimum rule itself. It has long sat in the regulations without issue, as it has never been met or needed, with the previous shortest race in F1 history being the 14-lap Australian Grand Prix in 1991. Yet what happened on Sunday showed that, if we do award points, then there needs to be a change to the regulations.

If we need two-thirds distance for full points, then how about one-third distance or 25% distance to award half-points? It seems silly that what happened after 6pm on Sunday constituted a ‘race’ under the regulations, leaving everyone feeling rather empty afterwards.

F1 boss Stefano Domenicali is set to discuss possible rule changes with the team bosses in the wake of what happened on Sunday. Hopefully such a provision is never required again, but in the event it is, F1 can hopefully learn from this situation.

2. In fact, a lot of the rulebook needs to be simplified - (Should have been done as part of the 2022 regs - full review)
One thing that became painfully clear both through the rain delay and after the race is how complex and tangled F1’s rulebook is right now.

As the podium ceremony began and the sparkling wine was being sprayed - a topic we’ll get to later - questions started to be asked about the validity of the race result, given the red flag count back rule meant the result was taken from the end of lap one.

The FIA clarified that because race winner Max Verstappen had crossed the control line three times, he had met the minimum requirement under the regulations, despite the one-lap classification seemingly contradicting the need for two laps to be completed.

During the red flag, there was also confusion about when the race had started, if it had started at all. Was it 3pm or 3:25pm local time when the three-hour rule kicked in? It wasn’t until Masi clarified this over team radio after a question from Mercedes that it became clear where things stood.

There was also the confusion over Sergio Perez’s participation in the race after his crash en route to the grid. Masi initially told Red Bull that it could not repair his car during the delay, only for sporting director Jonathan Wheatley to challenge this and, after Masi met with the stewards, be informed that he could get back in the race. But then there were questions about how many laps down he may be, again linking back to what constituted a race “start”.

Just as with the two-lap rule, the events at Spa on Sunday will hopefully lead to reviews of the relevant rules to ensure there is greater clarity for everyone.

3. Race control deserves credit for how it handled things - (A pat on the back LOL!! Serious??????) So no room for COMMON sense in the moment of stupidity facing them with a 2 lap joke LOL?????????

There may be a huge amount of frustration over the awarding of points and the complexity of the rule book, but in their approach to the race, Masi and his team in race control deserve a pat on the back.

This was, again, a freak situation that F1 could do little about. The rain just kept coming and coming, making it an impossible task for race control. It looked for windows to get some kind of running in, and although cynicism over the two-lap run at the end is understandable, there was legitimately a break in the weather that seemed to be the best opportunity.

The new FIA/team radio broadcast feature on F1’s TV feeds really came into its own on Sunday. We got to hear Masi talking to figures from Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren as they put queries to him, helping us gain a better understanding of what was going on. Before, we’d have been solely reliant on race control’s formal updates, some of which were to say there would be another update…

Masi has a difficult job, and there have been points in the past couple of years were decisions have rightly been questioned. But it’s hard to see what more he could have done to give us any kind of race on Sunday, with the culprit of the two-lap shambles being the rulebook itself.

4. The fans need to be looked after over ticket refunds - ( They should have been able to do it on their smart-phone on the train back or if they were in a car and not driving) - A link should have been available before they had the ABSURD so called Podium!!
Hamilton’s post-race comments were punchy, and are unlikely to have gone down too well with F1 itself as he criticised the series for making “a bad choice”. But throughout everything he said, he had one thing in mind: the fans.

With little else to show during the delay, the TV cameras picked out fans sat in their raincoats and camping chairs, braving the elements with a beer in one hand and a portion of frites and mayo in the other. It was everything we love about the Spa fans, who sadly were not rewarded with anything to watch on-track.(But teams and drivers were REWARDED FOR NO RACE)

Hamilton said he hoped that fans would get their money back after being “robbed” of a race, but F1 boss Domenicali seemed to skate around the subject post-race, saying it would be a discussion with the promoter. After all, F1 did technically provide a race.

A full refund may be a big hit for the race promoter to stomach, and given fans got all of the scheduled action on Friday and Saturday, there is grounds to say the three-day tickets were at least partly fulfilled.

But hopefully some common sense does kick in. Even if fans who attended the race on Sunday receive some kind of credit towards a ticket in 2022, it would be some reward for their stoic attitude through Sunday’s downpour.

5. Russell’s podium was the only bit of good news on Sunday - (The most absurd pile of ****e found ever on AUTOSPORT)

George Russell rarely does things in a conventional way, so why would we have expected his first F1 podium to be any different?

After his heroics on Saturday, nailing his lap in Q3 to take an astonishing second place on the grid for Williams, Russell commented that it might be quite nice for F1 to award points for qualifying.

In the end, it practically did. While second place and nine points was perhaps a bit generous, it was nice to see his astonishing wet-weather lap get some kind of reward.

Wolff said Russell’s lap on Saturday made little difference to his future, given a) we know what he’s already capable of, and b) Wolff has already made his decision.

But it was the kind of lap we will look back on in years to come when Russell inevitably has enjoyed a highly successful F1 career, seeing it as a sign of early greatness. LOL - HE DIDNT PASS OR RACE ANYONE!

6. …unless you are Alfa Romeo, who was the big loser - NO The ENTIRE SPORT IS A LOSER TAKE THE POINTS BACK NOW!

Russell’s podium was far more than a simple quirk for Williams, serving as a big result that should practically clinch it eighth place in the constructors’ championship, giving it plenty to celebrate.

Williams has scored points with both cars for two weekends in a row now, with Nicholas Latifi being classified ninth on Sunday. A total of 20 points has created a 17-point gap to Alfa Romeo in the standings, making the fight for eighth all but over.

Alfa Romeo was understandably upset about the result, issuing a statement on Monday saying that no race should have taken place and that “this outcome hurts us all” - which is not strictly true, as it didn’t hurt Williams.

The fight for the small places in the constructors’ championship may seem like no big deal from the outside, but to the teams involved, it is everything. There is a sizeable amount of prize money on offer between eighth and ninth. Even after Williams’ haul in Hungary, Alfa Romeo had confidence it could overhaul them. Now? The odds look incredibly slim.

7. The podium ceremony celebrations were a little tone deaf - Ha lol - The podium was a result of arrogance in all aspects of F1. Tone deaf? F1 is not listening at all..........
Another big question both fans and teams had once the race had been officially called after the two laps behind the safety car was whether there would be a podium ceremony.

Masi informed Red Bull there would “absolutely” be one, in line with the usual protocols given there had officially been a race, with the top three finishers going to parc ferme before going up onto the podium.

Russell and Williams in particular had something to cheer about, marking the team’s first podium since Baku 2017. Comparisons were drawn to the infamous 2005 United States Grand Prix, when Tiago Monteiro and Jordan celebrated their third-place finish while Ferrari kept things as low key as possible on a bad day for F1.

But the celebrations seemed a little tone deaf. It didn’t feel right to see the sparkling wine being sprayed almost as normal. Verstappen and Russell hardly went crazy celebrating, but it still seemed odd. Hamilton immediately put his trophy down after being presented it.

A simple clink of the bottles and a little spray might have been a better read of the situation. (NO PODIUM is the ONLY result for this FARCE. So we have a podium and 'hope' the fans get something back for literally being deluged by rain and the ignorance of the rich tone deaf establishment at Liberty, the FIA and Teams!)

8. Spa’s safety changes really can’t come soon enough - (Years overdue. There is always room for improvement!!)

Sunday’s events capped off a fairly uneasy weekend as a whole at Spa that saw two major accidents at Eau Rouge reopen the debate about the track’s safety standards.


Two years on from the Raidillon accident that claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert and left Juan Manuel Correa with serious injuries, and just weeks after another major accident in the Spa 24 sportscar race, there were two big shunts at the same complex that reignited the debate.

A six-car pile up in W Series at Eau Rouge resulted in two drivers being hospitalised, but thankfully both were swiftly discharged. McLaren’s Q1 and Q2 pace-setter Lando Norris then crashed heavily in wet weather at the start of Q3, sparking an angry reaction from Sebastian Vettel, who had been calling for a red flag just moments earlier.

Through all of the calls for safety changes at Eau Rouge/Raidillon, there was a reminder that they are planned and on the way for 2022 as part of Spa’s €80 million redevelopment programme. The addition of gravel should slow the corner down a bit, as well as preventing cars from bouncing back towards the circuit.

Change is on the way, and they cannot come soon enough. Spa is a glorious track that holds a special place on the F1 calendar, but its recent tragedy and recurring incidents are unwanted reminders of the need for alterations.

To quote F3 world feed commentator Alex Jacques in his intro ahead of Saturday’s race: “You pay tribute with words, but you honour with action.”


9. Mercedes is nearing an announcement, but wants all futures resolved - The Mercedes board has to provide its input-


The wait for the first major domino in next year’s driver market continued at Spa as Mercedes made no announcement about its second seat for 2022.

Russell and Valtteri Bottas said there was “no news to share” in Thursday’s FIA press conference - having been paired together - but were coy over if a decision had already been made.

Wolff said on Saturday that he had made his decision, and clarified on Sunday that he meant personally, and that “I'm not the only one that is involved in this decision”.

So why no announcement? There are still more things to get finalised and sorted, with one factor being the need to resolve everyone’s future and leave nobody hanging.

When asked by Autosport if he wanted both Russell and Bottas to have their futures sorted before making an announcement, Wolff replied: “Yes. And it's not only our call, but there are other parties involved and you have to always proceed with respect and with diligence.” He later added: “It's purely a question of having everybody aligned and contracts signed.”

We’re getting closer to a Mercedes announcement, and with Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso’s confirmations arriving at Spa, the driver market is now coming together. Williams and Alfa Romeo are the hot seats to keep an eye on.

10. The revised calendar will push F1 personnel to their limits (No surprise as they pushed fans to the limit for 2 laps and called it a race. No surprise the employee's will find this season worse than last)

One announcement that did arrive at Spa was an update to the 2021 calendar, which has now fallen to 22 races after plans for 23 events were finally scrapped.

One fewer event is good news, right? Not entirely. Some date tweaks have created a fairly brutal travel schedule to end the year, running five races in six weeks across Mexico, Brazil, a TBC likely to be Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

The Mexico-Brazil-Qatar triple-header will go some way to solve F1’s red list issue for UK personnel, requiring those travelling from Brazil to spend 10 days elsewhere before going home to avoid government hotel quarantine. This will mean having at least three extra days in Qatar before going home - only to then return to the Middle East about six days later for the race in Saudi Arabia.

More racing is good for fans and good for drivers. But for the men and women working on the teams and elsewhere in the series, the end of this year is going to be the most brutal run yet, reopening the debate about the human cost of such a congested calendar even with the necessities forced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/10-things-we-learned-from-the-belgian-grand-prix/6657318/

 

It must have been the first F1 race ever where visibility was poor because of the spray. How courageous, these sissies.
Ooh yeah, it's a dangerous sport. Isn't it?

 

« We need to stay calm « he also said

 

Whats even more disturbing is that lots of weather stations were predicting rain all day. Given the nature of the circuit and its location in the Ardenne forest, i just cannot believe nobody at the FIA or even the weather / race technicians didnt see this coming 24 hours earlier.

GB News the previous evening certainly showed a rather deep weather depression heading over that region.

 

Warning RANT coming

What a load of rollocks from someone I thought was intelligent. Hasnt he heard of other weather / news channels.

If true I guess the radar packed up because it was raining so much.

 

I think absent of all of those suggestions, it seems the sentiment on here (and in most cases I've read) is that the proper thing would have been to cancel the race and move it to another date. The appearance of trying to do something to placate a grossly disappointed attending fanbase was disingenuous. They did the two-laps with full knowledge the conditions weren't going to change.

 

If drivers need a safer path through Eau Rouge/Raidillon I propose they simply lift. It’s been happening for decades....even before drive by wire. clutches pearls

Cars and drivers should conform to the characteristics of the tracks, not the other way around.

 

Sounds like the FIA & F1 are buckling to pressure and are openly discussing refunds for race attendees....

 

They should. We ran a race with 3/44 laps. Since, 6.8% of the race was run, we will refund the remainder, less "fees". lol If the race was run in the US, there would probably be a class action lawsuit filed already.

 

Step outside and stick your hand in the air?

 

I was thinking of exactly this as well. I was very anti-halo when it was announced, but it has undeniably saved some lives, so I appreciate it now.

 

I was Anti-halo as well. Grosjeans' crash really solidified it for me and also a few huge shunts in F2. The Leclerc one not so much....the relative impact would've been very low if there was no halo, it was very similar to the Coulthard and I think heidfelt or Wurz crash in Australia 2009 IIRC. Coulthard actually had tyre marks on his helmet from where the other landed on him, with a higher speed difference.

Though I do agree, the Leclerc one could've been much worse at a different angle that's easily achieved in corners like la source.

 

Yes, but if Grosjean had been unconscious and unable to bail out the marshals would have played hell trying to get him unbuckled and extricated until the fire was put out.

 

True. Without the halo though he'd have been decapitated. Grosjean was very lucky he remained conscious and was able to free himself. Also in how far the car twisted inside the guard rail, if it twisted a few more degrees one way or the other he'd have been stuck and cooked alive. So luck certainly played it's part, but the halo saved his head from leaving his body.

 

And this is the nub of the issue. These cars are the safest F1 cars of all time. Fact. So, why can’t they race in a bit of rain??! Fraud fraud fraud. That’s what Spa was.

 

Exactly.
Maybe Pirelli should think about a rain tyre that performs under heavy rain.
And what about racetracks with fast water absorbing and expelling bitumen?