(Motorsports news) Heavy downpours continued to cause havoc on the Spa-Francorchamps track, effectively ending running in Friday’s lone free practice session and delaying the start of Saturday’s race by 35 minutes. After five formation laps to try and clear up some of the standing water and lessen the spray that made visibility difficult, the race eventually started. This issue has been brought back to the forefront following the fatal accident of Formula Regional driver Dilano van ‘t Hoff in a race at Spa that was held in similar conditions.
Race control did everything it could to hold out for better track conditions and clean water off the racing surface while still getting a truncated 11-lap race in, and the drivers appreciated it. However, many believed that even if the track itself was ready for racing, the visibility issues brought on by spray were still the worst they had ever been.
When asked to describe the severity of the problem at Spa, Daniel Ricciardo of AlphaTauri remarked, “I was in fourth gear down the straight, not even full throttle, and I couldn’t see George Russell’s light in front of me.” “In the end, I’m clearly relieved that the race is over. I believe that everyone is secure, but visibility, it’s unfortunate.
Since I’ve been doing this for a while, I don’t recall it being this way. It’s been awful for a while, obviously. However, we raced in these conditions five or ten years ago. We want to race because it’s entertaining to be wet. However, I believe the inbuilt camera does a good job at capturing what we essentially miss. You’re like this in maybe fourth gear or higher. Veteran yellow driver Hulkenberg believed that since the switch to ground-effect cars in 2022, the spray has only gotten worse.
“These ground-effect cars, in my opinion, have made things worse. I’ve never heard of it being that awful,” the Haas driver stated. “You’re basically looking for those flashing lights, which involves a lot of speculating and hoping. But eventually the spray just becomes so heavy that you lose sight of that. Therefore, not fantastic.
Even though the course was prepared for intermediates, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon said the FIA did the right thing by attempting to remove as much water as it could from Spa. However, he felt the spray was still “extreme” once the race started. “It was pretty, pretty bad, but happy that the FIA took the time to really try and clear the water as much as possible,” Ocon continued.
However, even once we restarted, things were still extremely intense at Spa. “I think there has to be a restart point at some point, but the rolling start and the way it spread out the field was the right decision, so I think the FIA did a good job.” George Russell, director of the GPDA, asserted that Spa’s lack of visibility is a more serious problem than it is at other circuits and offered a suggestion to attempt and clear more water.
“I believe they performed admirably given the circumstances. At Spa-Francorchamps, conditions are extremely difficult and risky. On the straight, you are traveling at 300 km/h, yet you cannot see 50 meters in front of you. “This circuit seems to be particularly problematic. I’m not sure if it’s the humidity, the trees, or anything else, but it feels like you’re driving into a cloud and the spray just won’t seem to clear out.
“I didn’t think those four circuits with the safety car gave us anything, in my opinion. It might be possible to go 2-3-4 complete laps at racing speed in the future, bring out the safety car to break up the group, and then restart the race since after two circuits, things were much better.
Also read: Hamilton “in a little bit of a hurry” in Spa F1 sprint battle, says Perez
