We might give them s*** if one thing occurred

Within the 80-minute interregnum between FIA race management red-flagging proceedings in Belgium on the finish of the formation lap behind the protection automobile and the race lastly getting underneath approach – albeit underneath neutralised circumstances once more – there was loads of time for commentators and followers alike to faucet their ft impatiently. 

Among the many sodden followers within the grandstands, the broadcasters considering how one can fill all that ‘lifeless air', and the followers again dwelling questioning whether or not to modify channels to a repeat of Columbo as a substitute, naturally a consensus fashioned that race management ought to merely get on with it. 

However, whereas there have been some dissenting voices within the paddock, the vast majority of drivers and group leaders agreed that the FIA officers had made the correct determination, given the distinctive challenges of this racetrack and its lengthy historical past of significant accidents in sub-optimal climate circumstances. 

On Thursday Alpine's Pierre Gasly had led his now-annual ‘Run for Anthoine' across the observe, pausing to put flowers on the place the place his pal Anthoine Hubert perished in 2019; the runners additionally stopped additional up the Kemmel Straight, the place Dilano van't Hoff crashed fatally in a Method Regional race two years in the past. 

These are the areas the place Spa is at its most vicious within the moist, high-speed zones the place plumes of spray can conceal all method of obstacles. 

“We will not blame them [race control] as a result of we might be collectively the primary ones to offer them shit if one thing occurred,” stated Ferrari group principal Frederic Vasseur in his post-race briefing. 

“On this sense, we have now to respect their determination. I can converse frankly as a result of I've one automobile pushing on the excessive downforce, one automobile pushing on the low downforce and I used to be comfy to respect their determination as a result of they're taking an enormous accountability additionally.” 

Naturally, this being F1, particular person optics have been demarcated by issues of aggressive benefit. These groups who had adopted higher-downforce settings forward of qualifying for the grand prix, taking a efficiency ‘hit' there believing it will be repaid within the type of a bonus within the moist circumstances forecast, took a extra adverse view. 

“I feel we're all shocked, I imagine, by how late we began the race,” stated Purple Bull group principal Laurent Mekies, who was for a short while deputy race director to the late Charlie Whiting earlier than ‘crossing the ground' again to competitors. 

“I am positive the FIA had its personal issues. However definitely, for us as a group, it shocked us. As a result of essentially we waited not just for the rain to cease, but additionally for just about the solar to come back out. After which we nonetheless had many laps behind the protection automobile. 

“In our particular case, having biased the automobiles in direction of moist working, for positive, it is costing us efficiency. Nevertheless it's a part of the sport.” 

Autosport understands that on the primary formation lap earlier than the suspension, all of the drivers however one complained about visibility and declared it unsafe to race immediately. Whereas the grip out there would probably have been sufficient, the important thing situation was the drivers' restricted sight view. 

This is a matter baked into the present era of automobiles. Experiments with technique of containing the spray from F1 tyres after the farcical 2021 Belgian GP, the place the end result needed to be declared after simply two laps behind the protection automobile, got here to nothing. 

The vast majority of spray is generated by the automobiles' ground-effect venturi tunnels and is a elementary consequence of the best way they generate downforce. In Spa, the difficulty is compounded by the observe's topography: the compression at Eau Rouge makes it tough to see and react to any incidents at Raidillon, and the Kemmel Straight that follows pitches drivers flat out right into a wall of spray. 

“I feel at this time the race was managed in a really clever approach,” stated McLaren group principal Andrea Stella, as a result of we knew that there was numerous rain coming, and I feel in a circuit like this, in the event you make the calls late, it could be too late, and the result might be tough. 

“We at all times reward the work of the FIA when that is deserved, and I feel this is without doubt one of the circumstances wherein this must be praised. As a result of I perceive that it will be fairly entertaining to see automobiles stepping into moist circumstances, however all of us must be cautious that the common pace in Spa is so excessive that the automobiles simply displace such a lot of water that it is simply not possible to see. 

“We've seen already in Silverstone {that a} automobile [Isack Hadjar] drove into the gearbox of one other automobile [Andrea Kimi Antonelli] as a result of it was not possible to see it, and it was decrease and there was much less water. So, we do not need to see the identical in Spa.”