2021 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa-Francorchamps, Aug 27 - 29

[Hoffman900]

Nice work Lewis. Great comment on behalf of the fans getting their money back. Kudos.

PR stunt.

Why should they get a refund for the weather. It's not the fault of the track, FIA or F1.

When I've gone to events that ended up ultimately being canceled because of rain or some other natural occurrence fans got their money back.

As I said, doing what they did was likely a contractual out, for the fans / track / sponsors / etc.

[El Scorchio]

A haul yes but ‘nice’?

I’d be pretty furious if I was Alfa or Haas.

It’s never a given that you’ll get a full race distance on Sunday. Williams earned the points on Saturday.

No it isn’t, but the race director knew full well there would be no racing whatsoever today when he greenlit the two lap train of cars this evening only to call them in immediately after they could put some sort of result in the books.

It’s clear there was no intention of having them out without the safety car all in the name of financial gain, I am sure. The points allocation is almost the secondary issue here.

[Schuttelberg]

How difficult could it be to race tomorrow?

[Ryar]

I cringe a bit when people celebrating Russells podium as a genuine podium when we haven't really raced. You can celebrate the points, what it does to the constructors standing and all that. It was a good qualifying by him, but to celebrate this as a 'podium' seems quite a bit wierd to me.

Most of the world had similar feelings at the end of Brazilian GP in 2008.

[zibby43]

I’d be pretty furious if I was Alfa or Haas.

It’s never a given that you’ll get a full race distance on Sunday. Williams earned the points on Saturday.

No it isn’t, but the race director knew full well there would be no racing whatsoever today when he greenlit the two lap train of cars this evening only to call them in immediately after they could put some sort of result in the books.

It’s clear there was no intention of having them out without the safety car all in the name of financial gain, I am sure. The points allocation is almost the secondary issue here.

Articulated perfectly.

[Hammerfist]

Nice work Lewis. Great comment on behalf of the fans getting their money back. Kudos.

Notice what he said prior. That they did 2 laps to basically gift Max points. Sore loser as always!

That's not what he said. He said that they did 2 laps to ensure they would get a result. He said nothing about Max. Some people just love to invent stuff just to field their hatred for particular drivers. SMH.

[ispano6]

Should have just ran the race at the beginning, but caution prevailed. At least the power units weren't strained much. And a win is a win, and didn't get taken out too. Though seriously, drivers back in the day drove in these conditions. Makes the current generation seem a bit reserved. The advantage of winning pole, which is visibility, wasn't allowed to be used, except that the win was guaranteed.

[nzjrs]

It’s clear there was no intention of having them out without the safety car all in the name of financial gain, I am sure. The points allocation is almost the secondary issue here.

A defensible and more condemning reading is that they already had this plan in mind when they invoked force majure to ignore the 3hr rule, to buy them more time to play this stupid 2 lap game.

Terrible day all around.

[Jolle]

Nice work Lewis. Great comment on behalf of the fans getting their money back. Kudos.

Notice what he said prior. That they did 2 laps to basically gift Max points. Sore loser as always!

That was not what he said... he said they did two laps to count it as a race, which is exactly what they did. No mention of Verstappen or that is was because of Verstappen.

[Sieper]

If this is just to get the 2 laps needed, I really really hope anybody on the podium is not happy and jumping around etc.

You must really hate George Russell.

[zibby43]

This became Indianapolis 2005 level-stuff once they took the SC out there for 2 “laps.”

[basti313]

I wonder who won in the end:

[El Scorchio]

How difficult could it be to race tomorrow?

They did say fairly problematic, as it’s a normal work day, the teams really need to get to Zandvoort ASAP, and the weather forecast was also pretty bad.

So I understand that not being an option, but I think they did the least honourable thing they could do today in terms of merely filling the very least of their financial/contractural obligations.

[falonso81]

This is the first time in my 26 years of watching F1 that a race did not start at all. I do not count the 2 laps under SC as racing laps and neither should anyone else. Guess their next move is to remove Spa from the championship as it is too dangerous to race there.

[214270]

PR stunt.

Why should they get a refund for the weather. It's not the fault of the track, FIA or F1.

The weather is hardly the issue, the result was completely contrived.

I agree.

But even without the two laps there should be no refund for the weather.

If an event cannot be held, a refund should be issued. You insure for this very reason. With the 2 laps behind the safety car they’ve now most likely circumvented any recourse. That stinks IMO