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

[Schuttelberg]

How difficult would it be to cancel Friday practice at the Dutch GP or media day on Thursday and hold this race on Monday?

Joke today. And if tomorrow was washed out as well then award points by all means based on quali. I don't see why Saturday's efforts of those who did well should be wasted. That is also a joke just like the race today.

[PlatinumZealot]

That's not really a solution because the car at the front can just eff off into the distance with clear view, especially when visibility is a bigger issue than grip levels.

Has anyone figured out yet why Perez was allowed to drive around at the back of that farcical safety car parade?

The race start was cancelled on the formation lap. Yellow lights.

[falonso81]

To stave this, in, 2003 Alonso crashed on lap 54. They pulled out the safety car, but on lap 56 the race was red flagged. In official communication, race winner Fisichella officially completed 54 laps and NOT 56. So there's a very big argument that the FIA set precedent in the past regarding this and are now contradicting their own

I do remember that race. IIRC it took a while to sort out how many laps to count back, with many people in the paddock unsure if it was 1 or 2 laps.

I'm not sure if the rule has changed since then, but the current wording of 51.14 suggests it hasn't. It certainly can be interpreted as a 2 lap countback dependant on how the word "before" connects to the other constructs in the sentence. Before the red-flag lap winds the count back 1 lap. At the end of the penultimate lap goes back another.

Of course, that very nicely ties in with the requirement to have more than 2 laps on the board

The 2003 GP at Brazil was a mess regarding stewarding. Article 51.14 clearly states that in an event of a red flag during the race, the results are taken at the end of the penultimate lap before the lap that the red flag was shown. Fisichella had crossed the line to start his 56th lap (under SC at the time) but the stewards thought the race was still on its 55th lap, so they awarded Kimi the win.

[Hoffman900]

MotoGp postoned races til monday some years ago, that should have been done today.

NASCAR and IRL do as well. NASCAR races almost weekly and the mobs are much further than 3 hours.

That said, NASCAR and their teams know how to deal with this, where F1 would be in uncharted waters in terms of the teams setting up / breaking down as well as the tv networks knowing how to manage it.

It’s quite common in the US, I can’t remember a European race being run on the following day though. I don’t think the US series use the number of volunteer marshals that European races do, I get the impression that the series rely on paid safety teams to manage the events.

In the end you can’t run a race without marshals and with the European system you can’t just expect people to be available.

Correct, NASCAR uses paid marshalls. At tracks like Watkins Glen, they are full or seasonal part time. SCCA will supplement the full time ISC staff for road races, but they are not allowed to go over the wall, flagging only.

Road racing in the US is still typically volunteers, but there are issues with these volunteers greying and younger people generally not interested.

[nacho]

Also cars running with VSC engaged until it clears might have worked.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Out of interest, did any racing happen at Spa today? i.e. did any support races run? Just wondering if they could have attempted to run the GP earlier.

[NathanOlder]

Out of interest, did any racing happen at Spa today? i.e. did any support races run? Just wondering if they could have attempted to run the GP earlier.

Yes, both f3 and the porsche cup ran their races.

[Edax]

I firmly believe that Norris taking too many risks in actually worse conditions in quali which resulted in him stuffing the car into the barriers played a role in today's decision making.

Yeah that was also my impression. That and the accident on Friday in wseries, which also started with a questionable call to release while conditions were rapidly deteriorating.

Because the conditions on track were actually not that bad.

[mzso]

Better and larger wet tires would displace more water, and put more in the air.

Slicks would have minimized spray a bit

There's always spray when there's rain. It never was a pathetic excuse before to not race...

I think people can be understanding towards the conditions and not racing in it. I certainly am.

What I understand is that they raced in conditions like this before, even worse ones...
It wasn't 2007 European Grand Prix conditions. And even then the main issue was people using intermediates...

[mzso]

How will the new design affect spray? will it throw it to the side, or throw more of it up?

I was also wondering about that. It could be better or worse without any good information. The purposely created upwash might lift the spray higher with less impairment to visibility. Or it might create an even bigger cloud and make things worse.
I guess the only things that might surely help is wheel covers.

[mzso]

I firmly believe that Norris taking too many risks in actually worse conditions in quali which resulted in him stuffing the car into the barriers played a role in today's decision making.

Yeah that was also my impression. That and the accident on Friday in wseries, which also started with a questionable call to release while conditions were rapidly deteriorating.

Because the conditions on track were actually not that bad.

Wouldn't be much of a surprise. Stewarding is always reactive and fearful...

[PlatinumZealot]

Better and larger wet tires would displace more water, and put more in the air.

Slicks would have minimized spray a bit

There's always spray when there's rain. It never was a pathetic excuse before to not race...

I think people can be understanding towards the conditions and not racing in it. I certainly am.

What I understand is that they raced in conditions like this before, even worse ones...
It wasn't 2007 European Grand Prix conditions. And even then the main issue was people using intermediates...

I think the diffuse sunlight in the background must be considered when we compare past monsoon type races. Spa was very foggy and dark today so the visibilty would be worse when compared to another race with much more bright ambience.

[Edax]

Better and larger wet tires would displace more water, and put more in the air.

Slicks would have minimized spray a bit

There's always spray when there's rain. It never was a pathetic excuse before to not race...

I think people can be understanding towards the conditions and not racing in it. I certainly am.

What I understand is that they raced in conditions like this before, even worse ones...
It wasn't 2007 European Grand Prix conditions. And even then the main issue was people using intermediates...

I think the ambient sunlight in the background must be considered when we compare past monsoon type races. Spa was very foggy and dark today.

No it wasn’t foggy at all. And the light was also not really an issue.

That’s the problem I have with this. If this becomes the new norm, then it basically means the end of rain racing.

[nzjrs]

The safety ratchet only turns one way, and it just clicked past 'rain races'

[Tom145145]

I am very disappointed with the outcome of this weekend, if they don’t want to run a race in the conditions then don’t…but to run behind the safety car to hand out points is just making a mockery of the sport. It stretches the 4 racing laps rule to the extreme as today there was no racing on display.