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

[Sieper]

It was a --- afternoon. For all of us. Drivers, crowd, onwatchers, teams, FIA.

[NathanOlder]

Well tbf, I'd say being on pole in Hungary is far more important than at Spa.

A) Hungary is not a track famous for overtaking
B) Spa leading out lap 1, you can actually tow around the cars behind you onto Raidillon and be overtaken at the end of it

Hungary was bad luck Max and too an extent it was also bad luck Lewis. Spa is just utter bullshit from management point of view. 10 drivers got lucky on Sunday. I'll bet all my savings, if we actually had a race, the top 10 wouldn't have been like the final result we got on Sunday. Can't just do 3 pretend race laps and call it a race. That's an absolute joke last Sunday.

Yeah agree. The top 10 were lucky. I was just amazed that someone was saying Lewis was lucky as he had a dry set up (which he used to qualify 3rd) and Max would have won by a mile so Max was unlucky as he lost 12.5 points.

[Ryar]

Yup. Max fully well known the risks, and should have qualified on pole if he wanted to avoid highly likely carnage from turn one at Hungary in the WET. He stayed on the outside too, just like he did at Silverstone and we know how that ended up! Also at Baku, RedBull skirted the tyre pressure rules, deliberately beating the system and running below prescribed pressures and again boom - into the wall. That's not bad luck, that's putting yourself into a position to get hurt. Just give it up Ryar.

Ah, we have now also found a way to blame Hungary on Max. Creative work. Bocht.

No its Ryar doing that.

Ryar Logic its called.

As my point earlier stated, according to Ryar Max did the work on Saturday in Belgium to deserve the points on Sunday with the non race. If this is the case, Lewis did the work on Saturday in Hungary to make sure he was out of the firing line on Sunday. So if Max didn't get lucky on sunday in Belgium, it would mean he didn't get unlucky in Hungary on Sunday. As both were set up from sunday.

Now I know he certainly was unlucky on Sunday in Hungary, and I know he was the most lucky in Belgium on sunday. But Ryar wants it both ways. Max was unlucky in Hungary and NOT lucky in Belgium.

Please spare me when you twist what I said and make your own stuff up. You took orange (my favorite color too) and proclaimed it's apple.

[Unf]

[Andres125sx]

What we saw was not a race, it was as* covering by various individuals So they could claim a race was run, and thus didn't have to deal with refunds/compensation for the fans, and other legal wrangling with sponsors etc.

Spot on. Or in other words, it was a fraud to save some money. If fans were on the stands for hours under the rain, didn´t watch any race, and none is going to return their money... that´s average Joe´s problem, not theirs

[Manoah2u]

I do think at those times, we miss out on good ol' Bernie. Ecclestone may have been quite the character, especially near the end of his F1 career, but he always managed to find a workable solution. And i do very much believe that if it was up to Bernie, he would have simply let the race start earlier, perhaps a half-race distance so to have the other classes also have a chance.

for example, the sunday program was as follows:

SUNDAY 29th AUGUST

FIA Formula 3 Third Race (17 Laps or 40 Mins) 10:40 - 11:25
FIA Formula 3 Press Conference 11:45 - 12:15
Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Race (11 Laps or 30 Mins) 12:05 - 12:40
Paddock Club Paddock Club Track Tour / Grid Photo 12:50 - 13:50
Paddock Club Paddock Club Pit Lane Tour 12:50 - 13:50
Formula 1 Drivers Parade 13:20 - 13:50
Formula 1 'We Race As One' Gesture 14:43 - 14:44
Formula 1 National Anthem 14:44 - 14:45
Promoter Activity Air Display - F16 Flyover 14:45 - 14:46
Formula 1 Grand Prix (44 Laps or 120 Mins) 15:00 - 17:00

it would have been pretty clear early on that it was likely that the race would run into trouble due to the weather.
if we look at the Porsche Supercup - this could have been done without any weather problems, due to the cars nature (windscreen wipers, safer build, etc) and lesser speed.
the F3 race could just as much been postponed or even canceled, and yes, it's not nice for the F3, but bluntly said, nobody bats a real eye on it. I wouldn't even be surprised if the F3 race could have been held on monday instead.

due to circumstances, they could have just as much cancelled or postponed the paddock club events, driver parade, the anthem and the gesture - or atleast postpone it untill after the race.
they were all under umbrellas anyway, nobody runs the risk of death.

this means that from 10:40 untill 15:00 there would have been a window to have F1 ran instead. Let's say that the race 'easily' could have gotten away @ 11:00 instead of 15:00.
conditions were good enough imho to have a full race instead, but even half a race could have been decided. afterwards, award half-points, do the promotor dance, try a F3 race if conditions allow it (i mean at 12:30 or 13:00 hours the F3 could have gotten raced , perhaps at half distance too, and at 13:00 or 13:20 things would have been settled, only to have the Porsche race to go, but that would experience no hinder whatsoever from the weather like open-wheeler formula racing does.

hell, they could have finished that before 15:00 hours easily, and then for the TV-enthousiasts the F1 race could have been replayed on TV, and everybody would have been happy, and points given would have been far more honest.

i know it's easy looking at things with hindsight, from an armchair. but let's be fair, you'd expect with all the technology, knowledge and high-paid jobs out there to have the organizors decide: let's do things differently.

instead, things went sour as bad as it could quite frankly.
Again, i believe that Bernie would have ran it differently and had the race go in the morning.

don't get me wrong, i'm glad that the race was cancelled so that no lives were lost. it would have been unacceptable if it was raced with how the weather was from 15:00 to 18:00. But the weather was pretty much acceptable in the morning between 10:00 and 12:00.

[maxxer]

I do think at those times, we miss out on good ol' Bernie. Ecclestone may have been quite the character, especially near the end of his F1 career, but he always managed to find a workable solution. And i do very much believe that if it was up to Bernie, he would have simply let the race start earlier, perhaps a half-race distance so to have the other classes also have a chance.

for example, the sunday program was as follows:

SUNDAY 29th AUGUST

FIA Formula 3 Third Race (17 Laps or 40 Mins) 10:40 - 11:25
FIA Formula 3 Press Conference 11:45 - 12:15
Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Race (11 Laps or 30 Mins) 12:05 - 12:40
Paddock Club Paddock Club Track Tour / Grid Photo 12:50 - 13:50
Paddock Club Paddock Club Pit Lane Tour 12:50 - 13:50
Formula 1 Drivers Parade 13:20 - 13:50
Formula 1 'We Race As One' Gesture 14:43 - 14:44
Formula 1 National Anthem 14:44 - 14:45
Promoter Activity Air Display - F16 Flyover 14:45 - 14:46
Formula 1 Grand Prix (44 Laps or 120 Mins) 15:00 - 17:00

it would have been pretty clear early on that it was likely that the race would run into trouble due to the weather.
if we look at the Porsche Supercup - this could have been done without any weather problems, due to the cars nature (windscreen wipers, safer build, etc) and lesser speed.
the F3 race could just as much been postponed or even canceled, and yes, it's not nice for the F3, but bluntly said, nobody bats a real eye on it. I wouldn't even be surprised if the F3 race could have been held on monday instead.

due to circumstances, they could have just as much cancelled or postponed the paddock club events, driver parade, the anthem and the gesture - or atleast postpone it untill after the race.
they were all under umbrellas anyway, nobody runs the risk of death.

this means that from 10:40 untill 15:00 there would have been a window to have F1 ran instead. Let's say that the race 'easily' could have gotten away @ 11:00 instead of 15:00.
conditions were good enough imho to have a full race instead, but even half a race could have been decided. afterwards, award half-points, do the promotor dance, try a F3 race if conditions allow it (i mean at 12:30 or 13:00 hours the F3 could have gotten raced , perhaps at half distance too, and at 13:00 or 13:20 things would have been settled, only to have the Porsche race to go, but that would experience no hinder whatsoever from the weather like open-wheeler formula racing does.

hell, they could have finished that before 15:00 hours easily, and then for the TV-enthousiasts the F1 race could have been replayed on TV, and everybody would have been happy, and points given would have been far more honest.

i know it's easy looking at things with hindsight, from an armchair. but let's be fair, you'd expect with all the technology, knowledge and high-paid jobs out there to have the organizors decide: let's do things differently.

instead, things went sour as bad as it could quite frankly.
Again, i believe that Bernie would have ran it differently and had the race go in the morning.

don't get me wrong, i'm glad that the race was cancelled so that no lives were lost. it would have been unacceptable if it was raced with how the weather was from 15:00 to 18:00. But the weather was pretty much acceptable in the morning between 10:00 and 12:00.

Totally agree with you and they know the weather on sunday would be bad like on the saturday so why not cancel all the parading stuff no one sees anyway and pull the race forwards.

[west52keep64]

Did anyone actually get a refund or anything after all of this?

[RZS10]

No news since the first of September.

[El Scorchio]

I do think at those times, we miss out on good ol' Bernie. Ecclestone may have been quite the character, especially near the end of his F1 career, but he always managed to find a workable solution. And i do very much believe that if it was up to Bernie, he would have simply let the race start earlier, perhaps a half-race distance so to have the other classes also have a chance.

for example, the sunday program was as follows:

SUNDAY 29th AUGUST

FIA Formula 3 Third Race (17 Laps or 40 Mins) 10:40 - 11:25
FIA Formula 3 Press Conference 11:45 - 12:15
Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Race (11 Laps or 30 Mins) 12:05 - 12:40
Paddock Club Paddock Club Track Tour / Grid Photo 12:50 - 13:50
Paddock Club Paddock Club Pit Lane Tour 12:50 - 13:50
Formula 1 Drivers Parade 13:20 - 13:50
Formula 1 'We Race As One' Gesture 14:43 - 14:44
Formula 1 National Anthem 14:44 - 14:45
Promoter Activity Air Display - F16 Flyover 14:45 - 14:46
Formula 1 Grand Prix (44 Laps or 120 Mins) 15:00 - 17:00

it would have been pretty clear early on that it was likely that the race would run into trouble due to the weather.
if we look at the Porsche Supercup - this could have been done without any weather problems, due to the cars nature (windscreen wipers, safer build, etc) and lesser speed.
the F3 race could just as much been postponed or even canceled, and yes, it's not nice for the F3, but bluntly said, nobody bats a real eye on it. I wouldn't even be surprised if the F3 race could have been held on monday instead.

due to circumstances, they could have just as much cancelled or postponed the paddock club events, driver parade, the anthem and the gesture - or atleast postpone it untill after the race.
they were all under umbrellas anyway, nobody runs the risk of death.

this means that from 10:40 untill 15:00 there would have been a window to have F1 ran instead. Let's say that the race 'easily' could have gotten away @ 11:00 instead of 15:00.
conditions were good enough imho to have a full race instead, but even half a race could have been decided. afterwards, award half-points, do the promotor dance, try a F3 race if conditions allow it (i mean at 12:30 or 13:00 hours the F3 could have gotten raced , perhaps at half distance too, and at 13:00 or 13:20 things would have been settled, only to have the Porsche race to go, but that would experience no hinder whatsoever from the weather like open-wheeler formula racing does.

hell, they could have finished that before 15:00 hours easily, and then for the TV-enthousiasts the F1 race could have been replayed on TV, and everybody would have been happy, and points given would have been far more honest.

i know it's easy looking at things with hindsight, from an armchair. but let's be fair, you'd expect with all the technology, knowledge and high-paid jobs out there to have the organizors decide: let's do things differently.

instead, things went sour as bad as it could quite frankly.
Again, i believe that Bernie would have ran it differently and had the race go in the morning.

don't get me wrong, i'm glad that the race was cancelled so that no lives were lost. it would have been unacceptable if it was raced with how the weather was from 15:00 to 18:00. But the weather was pretty much acceptable in the morning between 10:00 and 12:00.

I think they'd run into a lot of big financial problems RE: TV contracts for live coverage if they just decided to start the race early, (and I expect they'd never cancel/move any paddock club corporate stuff seen as it's all about them hospitality dollars- they'd much rather short change the general public than their corporate partners as I expect FOM gets peanuts from their cut of tickets compared to the above.) but I do agree in principle to everything you've said. It's total common sense. Nothing they did was common sense.

[Manoah2u]

and that's where i mention Bernie knows how to fix things and deal with those coverages and deals. the current owners could have, should have. the difference with bernie is, he WOULD have.

[El Scorchio]

and that's where i mention Bernie knows how to fix things and deal with those coverages and deals. the current owners could have, should have. the difference with bernie is, he WOULD have.

He'd definitely have taken more of a risk and a flyer to get things done, and worry about the fallout later. Absolutely agree.

[Wouter]

Confirmed: compensation for Belgian GP ticket holders after all.

Promoter Spa Grand Prix replies: "Yes, there will be compensation. That is for sure. This week or next week we want to announce the details."
The Belgian promoter can't (or won't) reveal what the compensation will look like exactly. Will the ticket holders get (part of) their money back, 'free' entrance for the next edition or a discount on a new ticket? It is still guesswork. As to the contents of the compensation, Spa Grand Prix states: "We will communicate this to our customers soon."

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/97746/co ... r-all.html