2025 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa-Francorchamps, July 25 - 27

[ismail1991]

Most of the epic races we all have seen were mostly in wet.

You mean epic driver performances?
I do not know about really epic races...mostly there was one dominating driver and many things that were rather painful to watch in the last years. Thinking about the Merc mayhem in 2019 and Vettel the year before...that were not better races than the Mercs crashing in Spain. Same for Oz this year, where we had a perfect spray...it just mixed the field, but not really better or worse than a usual dry race.

Both epic drives and epic races with lots of overtaking then dry races across the field

[FW17]

Maybe late to this discussion

Spa is a great circuit and run up the Kemmel Straight is a very good overtaking opportunity, but for some reason some times have a processional race with some difficulty in overtaking, was the case yesterday in the dry.

While Blanchimont is a exciting corner but now it is mostly a flatout corner even on fuel tanks. If lucky with a tyre offset, they can out brake into the next corner.

Will it not be better if the chicane (may be known as bus stop) is moved back to Blanchimont, (maybe faster) to have a proper 1 km start finish straight with DRS? They could even have a DRS straight from Stavelot to the Blanchimont chicane.

[basti313]

Most of the epic races we all have seen were mostly in wet.

You mean epic driver performances?
I do not know about really epic races...mostly there was one dominating driver and many things that were rather painful to watch in the last years. Thinking about the Merc mayhem in 2019 and Vettel the year before...that were not better races than the Mercs crashing in Spain. Same for Oz this year, where we had a perfect spray...it just mixed the field, but not really better or worse than a usual dry race.

Both epic drives and epic races with lots of overtaking then dry races across the field

No. If you look at the top overtaking races with the most overtakes (excluding lap 1 and pits), then you get 2 wet races. All the top 6 races had about 40 to 50 overtakes broadcasted, only the crazy Dutch GP in 22 had more with 59.
Dutch was great because of changing conditions, in the last stint after the red flag, there was no overtaking on the constantly wet track.
So in the last 10 years, you get only 2 of the top 10 highest-overtake races that were clearly rain-affected.

[hollus]

I am not saying he is wrong, I am just asking what did other drivers think out of curiosity. I did not hear all drivers reactions, all I saw was a top3 press conference after the race where they all said it was mostly ok (perhaps the SC could have done 1-2 laps less) considering SPA being dangerous track.

https://www.racefans.net/2025/07/28/f1- ... wet-track/

[ismail1991]

You mean epic driver performances?
I do not know about really epic races...mostly there was one dominating driver and many things that were rather painful to watch in the last years. Thinking about the Merc mayhem in 2019 and Vettel the year before...that were not better races than the Mercs crashing in Spain. Same for Oz this year, where we had a perfect spray...it just mixed the field, but not really better or worse than a usual dry race.

Both epic drives and epic races with lots of overtaking then dry races across the field

No. If you look at the top overtaking races with the most overtakes (excluding lap 1 and pits), then you get 2 wet races. All the top 6 races had about 40 to 50 overtakes broadcasted, only the crazy Dutch GP in 22 had more with 59.
Dutch was great because of changing conditions, in the last stint after the red flag, there was no overtaking on the constantly wet track.
So in the last 10 years, you get only 2 of the top 10 highest-overtake races that were clearly rain-affected.

I have been watching f1 since 2000. The races which I enjoyed most and which I remember like it was yesterday are always wet races. I dont like artificial overtakes with drs . I can name you some epic races from my mind without looking at google. Those are Montreal 2012, Brasil 2016, Brasil 2021, silverstone 2023, germany 2018, turkey 2020. There are some circuits which are fun in dry as well. However, even spa became boring in this era of F1. We definitely need to be able to race in changing and wet conditions. I want to see drivers race like they did in Spa 2008. Every body made mistakes that day, cars were constantly sliding but it was an amazing battle between drivers.

[ismail1991]

I dont know why we argue, my point is F1 shouldn't be this much cautious and if the forecast is wet for the race, we should be able to watch it in wet conditions and not wait in front of tv screen 1.5 hour for the start of the race

[maxxer]

Both epic drives and epic races with lots of overtaking then dry races across the field

No. If you look at the top overtaking races with the most overtakes (excluding lap 1 and pits), then you get 2 wet races. All the top 6 races had about 40 to 50 overtakes broadcasted, only the crazy Dutch GP in 22 had more with 59.
Dutch was great because of changing conditions, in the last stint after the red flag, there was no overtaking on the constantly wet track.
So in the last 10 years, you get only 2 of the top 10 highest-overtake races that were clearly rain-affected.

I have been watching f1 since 2000. The races which I enjoyed most and which I remember like it was yesterday are always wet races. I dont like artificial overtakes with drs . I can name you some epic races from my mind without looking at google. Those are Montreal 2012, Brasil 2016, Brasil 2021, silverstone 2023, germany 2018, turkey 2020. There are some circuits which are fun in dry as well. However, even spa became boring in this era of F1. We definitely need to be able to race in changing and wet conditions. I want to see drivers race like they did in Spa 2008. Every body made mistakes that day, cars were constantly sliding but it was an amazing battle between drivers.

The most epic ones , also with drivers like Schumacher who just told the team which tires he wants and when he was coming in for them. But also back then you could actually use the wet tyres and the discussion was when to go from full wet to intermediate. Now we talk about when to go from intermediate to slicks. No use of bringing wet tyres even to Spa.

[erudite450]

Max saying they could have started at hour earlier tell you all you need to know. Once the cars do a few laps the spray reduces quite a lot. Visibility is up to the driver to deal with, really they should just be worried about cars aquaplaning and that's it. If you can't see much, drive slower.

Aquaplaning was always the deciding factor of raceability. Now we have drivers moaning about wet conditions even during qualy. What a yoke the sport has become!

[SiLo]

Max saying they could have started at hour earlier tell you all you need to know. Once the cars do a few laps the spray reduces quite a lot. Visibility is up to the driver to deal with, really they should just be worried about cars aquaplaning and that's it. If you can't see much, drive slower.

Aquaplaning was always the deciding factor of raceability. Now we have drivers moaning about wet conditions even during qualy. What a yoke the sport has become!

They would soon change their tune if the FIA said "we are going racing'

[TimW]

Max saying they could have started at hour earlier tell you all you need to know. Once the cars do a few laps the spray reduces quite a lot. Visibility is up to the driver to deal with, really they should just be worried about cars aquaplaning and that's it. If you can't see much, drive slower.

Aquaplaning was always the deciding factor of raceability. Now we have drivers moaning about wet conditions even during qualy. What a yoke the sport has become!

They would soon change their tune if the FIA said "we are going racing'

The probleem is that the FIA listens to the team radio like if the drivers are giving an honest assessment of the conditions, and not just what suits them best. Obviously McLaren wanted the race to be a dry as possible. Rain is just a risk to them, no opportunity, and their drivers are average in the rain. In fact most drivers are better off in dry conditions. Exceptions are Lewis, Max, Nico, who else? Lance?

[selvam_e2002]

they all talk about their own benefit. If we did wet race then others will say "FIA favored RB and Max". We need to agree what FIA did like Abu Dhabi 21. Some one will get benefit based on the FIA decision always. Just move on to next race. Max and RB not going to be any where near to Mclaren. The WDC between Norris and Piastri. Even Max winning this race does not make any sense.

[chrisc90]

they all talk about their own benefit. If we did wet race then others will say "FIA favored RB and Max". We need to agree what FIA did like Abu Dhabi 21. Some one will get benefit based on the FIA decision always. Just move on to next race. Max and RB not going to be any where near to Mclaren. The WDC between Norris and Piastri. Even Max winning this race does not make any sense.

Irrelevant though, the race starts at a specific time. Which is what all the teams set their cars up for with the expected weather for the race.
Waiting for the dry weather just throws that out the window.

Fact is that F2 went racing in far worse conditions without any issue, but the F1 won’t go racing when conditions allowed.
Why on earth did we have to wait 1hr 20 for a dry line to form before going racing

[SiLo]

they all talk about their own benefit. If we did wet race then others will say "FIA favored RB and Max". We need to agree what FIA did like Abu Dhabi 21. Some one will get benefit based on the FIA decision always. Just move on to next race. Max and RB not going to be any where near to Mclaren. The WDC between Norris and Piastri. Even Max winning this race does not make any sense.

Irrelevant though, the race starts at a specific time. Which is what all the teams set their cars up for with the expected weather for the race.
Waiting for the dry weather just throws that out the window.

Fact is that F2 went racing in far worse conditions without any issue, but the F1 won’t go racing when conditions allowed.
Why on earth did we have to wait 1hr 20 for a dry line to form before going racing

Exactly, they have full wet tyres for a reason. Use them. We could have gone racing so much sooner and the race likely would have been far more exciting.

Think how Mercedes and Ferrari feel about making setup changes for Lewis and Kimi and then the FIA sits on their hands for 1hr20 until it's almost dry.

[erudite450]

they all talk about their own benefit. If we did wet race then others will say "FIA favored RB and Max". We need to agree what FIA did like Abu Dhabi 21. Some one will get benefit based on the FIA decision always. Just move on to next race. Max and RB not going to be any where near to Mclaren. The WDC between Norris and Piastri. Even Max winning this race does not make any sense.

Irrelevant though, the race starts at a specific time. Which is what all the teams set their cars up for with the expected weather for the race.
Waiting for the dry weather just throws that out the window.

Fact is that F2 went racing in far worse conditions without any issue, but the F1 won’t go racing when conditions allowed.
Why on earth did we have to wait 1hr 20 for a dry line to form before going racing

The fact that F2 went racing in far worse conditions blows any safety arguments out of the water. The race director does not mind "risking" the lives of "less skilled" and less experienced drivers. There's no defence of the handling of this race and those in control need to have a rethink about the direction of travel of the sport.