#Formula1 @Rolex #BelgianGP 2021 Preview. #F1
Formula 1 Pirelli Belgian Grand Prix 2020 Race Start, Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. Image credit to F1. 2021 Belgian GP Preview, Belgian Grand Prix Preview.
2021 Belgian GP Preview – After Esteban Ocon claimed a shock maiden victory at the Hungarian GP and Lewis Hamilton re-captured the World Driver’s Championship lead from a second-placed finish following Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification for a fuel sample issue, round 12 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World championship returns to the historic and classic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix 2021. This will be the 77th Belgian Grand Prix and the 64th time that the race will be held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. This will be the second back-to-back-to-back set of Grands Prix in the 2021 calendar with the Dutch and Italian races to follow.
2021 Belgian GP Preview – A look at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Built in 1921 and located in the Ardennes countryside in Stavelot Belgium, the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is a favourite amongst the drivers, teams and fans. The longest lap on the calendar will test the 1.6L turbocharged V6 hybrid power-trains to their limits through the high-speed sectors one and three but also aerodynamics through the twisty sector two.
Spa is one of the season’s fastest tracks and it features every kind of challenge with average speeds of 230kph. The throttle is wide open for approximately 23 seconds from the stretch of the exit of La Source to Les Combes. From the run down through Eau Rouge, up the steep incline towards the blind Radillon corner, to the flat-out Kemmel Straight, through Les Combes and the technically difficult stretch down through Rivage, Pouhon and Fagnes and on to the ultimately fast Blanchimont left-hander and despite many alterations over the years due to safety reasons, Spa remains an ultimate test for both man and machine.
Getting the car setup is crucial, with success being the right balance between low downforce for the high-speed first and third sectors and good grip for the twisty second sector.
The weather can also play a defining role. Ardennes defines the phrase ‘four seasons in one day’ and while one end of the circuit can be full of sunshine, the other can be drenched with rain. The unpredictable conditions can be a real headache for teams especially regarding tyre choice.
The current Grand Prix circuit layout is 7.004km (4.352 miles) in length and runs in a clockwise direction.
Race distance is 305.052km (191.415 miles) in length with 44 laps in total and 19 corners.
Valtteri Bottas holds the fastest lap record with a 1:46.286 set at the 2018 event in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W09 EQ Power+ racer.
Michael Schumacher holds the record for most Belgian Grand Prix victories with six.
Scuderia Ferrari is the most successful constructor at the Belgian Grand Prix with 18 victories.
2021 Belgian GP Preview – Onboard Pole Position Lap of the Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps
Here is the onboard pole position lap of the Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps from last year’s event, set by Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team F1 W11 EQ Power+. The Briton posted a blistering 1:41.252. You can watch the footage right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JiYOvCHwFY
2021 Belgian GP Preview – The Last Five Winners
2020: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2019: Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari. 2018: Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari. 2017: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2016: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1.
2021 Belgian GP Preview – Tyres
Pirelli will be bringing with them to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the white-branded C2 Hard compounds, the yellow-marked C3 Mediums and the red side-walled C4 Soft rubber along with the green-marked Intermediates and blue-banded Full Wet compounds in-case of rain.
All drivers will have eight sets of the C4 red side-walled Softs, three sets of the yellow C3 Mediums and two sets of the white C3 Hard rubber.
2021 Belgian GP Preview – DRS Zones
The detection point for the first zone is 240 metres before turn two with the activation point 310 metres after turn four. The second detection point is 160 metres before turn 18 with the activation point 30 metres after turn 19.
2021 Belgian GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits
Pitlane speed limits will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.
ICYMI: Ocon claims shock maiden victory in dramatic Hungarian GP
Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon clinched his maiden Formula 1 victory in an action-packed Hungarian GP, which saw a red flag caused by two opening corner pile-ups with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel second and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton third.
The initial crash at turn one was triggered by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who’s error sliding into the back of McLaren’s Lando Norris ploughed into both Red Bull RB16B’s and left Max Verstappen recovering to eventually end the race in tenth place.
When the 70 lap Hungarian GP began, championship rivals Hamilton and Verstappen both made great runs off the line on a damp track after rain fell steadily for half an hour before the start, which saw all drivers start on the green side-walled intermediates, whilst Bottas dropped down several spots leaving his grid slot.
But it went from bad-to-worse from the Mercedes driver as he misjudged his braking point for turn one, after being overtaken by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Norris, with Bottas locking-up and went straight into the back of the MCL35M.
This had two knock-on effects, as Norris was sent into Verstappen’s right side, the Honda-powered RB16B’s front-right wheel somehow stayed on, whilst Bottas, his front-left broken, continued aquaplaning and clanged into Perez on the outside, with all four ending up in the run-off area beyond the opening corner.
Bottas retired, while Verstappen lead Norris and Perez away, around the scattered debris of a second opening corner tangle, which was caused by an out-of-control Aston Martin AMR21 entry of Lance Stroll who went onto the grass on the inside of the right-hand corner and then slid into Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was set to move up into second place behind Hamilton.
Stroll’s mistake saw his front-left against the Ferrari, which was knocked wide and hit McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who was been closing up to Leclerc’s outside – with the Australian sent spinning into the back of the reduced field.
The scattered debris at the first corner initially deployed the safety car, under which Red Bull opted to pit Verstappen, while Alpine’s Ocon benefitted massively from the chaos as he ended up second behind Hamilton and in-front of Vettel.
Verstappen lost his right bargeboard exiting the pit-lane, just before the Grand Prix was stopped to allow the debris to be cleared and because Perez, whose RB16B racer was smoking heavily from the whack by Bottas, had stopped on the shorter straight between turns eleven and twelve at the beginning of the third sector.
The pack returned to the pits, where Red Bull worked to fix Verstappen’s car, and McLaren was forced to retire Norris due to the damage caused by Bottas.
After a 30-minute halt, Hamilton lead from Ocon, Vettel, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi back to the grid as the top six runners for the second race-standing start, where Verstappen sat 13th.
But in bizarre circumstances, Hamilton was the only driver to start on the grid and did not come into the pits at the end of the second formation tour – the Grand Prix’s third lap – as all the other drivers stopped for a set of yellow-marked mediums and the track dried under sunny skies at the Hungaroring.
Hamilton drove down into the first corner solo, where Ocon was lead out by Williams Racing’s George Russell, who was eighth under the red flag, but jumped up the pit-lane queue thanks to the Grove-based outfit’s position at the end of the pit-lane.
But as Russell charged towards Hamilton as the mediums proved to be the better rubber than the intermediates on a fast-drying circuit, the Briton was forced to give back the positions he gained in the pits, which meant Ocon went into the lead clearly when Hamilton stopped for the medium tyres at the end of the fourth tour – the first full race lap completed.
Over the next five tours, the Frenchman built a 1.4 second lead over Vettel, meanwhile Latifi was holding up the pack in third place, as Verstappen fought AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi on the borders of the top ten – with Hamilton catching the fight after emerging in 14th and last after pitting.
Ocon continued to run just in-front of Vettel’s Aston Martin, with the battle for the race lead becoming a two-driver contest as Latifi continued to drop away.
Further back in the field, Verstappen made his way by Gasly, then chased Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher for 10th for several tours as he damage-inflicted Honda-powered RB16B meant he could not bring it’s pace advantage to bear fruit, and behind Hamilton was also annoyed by the time it took the seven-time world champion to overtake Giovinazzi and Gasly.
On the 14th lap, Verstappen hassled Schumacher at the opening corner, but had to run wide on the exit, then the Dutchman went around the outside of the downhill-left long turn two, getting in-front on the exit where the two cars briefly tangled as they raced side-on toward the quick-right turn three.
Five tours later, with Ocon now running over a second ahead of Vettel upfront, Mercedes brought Hamilton in from behind Gasly in 11th place, swapping from the mediums to the hards.
His brilliant out-lap pace meant he found his way in-front of Verstappen and Ricciardo, who was running just ahead on the track, when they came in on the following lap after Hamilton.
Several rivals, including Russell, stopped shortly afterwards, which assisted Hamilton’s path through the field, but the Mercedes driver continued to lap much quicker than the rest – posting a series of fastest laps between lap 20-30.
Over this part of proceedings, Ocon came under intense pressure from Vettel before building his gap up again, reaching 2.3 seconds by the mid-way point.
With Verstappen was held up behind Ricciardo as they caught the drivers who were yet to make their stop – along with Schumacher again – Hamilton flew clear and made short work of Latifi after the Williams pitted on the 23rd tour.
Hamilton then swifted up to Tsunoda, who under-cut past Latifi by stopping a tour earlier and overtook the AlphaTauri around the outside of the rapid fourth corner fast-left.
Once Hamilton made it up to fifth place, Ferrari then pitted Sainz, who ordered to remain out when Tsunoda and Latifi stopped earlier so the Spaniard could run in clear air, which he used to eat into the large gap behind Vettel.
This ended Hamilton’s surge, just as the focus returned back to the frontrunners when Vettel was called in switch the mediums for harder rubber on the 36th tour.
A 3.3 second stop due to a slow left-rear change meant went Ocon pitted on the following tour for a set of hards, despite Vettel putting in a solid out-lap as he put his white-branded harder compound up to temperature, the Aston Martin was unable to get alongside the Alpine as it emerged from the pit-lane and headed down to the first corner.
Ocon then continued touring around a second clear of Vettel over the next stage of the Grand Prix, but Sainz and Hamilton – who was soon complaining of the state of his rubber – were soon nearly six seconds off the lead as they ran in the low 1:21’s and the leaders were setting high 1:21’s and low 1:22’s.
Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso found his way into first place when the frontrunners stopped, but the Spaniard came in to put on the harder tyres at the end of the 40th tour.
After this, the Grand Prix settled down for a period as Hamilton was stuck behind Sainz and Ocon remained in control over Vettel – other than a moment at the beginning of the 48th lap where Vettel came close to contacting the rear of the Alpine as Ocon lapped Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi at the first corner.
The tour before this, Mercedes brought in Hamilton for a second green flag pit-stop, putting the reigning world champion back onto medium rubber and set up a thrilling hunt for the final third of the Grand Prix, as he had a 22.6 gap to Ocon to catch.
The Briton – much like he did to beat Verstappen at the 2019 event – set a strong pace as he emerged in clear air behind Alonso and seven tours after he stopped, he was under ten seconds off the lead and right with the other Alpine.
On the next lap, Alonso locked up overlapping Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen at the opening corner, which gave Hamilton the opportunity to attack around the outside of turn two, where Alonso aggressively held the inside line to remain in-front, and also ignored Hamilton’s advances at the fourth corner moments later.
The battle lasted over the next ten tours, with Hamilton pushing in similar happenings at turns two and four on a few occasions, frustrated by Alonso’s solid defending, all the while his former McLaren team-mate was closing in on Sainz and then running in the Ferrari’s dirty turbulent air.
On the 65th tour, Alonso’s defending came to an end when he suffered a left-front lock-up again at the first corner and ran deep, which allowed Hamilton to run alongside the Spaniard on the exit and then shot by using DRS on the rundown to turn two.
Hamilton then rapidly caught Sainz, who resisted the Mercedes drivers’ initial attack, but could not stop the Briton taking third place as they flew down the main straight on the 67th tour while lapping Ricciardo’s McLaren.
Alonso’s strong defence meant Hamilton only caught the front two right at the end, with Ocon ending his race-long charge to clinch the Hungarian GP victory in-front of Vettel by 1.859 seconds, with Hamilton a further 0.8 seconds off in third place.
After the race, however, Vettel was investigated for a fuel sample issue and was disqualified by race officials from the results of the Hungarian Grand Prix due to not having the required 1.0L fuel sample from his car.
This promoted Hamilton to second and Sainz third.
Gasly came home fifth behind Sainz and Alonso after being allowed to get by AlphaTauri team-mate Tsunoda approaching the races’ final third, with the latter spinning at the second corner later on, which meant the Japanese driver finished the Grand Prix well behind his team-mate.
Latifi and Russell scored Williams first points since the 2019 campaign taking seventh and eighth respectively – the former closed in on Latifi throughout the second stint after being held up by Haas F1 Team’s Schumacher after his only green lap pit-stop.
Russell also had to resist Verstappen’s attacks at the end as the Dutchman wound up just 1.1 seconds adrift in ninth place, after he had stopped with 30 laps remaining in a successful attempt to get in-front of Ricciardo, who was holding position ahead since their unsuccessful bid to halt Hamilton’s undercut.
Verstappen passed Ricciardo with a brave move around the outside of turn four with ten tours left and was set to close in on Russell to the flag.
Raikkonen – who was hit with a 10-second timed-penalty for being unsafely released into the path of Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin when the field piled into the pit-lane on the second formation tour, with the tangle breaking the VF-21’s front-right suspension and made him the Grand Prix’s only other retiree in addition to those eliminated due to the chaos at the first corner – also passed Ricciardo in the latter stages to finish in 10th place.
Schumacher ended the race in 12th in-front of Giovinazzi, who was also slapped with a 10 second timed penalty for speeding in the pit-lane – the Italian taking a chance for slick rubber on the initial formation lap not paying off due to the red flag.
2021 Belgian GP Preview – The Situation
Lewis Hamilton returns to Belgium sitting on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 195 points and an eight-point advantage over Max Verstappen who is second on 187 points while Lando Norris is a further 82 points behind his fellow-Briton in third on 113 points.
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team comes to the Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps on top of the Constructors Championship with 303 points and a 12-point lead over nearest rivals Red Bull Racing-Honda who are second on 291 points whilst Scuderia Ferrari and McLaren Racing are a further 140 points behind the Silver Arrows in third and fourth places respectively and tied on 163 points. Alpine F1 Team round out the top five on 77 points.
2021 Belgian GP Preview – F1 Quick-Fire News over the Summer-break
- The Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix 2021 was cancelled for the second-year running due to complexities of the coronavirus plague. Formula 1 said in a statement: “Following ongoing discussions with the promoter and authorities in Japan the decision has been taken by the Japanese government to cancel the race this season due to ongoing complexities of the pandemic in the country. Formula 1 is now working on the details of the revised calendar and will announce the final details in the coming weeks. Formula 1 has proven this year, and in 2020, that we can adapt and find solutions to the ongoing uncertainties and is excited by the level of interest in locations to host Formula 1 events this year and beyond.”
- Double-World Champion Fernando Alonso piloted the 2018 Renault R.S.18 in the current Alpine A521 livery around the Circuit De La Sarthe at the 2021 24 Heures Du Mans before the famous Grand Prix of endurance. His team-mate and last round’s Hungarian GP winner Esteban Ocon also drove an Alpine A110 GT4 around the legendary circuit.
- The Dutch Grand Prix will go ahead as planned but with a two-thirds capacity crowd after being given the green light from the Dutch government.
- Ferrari will be receiving a 10bhp boost in its power-train upgrade in this second-half of the season. Speaking on the engine upgrade Team Principal Mattia Binotto explained: “We will bring power unit developments. Just to clarify what the regulations are in 2021: you may have a brand-new power unit in 2021. It means that you may bring an update in all the components of the power unit, whatever it is ICE, turbo, MGU-H, batteries, MGU-K, etc. But what we did at the start of the season, we didn’t complete the entire power unit. So, there are still components which are the ones of last year. And we will bring an evolution of those ones. So, I think, that will be for us a significant step for the end of the season.” Binotto concluded.
- Qatar is looking to be the likely replacement for the cancelled Australian Grand Prix in November as Formula 1 hopes to fulfill the planned 23-race schedule. The Losail International Circuit currently holds an FIA Grade 1 licence to hold F1 events and has been part of the MotoGP calendar since 2004 and was the venue of the opening two rounds of the championship this campaign. Qatar’s possible addition could setup a run of Grands Prix in the Middle East towards the end of the season, with Saudi Arabia (December 5) and Abu Dhabi (December 12) scheduled to close out the campaign. The Grands Prix in Mexico and Brazil are currently under the cloud due to their UK red list, whilst Austin – which had been suggested to host a double-header in October – is experiencing an increase in coronavirus cases and hospitalisations.
The Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix 2021 weekend kicks off Friday August 27 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday August 28 and the 44 Lap Race Sunday August 29.
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