By Mark Gero
In the world of formula 1, there has been rainy weather and compared to certain other formulas like the North American versions of NASCAR and Indycar racing, where there are no rain tyres, the world’s most popular version of motorsport is different.
There are rain tyres to cover for poor weather, and in the past, this made it very interesting on how the race would be run. There have been many exciting races where there have been very wet situations, but the danger of all this increased, and over the years, safety was a primary concern. If the race was too wet as it showed in Malaysia in 2019 and in 2021 at Spa-Franchorchamps, the event would be stopped.
But last week’s race in Spa-Franchorchamps proved that safety might have been a concern, but the question still remained whether or not the time for racing compared to waiting to decide when the time was right to begin racing was thoroughly tested, and many complained that the officials at this race waited much too long to get the race underway.
When the race began, it was already decided that the safety car would come out for as many laps as was possible before racing was good enough to begin under good conditions. Right from the start, McLaren pole sitter Lando Norris had already radioed to his engineer that the conditions were not right and stated that despite he was in front, he could not have imagined what it would be like for the other drivers that were behind him.
Right away, FIA officials heard this message and decided to bring all the cars into the pits with a red flag issued.
It took an hour and a half to resume the race, and many figured that this was not the right decision to make, as drivers like Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was one to complain that it was still good enough to race.
“Three o’clock … straight away,” Verstappen said at that moment. “It was not even raining, and of course between Turn 1 and 5 there was quite a bit of water, but if you do two or three laps behind the safety car, then it would have been a lot more clear, and the rest of the track was anyway ready to go.”
By the time that the track was clear enough to race, Oscar Piastri passed his McLaren teammate Norris on the opening lap at Eau Rouge and this move was the main one of the race. But the circuit dried later, and on lap 12, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton realized that intermediates were no longer needed and came into the pits for slicks. Others followed three laps later, and from that moment on, Hamilton moved up the grid but could only do so for a moment.
But the chance to race in the wet was lost, and the reminder of not only that two-lap shortened event and the 1998 demolition derby at the start and where Michael Schumacher could not see David Couthard and ran into the back of him, got the officials at this classic venue thinking that this should never occur again.
It was also the example of the previous race at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, when the safety car was brought in too soon, and with the weather getting worse, the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar could not see the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli in front of him and ran into the Italian rookie. The spray and the lost visibility by the Frenchman was the cause of this accident, and this gave the officials at Spa the idea not to have this happen anymore.
Despite this decision whether it was good or not, Verstappen after the race, was still not agreeing with this.
“It’s a bit of a shame. Of course, I knew that they would be a bit more cautious after Silverstone, but this also didn’t make sense,” Verstappen added. “Then it’s better to say, ‘You know what, let’s wait until it’s completely dry,’ and then we just start on slicks, because this is not really wet-weather racing for me.”
This coming weekend, the racing goes to the Hungaroring, and many can remind themselves of 2021, when a first corner collision in the wet gave Esteban Ocon his first victory. And with the rain expected on race day, some will keep Spa in mind on the next decision on how to handle wet weather racing.
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