The majority of drivers don’t want changes made to Eau Rouge, according to George Russell, despite safety concerns in the build-up to the Belgian Grand Prix. Anthoine Hubert’s fatal accident at the top of Raidillon in Formula 2 four years ago was …
The majority of drivers don’t want changes made to Eau Rouge, according to George Russell, despite safety concerns in the build-up to the Belgian Grand Prix.
Anthoine Hubert’s fatal accident at the top of Raidillon in Formula 2 four years ago was followed by multiple serious crashes in other categories, and the first sector at Spa-Francorchamps was again the focus after Dilano van ’T Hoff was killed in a junior category race at the start of July. That crash happened in wet weather and with more rain forecast this weekend, drivers have been commenting on the safety of the track, but GPDA director Russell says they’re satisfied the iconic Eau Rouge section has been improved.
“No, we’ve spoken about it and I think between everybody we’ve concluded that we don’t think it needs (changing),” Russell said. “They’ve made a lot of progress with the run-off, that’s probably the most important thing.
“At the moment it’s sort of constant comms with the FIA following the tragic passing of Dilano in FRECA. The two questions are is Spa safe enough and then it’s the question of the conditions. The fact is motorsport will always be dangerous when you’re traveling at these speeds.
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“If you were to put a ranking of risk of all of the circuits, for sure Spa is one of the riskier circuits, along with Jeddah, along with Monaco, for example. Suzuka to a degree.
“Then when you’ve got a combination of the weather, it’s very challenging. It’s the visibility — we just have no visibility whatsoever. The way I describe it to try and give some perspective is driving down the motorway in pouring rain and turning your windscreen wipers off. That’s genuinely how it feels in the cockpit. There’s not really any short-term solution. I personally think Spa is safe enough. We just need to find a solution for visibility.”
Russell’s comments followed Charles Leclerc’s call for further barrier tweaks for safety reasons and Zhou Guanyu stating he wants to see changes to Eau Rouge.
Charles Leclerc says nobody should complain if Formula 1 puts safety first and does not run at times during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend due to the weather. Persistent rain throughout Thursday is a precursor to further threats on both Friday and …
Charles Leclerc says nobody should complain if Formula 1 puts safety first and does not run at times during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend due to the weather.
Persistent rain throughout Thursday is a precursor to further threats on both Friday and Saturday, with three competitive sessions set to take place as part of the sprint weekend. Two years on from the called-off event at Spa-Francorchamps where just two laps behind the safety car were completed, Leclerc says the safety concerns with the venue should make drivers and fans understanding if tough decisions need to be made again.
“I think there are some changes that could make a difference,” Leclerc said. “First of all, the walls on the straight after Eau Rouge, we should have a bit more space on the left and right. If you lose control of the car, the way it is done at the moment you are bouncing on the walls and you have a very high chance of finding yourself in the way. I think this is probably a change we should consider in the future.
“Then to change the layout of Eau Rouge, for example, we find ourselves (at other times) in the season in those particular conditions — being fast in a straight — we have that everywhere and that is going to be difficult to do anything else other than that. You can always change the layout, but I don’t think it is fair to say this is what should be done.
“Then the two biggest problems after that is visibility. Visibility is really difficult to put into words … apart from saying we are seeing nothing – we are not exaggerating when we say we don’t see anything, we really don’t see anything when it’s raining.
“This is a really big problem for Formula 1, for motorsport in general. Any single-seaters, we have quite a bit of downforce and there is quite a lot of spray and then this causes quite a lot of incidents because we cannot react to what is in front. Easy to say that, much more difficult to find a solution, but I know that the FIA is on it and trying to do the best on that.
“Then the last thing is, when is it safe to start a race? This is another topic for the FIA to look closely, especially on a weekend like this where it seems we will have quite a lot of rain throughout, to not feel the pressure of starting a race just because we didn’t have any running.
“We could be in that situation this weekend. It’s obvious to say, but safety should come first and this needs to be the priority. People, and first of all us drivers, shouldn’t complain if we don’t have any laps because it is not safe to do so, with everything that has happened.”
The bad weather on his arrival at Spa had Leclerc wondering whether it would be possible to run the full Belgian GP weekend as scheduled. Michael Potts/Motorsport Images
Leclerc’s comments were backed up by his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, who believes there’s a limit to what conditions the drivers should be asked to race in.
“If I can see in the car, then of course I will recommend to the race director and make sure we try and run,” Sainz said. “But at the same time, if you cannot see, it’s leaving everything down to luck and fate. I think we’ve learned our lessons recently and I think we need to not fall too much into the pressure of having to run just because we need to put on a show and because it’s the right thing for the sport, if the conditions are not safe enough.”
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However, Sainz says he doesn’t feel Spa itself is unsafe as a venue, with only the weather creating scenarios that need addressing, following the death of Dilano van T’Hoff in a Formula Regional race at Spa earlier this month.
“I will go out there, whatever the conditions are,” said Sainz. “But obviously as drivers we always need to give guidance to the FIA if we can actually see in case of an accident or anything in front of us, how many meters ahead we can see. All 20 drivers, we are asked for our opinion and I will give my opinion at the time.
“My number one priority will always be safety, but also as soon as everything is ready, I will be the first one screaming to run at this beautiful track. Because I love driving it in the dry, but I also love driving it in the wet. I actually think it’s more fun to drive in the wet than in the dry, especially those corners.
“I might differ a bit here. I don’t think the track lacks any safety attributes. I think the changes they’ve done over the years have made the truck a lot safer. I think it’s unfortunate what happened with Anthoine (Hubert, who was fatally injured in a crash during a Formula 2 race in 2019), but it’s more due to the conditions.
“What happened last time, a month ago here… that could happen in any category, in any racetrack in the world, when there’s no visibility and a car spins in the middle of a straight — we all cannot see (anything). It’s down to luck. This is why before green-flagging a session, before green-flagging a restart of the race where the cars are so closely bunched up, you need to be really sure that it’s not down to luck whether we’re going to see an accident or not.”
Lance Stroll has called for changes to be made to the circuit at Spa-Francorchamps after the death of Formula Regional driver Dilano Van ‘T Hoff on Saturday morning. Van ‘T Hoff was killed during the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine …
Lance Stroll has called for changes to be made to the circuit at Spa-Francorchamps after the death of Formula Regional driver Dilano Van ‘T Hoff on Saturday morning.
Van ’T Hoff was killed during the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) second race at Spa, after crashing on the Kemmel Straight in wet conditions with spray affecting visibility. After incidents nearer the exit of Raidillon, the 18-year-old’s car came to a rest at a right-angle to the racing line and was struck at high speed in similar fashion to the crash that claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert at Spa in Formula 2 in 2019.
With both crashes occurring within a few hundred meters of each other, and multiple serious incidents in the same area, Stroll said following F1’s sprint race in Austria that the iconic Belgian circuit has to make changes.
“Story of the race isn’t today,” Stroll said. “We lost a young driver at Spa today, my thoughts are with him and his family. It’s not fair what happened, and that corner needs to be looked at and changed, because we lost two young talents in like five years — it needs to be changed.
“We’re going there in a few weeks — it’s horrible what happened today. We lost a member of the racing family, and seriously need to think about what to do with that corner as it’s never fun going through there. Every time we go through there we put our lives on the line; today we saw something bad happen. It’s not right.”
Stroll says talks have taken place before about trying to find ways of making the Eau Rouge and Raidillon section safer but action hasn’t followed quickly enough.
“Yeah we’ve discussed it but then it blows over — it needs to be changed,” he insisted. “They need to do something. You know, playing with fire, in a couple of weeks time, again, and not just us — F2 kids, F3 kids, everyone goes through that corner.
“We’re losing lives in that corner, it has to change. For me it’s not even a discussion.”
Pierre Gasly admitted he also has faced times he hasn’t felt safe racing through that section of track in difficult conditions.
“It does feel risky,” Gasly said. “The thing is it kinds of reminds me of situations I’ve been in the younger categories in Spa, in similar conditions, and being fully honest, there were times I did feel in massive danger just with poor visibility and various situations where it just feels pretty unsafe. But I don’t know exactly what happened.
“We do a risky sport, which is always going to remain risky whatever we do with the speed that we go at. It definitely needs a very deep investigation.”
Ferrari AF Corse is set to take its pair of 499P Hypercars to Monza after the third round of the FIA WEC season at Spa-Francorchamps next weekend, for a final test ahead of the car’s Le Mans 24 Hours debut in June. Giuliano Salvi, the Ferrari GT & …
Ferrari AF Corse is set to take its pair of 499P Hypercars to Monza after the third round of the FIA WEC season at Spa-Francorchamps next weekend, for a final test ahead of the car’s Le Mans 24 Hours debut in June.
Giuliano Salvi, the Ferrari GT & Sports Race Cars race and testing manager, confirmed to RACER that the entire crew and all six drivers will be present at the “Temple of Speed” as it looks to get some additional running in before the Le Mans Test Day. It will also be useful in helping the team get a baseline set up for the FIA WEC’s race at Monza in July, which will be the program’s first on home soil in front of the tifosi.
However, this final test will not be the 499P’s first at Monza, as it took its 499Ps to the Autodromo back in February for some running before the season opener in Sebring.
“It will be a good training session for everyone,” Salvi said. “The circuit is closer in terms of lift-to-drag ratio to Le Mans. It’s a low-downforce circuit. So we are going there to test different setups and settings for running at high speed — this will help us prepare for Le Mans.”
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Salvi also confirmed that the team will use the traditional Monza layout for the test. In the past, LMP1 Hybrid teams were filmed testing at Monza without the first chicane to increase the time spent at top speed at the circuit. However, Ferrari, which will share the venue with Porsche for the test, has confirmed that it will use the traditional layout.
The test at Monza will come after the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps next week, which is set to be a hugely important race for the program, following a pair of podium finishes in the opening races of the season.
The 499P isn’t a stranger to Spa, as the team tested at the Belgian circuit in the off-season, though mainly in wet conditions. Ferrari hopes to make further progress with its 499Ps on its return and close the gap with Toyota.
Last weekend in Portimao, Ferrari was again Toyota’s closest rival. It looked set for a double podium before its No. 51 developed an issue with its brake-by-wire system, which ultimately led to a right-front brake disc failure late in the race.
The team, and in particular, Antonio Giovanazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, were forced to take a cautious approach to their stints. They were tasked with managing the brake temperature, with Pier Guidi’s pace suffering badly as the problem worsened.
Still, despite that setback in Sunday’s race, Salvi feels the team has made significant progress since the season began, with a new car and a newly assembled staff, which have only raced together twice.
Technical glitches hindered the Ferrari 499P Hybrids in Portimao, but the team is confident it can take a more aggressive approach each time out. Motorsport Images
“The team in Sebring was working together in a race environment for the first time,” he explained. We were testing a lot but it’s a brand-new team with younger, bright brains, but that is inexperienced. We still need a lot more time working together.
“The workflow was smoother (in Portimao) — we improved massively. We had more control over what we were doing on track. We were better at fuel management too. We need another step like that for Le Mans — we need to be ready to face big endurance races.”
Interestingly, Salvi revealed that the team had opted for a conservative approach in Portugal. He hinted that it will become bolder as the season progresses, once it becomes more comfortable with the 499P as a package.
“Every time we put the car on the ground we learn something,” he said. “In Sebring we were probably not nursing the tire enough; here (in Portimao) at the end of the day we probably could have pushed more at the beginning and during the race. We were trying to cure the left-front corner, which was critical here. We could have pushed more. We still need to improve.
“If we didn’t have the issue we would have been second and third, which would have been an exceptional result. Unfortunately, we couldn’t achieve that, but we take the positive of the second position of car No. 50.
“Every time we see the checkered flag we get tons of data. Testing is limited — we don’t have many days to spend on track. The car is brand-new, it’s fragile and complicated. We needed to nurse it. We can push more. Every time we race we will be more aggressive.”
