F1 Belgian GP - full analysis with Peter Windsor

[00:00:02][music] [music] Well, we knew it was going to be bad because there's so much time on full throttle. So, what was going to happen if you throw the 20 26 Formula 1 our unit regulations at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa? I feel very sorry for the track actually as an entity and I guess for the crowd. I don't know whether they're exposed to it or not, but when you're on board and you're looking at the telemetry, it is just well it's just so sad. It's so sad to see Red Bull actually because of the deployment requirement coming out of the power going into O Rouge. So O Rouge is completely watered down now into Pua.

[00:00:50]The whole thing about PUA is the unbelievable speed you pick up out of the previous lefthander down the hill and then going into Pu. It's a major drama as to actually how quick you can go. Can you lift? Can you not? But now they're sitting there on revs and get this Max Vstappen 20 km an hour slower than Kimmy Antonelli going into Pu. I mean that alone is a headline. Normally would be a headline but of course isn't because it's all about deployment. And then coming out of Puan, this probably says a lot about Max actually. That's probably unfair [laughter] to say that against Kimmy, but he's 26 kilometers an hour quicker than Kimmy out of Pu. 20 km kh slower going in. 12 mph, 26 faster coming out. And then they go up the hill and it's so sad to see them just sort of slowing down. They're doing 310 or something up the hill there. Slowing down before the the chicane. I mean, everything's gone from Spa as we knew it would, but there's no point in saying, "Well, we knew it would, so therefore, we won't talk about it." Because this is one of the world's great circuits with some great corners. And right now, I'm really scratching to see where those great corners are. It was Yeah, it was just a day where everybody was talking about deployment, energy management, uh, performance, power unit, this there was nothing about there was nothing about Arouge, there was nothing about Pu.

[00:02:14]There was nothing about going up the hill blanchima. All of it was about that. And that is such a shame. It is such a shame. And and I know what the answer will be from Formula 1. Well, get rid of Spar probably. You know, it doesn't fit in with us. Well, you know, that's a great shame because Spar has so much history and it's such a great circuit. So, that's how I'm There's another thing as well before before you go, well, well, Windsor's had his say there's another thing. I don't know how many people were watching Max's second practice start at the end of FP2. I think probably the world feed cameras had long since disappeared and they were doing all their standup stuff in the pit lane or whatever. But his second start, well here's the news. Max Vstappen second practice start two burnouts pull up go on the clean side of the grid or was it that was anyway was the right hand side and um but I think just bogged down. He almost stalled and just sort of chudded away towards Arouch. He got on the radio and just said, "What happened there and there was no reply and then the whole thing was cut off." So, I don't know. I mean, why are we that we even have to be talking about this rubbish instead of how brilliant it is to see Formula 1 cars at Spa again? It's just I keep saying it's just so sad. Um, interesting to see a few of the teams, McLaren, Mercedes bringing smaller rear wings to Spa. First time we've seen in this new regulation this year, teams going to smaller rear wings. We saw because we didn't think maybe that that was going to happen anymore, but we saw obviously larger rear wings for for Monaco, but not smaller uh certainly not smaller for Canada. But here they are running smaller rear wings. And I suspect that's because Monza's coming up as well. So I suppose from a budget cap situation it makes sense to justify that. So that's quite interesting. Um the track was it rained last night.

[00:04:12]There was a little bit of rain today. So the track was quite green and in so FP1 was okay. It was all about deployment.

[00:04:21]Max was actually quickest which I suppose says something, doesn't it? that when the track doesn't have a lot of grip and it is a little bit about just finding the grip that's there and doing the job. Max and Red Bull still right there, but the second session the grip started to be obvious. There was it was less green. It still wasn't 100% quick.

[00:04:40]Uh and Kimmy Antonelli immediately showed his pace in the Mercedes at the expense again of George Russell who who looks, you know, about where he's been over the last ever since Canada really.

[00:04:51]Or was it? know since Miami and so Kimmy again looking very very strong around Spa but yes should we be talking about interesting to see how Mercedes are deploying their power compared with Red Bull I suppose that's significant I mean Red Bull do seem to be losing going into O Rouge with their engine management deployment power and that's obviously hurting them up the hill they're not very quick in sector one but then again normally you would say sector two is where Red Bull would be quick and Max is pretty quick sector two and he's not bad sector three which suggests that they're running a little bit more downforce I guess than than McLaren and Ferrari.

[00:05:32]Ferrari not bad you not bad there or thereabouts about where they look on Fridays these days in terms of deployment is how we have to judge things at the moment they look pretty similar to Red Bull and McLaren Lewis able to get on the power sooner out of O Rouge than Max which is an interesting thing isn't it and and I wonder whether Red Bull obviously they don't have the same efficient downforce as Mercedes nobody does and but I wonder whether because they're running lower to get the grip they've got in sector 2 cuz they are quite good in sector 2 and as a result it's not working for them through o rouge maybe there's some of that that's what they used to do I think even before the power deployment days but Ferrari not looking too bad Lewis looking good in the car sh didn't really get a comfortable run typical Friday for SH but all three of them different in their deployment from Mercedes which just shows that how good the Mercedes is really not only in terms of how good the chassis is and we've talked a lot about that but how good they are in terms of managing the engine, harvesting the power, deploying the power and a good example of that was Lando Norris who was pretty similar on his lap in his quickest lap in his in FP2 to Kimmy Kimmy Antelli in the Mercedes until he got to the back end of the lap and then he was just sitting there with seemingly with no power whereas Kimmyy's still got power up to the chicane and again you know that's nothing to do with driver skills. absolutely nothing whatsoever.

[00:07:03]What you could say is at least McLaren have no excuse really because they are using the same power unit as Mercedes.

[00:07:09]But obviously in this era being a customer is a bit more of a problem than it was in the previous era. Partly because it's the how you manage the electrical side of the engine is much more up to the team than it than well obviously than the internal combustion engine side of the of it all. So, I guess it's that, you know, and you have to say, "Wow, isn't that great that Mercedes are doing that?" But yeah, but it was kind of sad to see Lando just so slow on that last bit for no reason at all other than that he just didn't have any power. The critical things you need for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spar. So sad to have to say that. Anyway, there we go. The other news is that Lando Norris has got a 10 place grid penalty because of power unit, engine power unit replacement, as has well Lance Stroll's got some sort of penalty as well. Not that it matters. And he's Kaja, which is more significant of course because he's he again today he looked very good alongside Max just a shade slower but doing a great job has also got to start from the back with a lot of PU replacements. This is the first time we've seen all that starting to come in.

[00:08:12]Another another very boring aspect of Formula 1 when we have all these ridiculous things. As I said, you know, when it's a power unit thing, it's nothing to do with the driver. And it's such a shame that Lando Norris has to go into this race knowing he's got a 10 place grid penalty or in EAC's case that he's starting from the back of the grid.

[00:08:30]I've said that a million times and I'm saying it should be more of a penalty for the team, the power unit supplier perhaps, but not so much for the driver, but it does penalize the driver more than anything. [snorts] Mind you, Max has got his own penalty, which is getting the thing off the line anyway.

[00:08:45]So, it'll be interesting to see who's who's ahead going into the first corner, Isak Hajar or Max Vstappen. No, I shouldn't be making jokes like that. Um anyway yeah so Max obviously brought the crowd to its feet with his speed in the morning which was good. In the afternoon everybody was out most people would in the beginning or had been had started fuel runs and everybody looks it's so difficult to judge the fuel runs because of all the power management stuff. Uh very very very difficult to compare difficult to compare top speeds. Uh nothing makes sense anymore in my opinion and and that was curtailed by Pia Gazzley going off. Unusual place really in the sort of stavo chicane essencees between turns 13 and 14 uh hitting the barrier. He just sort of got on the gravel and then sideswiped the rear on a bit of projecting barrier and of course that did quite a lot of damage and he had um but Colipinto looking very good in the Alpine as well so that won't have done that team any good but Pier Gazley to his credit put together is putting together a really good charity foundation around um Antoine Nubar who obviously we know lost his life in 2019.

[00:10:00]uh very very sad accident and on top of that in 2023 Dilano Vanto uh so there was all the drivers were out there the team's charity run on the Thursday good to see that made me think actually well it obviously makes you think of how many lives we've lost at spa and here I was at the beginning of this video extolling the virtues of this great circuit but we've we've always known I guess just as we knew about the power unit dramas this year we've always known how dangerous spar is as a circuit particularly when it rains But it made me think I don't know why but it made me think I think it was more Dilano's accident made me think of Ian Taylor who we don't talk about much very very good British driver who was good in right up to the former three level and then did a brilliant job for British motorsport with Ian Taylor motor racing school at Thruxton for many years and just needlessly it was just an accident in the wet I think he was in a Rover touring car support race and I think he was t-boned on on the straight there after Rouge in the wet and and we lost Ian as well. So, I just like to mention his name as a driver that I miss a lot. Very talented, lovely guy, too. Very, very good bloke, but we lost so many drivers at Spa. We're not going to go down that that road at this point. I think it's more just see what happens tomorrow that in theory there's going to be no more rain. The track will pick up grip and we'll have a better feel, I guess, for how the teams are approaching it with their power units and their management systems. Uh, a more unreliability though for Oscar Piestri on this occasion. hydraulic leak which in in FP1 back end of FP1 which caused as a result the gearbox had to be changed. So it was quite a big drama and that cost obviously cost him quite a lot of time as well. So unreliability still there in this new regulation. All the talk is about energy deployment around spa rather than I I mean I can remember I can remember following Michael up the steps from the spa paddock back up to the pits. quite heavy steep steps and he was running up two at a time and I was kind of trying to stay with him and I remember it was wet and and I was thinking I don't want to lose my footing here and Michael was just like that but I I said to him Michael so um what's Puan like going into Puan and he just and he just stopped and he turned around and looked at me and he said oh nice and just kept going but I don't know if you can have those conversations now because what is Puan like well it'll all be about what the energy energy deployment's like going into Puan and they just go down the hill as As I say, you know, the whole thing about P is the rush you get and the speed build up going into P. The entry speed is probably about the same, but because there's no buildup of speed before that, it's just like and it just takes everything away from the corner. And it's the same up the hill. And it's the same for the Red Bull guys going through a rouge. I don't know. [laughter] So anyway, that's Friday at Spa. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I guess we shouldn't be too negative. Other than to say that I noticed that in the open Justin Rose is really having his first big event with the McLaren golf clubs orange bag he's got now as I speak.

[00:13:00]Doesn't look as if he's going to make the cut either. I don't know if that's an omen or what. Probably not. Anyway, take care. See you tomorrow.

[00:13:15][music] And so the lineup on the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix tomorrow at Spar pretty much in the form of the pace we saw on Friday. That's Max Vstappen and Kimmy Anteneelli ahead of the field.

[00:13:23]Kimmy on the pole. Max just next to him in the Red Bull benefiting he said and quite visually from a toe he got from Isak Hajar on his last quick lap in Q3.

[00:13:34]We'll get on to that in a second. But Kimmy taking the poll uh which is significant which was significant for two things. one yet another layout on these incredible building blocks that he has this year showing how good he is, how good he's becoming virtually by the race. Yes, it's another fast circuit like Silverstone. No, it is not the same as Silverstone in that Silverstone has these distinct phases of the lap whereas Spar is more flowing. Some very, very fast long corners at Spar. And a bit like Silverston going into it, you would have said George Russell territory.

[00:14:11]Spar, you would definitely go into this race saying, "Yeah, George Russell in the palm of his hand in a car as good as the Mercedes this year." And yet he was blown away by Kimmy to the tune of half a second. Now, there are mitigating circumstances, I'm sure, and George for sure will be talking about those, has been speaking about those, and we'll have a look at the difference between the two on their laps. But just it's just incredible, isn't it? how this young Italian is constantly showing it to George Russell who's starting to look a little bit spooked. Yep, it could all still change and many things can happen, but there were no yellow flags in the dying moments of qualifying in Spa.

[00:14:51]There were no other mitigating circumstances. It was a straight fight.

[00:14:54]And so when your gauge is a teammate like George, that is as big as getting the pole in itself. Landon Norris qualified third for McLaren Mercedes but will start with a 10 place grid penalty and that means that P3 will go to George Russell uh who will start behind Kimmy on the grid uh with Charlotte Clerk and Lewis Hamilton fourth and fifth for Ferrari. Right, going back to the laps.

[00:15:16]First of all, Kimmy versus George.

[00:15:19]There's no doubt Kimmy for whatever reason was quicker in the last sector and seem to be quicker up the hill through the Blanchimar section, but it's so difficult to judge that because none of the cars are going at real speed through there. They're all throttling back, lift and coasting, whatever they're doing, harvesting power for the run out of the chicane up to the start finish line at the end of the lap. And yes, there was a big difference there through the Blanchim Kink exactly in the middle of it. George 288 kilometers an hour, not quick at all. Uh Kimmy Antonelli 296. So there's a big difference there. Now whether that's because he's done a better job of using less power in sectors two and one and therefore has more power towards the end of the lap or whether there was a real engine problem with George. Very difficult to say. Mercedes won't say.

[00:16:11]George probably just feels he didn't have any power in the last sector. But let's have a look then at what happened in sector two. Well, let's have a look then at what happened actually in sector one. And if you take the speed of which they came out of O Rouge at the top of the hill, George Russell doing 321 there. Kimmy Anteneelli 328 in exactly the same place on their quickest lap at the exit of O Rouge. That tells you something. Now George will say, well, I was basically flat through there anyway, so that's got to be power. But is it? I mean, obviously we do know that keeping a car square on the road and getting a transition at exactly the right moment takes load out of the car takes load out of the engine. So, there's a question mark. In the middle of the straight, they're both throttling back to 316.

[00:16:54]Unbelievably slow. And then we get to some interesting corners like the entry to P the very very fast downhill left-hander that I've been about which I've been ulogizing since the live stream but obviously very disappointed to see that it's not approached by anything like the right speed anymore.

[00:17:11]But anyway at that point the entry to P Kimmy Anteneelli 274 George Russell 277. So that you say wow George really quick there. Look at this exit. Kimmy Antonelli 267 on exit of Pu George Russell 264. Now that's nothing to do with power. That's just to do with the way you're using the car. And Kimmy obviously setting the car up for a perfect exit. Whereas George is going in really quick, probably scrubbing off a bit of speed, probably got more load, and when he's getting onto the power again, such as it is, he's actually losing 3 km an hour there.

[00:17:45]So that's nothing to do with power differences. That's to do with stylistic differences. turn 13 which was the which is the stabilo right-hander after which again we saw other drivers today Lando Norris lost a bit of time there in Q1 and also Lewis Hamilton had a shunt there a bit like Pierre Gazzley shunt coming out of that section in FP3 today hit the same um protruding piece of barrier that Pierre hit but didn't have quite the big the same shunt but just demolished the right rear he wanted to drive the car back to the pits they kept saying, "No, Lewis, park it. Park it."

[00:18:21]No, no, there's no damn I can bring it back. It was right at the end of FP3 anyway. So, I don't know what Lewis's rush was, but anyway, that was that was that was interesting. I It's interesting, I think, if you look at that corner, which is the lefthander exit of the Stabilo section, which is obviously with these cars has become a bit of a place for change of direction and making sure you you're not coming out with too much load on the rear of the car. and Lewis leaning on the back more than Sh and and Lando Norris as we know wide corner entries relatively wide relatively wide compared with say Max or Kimmy leaning on the rear and Pia Gazzley also yesterday about the same as Lando all of them losing the back there and and going into that extended bit of arm cut so a bit of a pattern there interesting uh anyway getting back to that point turn 13 which is the rightander going into that uh Kimmy to nearly 200 km an hour. George Russell 196. Again, I wouldn't have said that's a power difference. I would have said that that's Kimmy confident of what he can do with a change of direction. But then on the exit of Stabilo, which I don't mean that left-hander. I mean the by the time they've gone into the long right starting to go up the hill, George Russell, who apparently's got less power than Kimmy, 277, Kimmy 271. So interesting. Blanchimo as I say Kimmy's Kimmy's either throttling back less and he's having to harvest less power but he's doing 296 as I say compared with George 288 there. Uh so that was that I think all marks all marks all credit to Gimme Antelli in the lap he's putting together around Spar and the way he managed qualifying as well. You probably noticed the light changing a bit. It's because I'm actually doing this in a slightly different place because of the heat in the studio today in Spain.

[00:20:05]Anyway, that's another thing. Um, yeah, Kimmy planned it well. He The track did change from yesterday. It picked up grip. And in Q1, Kimmy wasn't that quick. He was slower, for example, than uh nothing wrong with this. No shame shame in it at all, but cuz he was really quick, but he was slower than Avan Lindlad, for example, in Q1. But he was very calm. They just got the car set up for for Q2, change a bit of flat, and and away he went. and pole position really never looked as if it belonged to anybody else today, although Max pushed him hard. Now, let's get on to Max and we can talk through about the same parts of the lap for Max's quickest lap as well. So, going to P Max as per yesterday, not that quick, 267 compared with Kimmy 274.

[00:20:52]But then coming out of Pon, Max 280, Kimmy 267. Max did to Kimmy what Kimmy did to George through P. Just phenomenal exit from poor. And then turn 13 max about the same as Kimmy 298 Kimmy 200 George 196 exit of Stabilo 274 Max 271 Kimmy 277 George about the same. And then at the Blanchimar Kink the left-hander going up the hill. He's right behind Isak Hajar getting his toe.

[00:21:26]He's doing 300 km an hour there, which obviously does make a difference. But let's just talk about that. And first of all, full marks to Isak for getting it timed absolutely perfectly. He was actually slow. He was in front of Max obviously as they went out and he was just sort of they they timed it perfectly with the Red Bull with the radio and how many seconds Max was behind him. So that when they started to go up the hill, Isak had slowed down, waited as he saw Ma Max Max catching him and then Max was right on him as they went through Blanchim and then just pulled out perfectly. You could almost argue they left it a little bit too tight, but I think he did it absolutely perfectly. They had a sort of trial run in the first run in Q3 and it was great to see them doing that and great that Max thanked him. First thing he did was thanked him for that saying, "Oh, without that I would have been P6." So let's get on to that one now because I think Maxo is being a little bit bashful because if you look at his first run when he didn't really benefit from a well he didn't benefit from a turn in Q3 compared with his second run in Q3 and it was and it was obviously going quicker. Everything was perfect for that last run. Sector one max was 077 quicker. Sector 2.135 quicker and sector 3 when he got the tow 094 quicker. Now of course it's not as simple as that because if Red Bull had planned for that which obviously they had then they probably would have run the car a little bit lower than if they didn't know Max was going to get the toe if you see what I mean. So maybe he wouldn't have been as quick in sector 2.

[00:23:00]But it just says overall planning and it was all because Isak has got this grid penalty because of the power unit change. He's at the back of the grid anyway. So there was nothing no drama there. Although I do wonder in this situation, let's say if Charl had an engine change and was starting from the back of the grid and they said, "Oh, can you give a toe to Lewis?" Do you think he would have done it or vice versa? Do you think Oscar would have done that for Lando in that situation? And do you think George would have done that for Kimmy in that situation? Maybe not. And I think this, you know, this this actually highlights again the logic of having a driver lineup like Vestappen Agar. Agar's quick enough to win races.

[00:23:44]He's quick enough to be on the podium.

[00:23:45]He's very, very good. But ultimately, everybody knows that Max is boss. That's not the case. That wasn't the case last year. Obviously, at McLaren, it's not the case at at Mercedes. quite obviously it's confusion reigns in that area and then you got the whole thing at Ferrari all the dynamic at Ferrari. So yeah, I think you know it just showed what a good job Red Bull have done with that.

[00:24:07]Very, very good. And the other thing I thought just going back to Kimmy actually and the way he ran the day and I should point out here again there was lots of weird things going on with gears and whereas Max would be in eighth on that last run, you would imagine from Blanchimal up to the chicane, you'd imagine he'd be in eighth gear. They always have been Formula 1 cars at Spa.

[00:24:26]And yet as they go through Blanchimal, the two Mercedes drivers are going from eighth back to seventh and carrying seventh all the way up to the chicane, which is obviously a an energy harvesting area. Well, it is for everybody, but they feel they're just getting more out of the engine, the power unit by doing that and going back to seventh. And then u but there was there was a there was an interesting incident and I I can't remember the last time a driver actually admitted to this andor it even happened but it was Kimmy starting a lap towards the end of FP3 and before Lewis hit the wall and brought the red flag out but it was Kimmy going into Lassour from seventh down to first and just running right out of Lource and then getting on the radio saying I've had to abort the lap because I didn't get down to first gear in time.

[00:25:12]And it was interesting when they were telling Max to go to to stay in eight, they made the point of saying to him, so make sure and to Lando actually uh they did the same thing with Lando, make sure that you therefore start changing down sooner because you got a lot of gears to go through. Made me think of what this would be like this era, this 2026 power unit era, if we still have manual downshifts, eight-speed double H pattern, manual downshift, heel and towing required.

[00:25:41]>> [laughter] >> would definitely get everybody's attention, I think, wouldn't it? So, we'll go through the grid very quickly.

[00:25:46]Then, bearing in mind Lando who did actually qualify third uh will be starting P1. So, George Russell P3 in the other Mercedes, he won't be happy about that, but he will be happy about being near Kimmy on the grid and maybe anything can happen from his point of view. Looks like a one one-stop strategy. Although, as Pirelli pointed out yesterday, it was quite interesting to see how many teams have kept two new sets of hard tires in the garage for the race, which I guess is everybody trying to second guessess everybody else by having a second new set in case there's some sort of safety car or neutralization as they like to call it at some stage of the race. So, it'll be a one-stop, but obviously it may not bearing in mind neutralization.

[00:26:27]Charlotte Cler will start fourth in the other Ferrari ahead of Lewis. Yeah, Sh just did a good job. I mean, again, I said yesterday it was a typical Friday for Sh. And guess what happened? It was a typical Saturday for Shaw. He looked beautiful in the car, drove really well.

[00:26:40]And I think Lewis possibly after that shunt in FP3, it was quite a hard whack.

[00:26:46]Nothing to do with him. No damage physically obviously, but it was a mistake, an unusual mistake for Lewis to make on a Saturday of a Grand Prix, just sort of running wide and hitting the rear like that. It might have clipped his wings a little bit in terms of I just need to keep this thing on the island, get a very good job. Anyway, he did that and the difference in the end was very small. So, he'll be still be very happy with that. Oscar Pastry very disappointing P7 in the other McLaren Mercedes. I mean, if ever there was a weekend where Oscar should be up there doing what Lando's doing, i.e. qualifying top three, it would have been Spar, last year's winner. And yet, there he is, you know, very unimpressive in the other McLaren. He's almost as spooked as George Russell, it would appear. Although no reason for Oscar to be spooked about anything really. So it's just bizarre. I suppose you could say it was interesting to see how well Lando was driving as well today. And maybe it was just like a pressure off.

[00:27:38]Nothing to lose. Enjoy myself. And the more he does that, the better he drives and the quicker he goes. Um Avid Lindblad mentioned already very very good PA. always looks as if he's going to be up there running strongly in in Q3 as did Gabriel Bautto in the Audi. Very good. And Isak Hajar obviously will start at the back as well, leaving Liam Lawson P10 in the other Var. And going back to the heading of unreliability of the current regulations. Isak Hajar lost all power this morning in FP3. Lost time there. And remember Lando Norris also had a problem. The good news, I suppose, was only saw one practice start today from Max, but the good news was that he actually seemed to get it off the line.

[00:28:20]Didn't look that quick, but he got it off the line. Uh, so George Russell will be thinking, "Yeah, right. Max, think you're going to be second or first out of Lasass? Forget about it." Uh, so that'll be an interesting one watching George versus Max into Lasers like to call it. Pierre Gazzley and Franco Colibinto a good job to make it easily into Q2 in the Alpines. Nikico Hulenberg also had a problem. Constant unreliability of these new rigs, which was a great shame. They shouldn't have changed anything from last year. Anyway, said that a million times. And those that didn't even get out of Q1. The two Aston Martins, but well, were they there? Uh Sergio Perez and Valtry Botas in the Cadillacs. Estabban Okong who's starting to look a little bit out of breath in the H. And Alex Albon in the Williams Mercedes. Carlos science made it through to Q2 but doesn't look happy in that team that car and no doubt we'll be thinking more about the final of the World Cup than the Belgian Grand Prix I would imagine. Uh and just on that subject at propo other sports sadly Justin Rose did not make the cut in the in the open with his McLaren club.

[00:29:27]Interesting to see a golfer with McLaren logo on his shirt as well. Brett B have got a deal in in golf as well. They don't seem to be doing much with it. In fact, they don't seem to be doing anything with it at all. Anyway, that's another matchup. Anyway, there we are.

[00:29:38]Big thanks to RSC watches, to track Track Ninja, to OEM Exclusive, and of course to Jetcraft. Apologies for the shadow and stuff, but anyway, it's been a bit of a more relaxed time for me. Not quite as hot and sticky in the studio as it would have been, but I will be back there tomorrow, I promise. When we do the live chat for the Belgian Grand Prix, starting about half an hour before the race, the chat starts then going through to the checkered flag. And looking forward to all your questions and comments. looking forward to enjoying the race with you. By which I mean the channel members. So if you haven't [music] joined, please click that join tab below the videos and um yeah, love to have you on board. Okay, big thanks. Take care. See you tomorrow.

[00:30:29][music] >> [music] >> Well, it was a motor race. You can say that. Um, the overtaking very very suspect. Most of it. When I say that, I mean any passes that were going out of the heading of overtakes in a Grand Prix, a lot of it related, as we predicted, as everybody predicted around this circuit called Spar. Uh, a lot of it related just to using the power well, deploying the power well, and one car just being quicker in a straight line suddenly than another. The race resulted in a I've got to say superb win for Kimmyelli because there's always a human element. There's always an athletic element, always a racing driver element to every Grand Prix regardless of the regulations. And Kimmy was just brilliant throughout the day. Made a perfect start from the pole. Max got a good start as well in the Red Bull. Bit of a surprise there, but was a good second in and out of lassource, but then as we now know got some sort of unexpected power surge going down the hill towards her rouge, blasted past Kimmy. Still had to have the commitment to do the pass into Arou. So there was a lot of skill involved there. A lot of commitment as I say and then they get to the Kimmel straight and Kimmy just blasted past. So from that point onwards, Kimmy was basically in charge although although he did come in earlier for TAS as a one-stop race. All the top runners, the exclusion of Lando Norris, who obviously wanted to gain positions, having got his 10 place grid penalty, who started on hards, everybody else of notes, started on the medium and then went to the hard one-stop strategy.

[00:32:09]Kimmy stopped earlier than Sh Clerk and Sh benefited from that because when he came in, it chimed in perfectly with the BSC with a virtual safety car, which elevated Sha to the lead for a while.

[00:32:23]But Kimmy, this is where I think Kimmy drove with great maturity and great forethought. And that was just to drive within the car after everything that had happened at Silverstone and other races, not drive the car any quicker than he needed to in order to win the race at the right pace. And he did that and he did his pass in the end with a nice power deployment move on the straight on the Kimmel straight. and thereafter didn't really thrash the car, didn't pull away, didn't set fastest lap with two laps to go or one lap to go. He just won at the slowest possible speed which is absolutely correct thing to do and got his win and it was a massive win for him in terms of the championship in terms of Mercedes [snorts] because George Russell didn't even finish the first lap. George inherited third place, you'll recall in in qualifying because Lando had that penalty and made a pretty good start, too. Max was outside him. So he let Max go out of lassource and he filtered into third place going into O Rouge. But then coming out of O Rouge, it all went completely wrong for George George Russell in a way that I find I have to confess completely incomprehensible. Uh let me give you a snapshot of what everyone was doing in terms of top speed just before they touched the brakes at the end of the Kimmel straight. So Kimmy Antinelli who's just used the toe from Max and Max going very slowly as well because of that weird power deployment coming out of Lassour not giving him enough on the straight. Kimmy Antinelli is doing 307 not very quick actually. In other words he's just basically come out and done the same speed that he was doing out of O Rouge but Max is going slower. So it was an easy pass for him.

[00:34:05]Max was staffing behind him as I say lacking power 285 ridiculously slow. Then Charlotte Clerk 322 322 km an hour compared with Kimmy Antonelli 307. Now Charlotte Clerk Kimmy was in a toe. Charlotte Clerk for sure in a toe because if anything he was behind Max Lewis Hamilton behind Charl 329 having just passed George Russell who was doing 316. So the Mercedes unbelievably slow on the Kimmel straight on the first lap. Oscar Pastry underlining that 323 in the McLaren also got in front of George. So George came out of Lassource in P3 and by the breaking area going into Lecom he was 1 2 3 4 5 sixth and it all happened on the Kimmel straight. Now that's not motor racing that is I don't know what that is. I mean for sure Ferrari do a very good job somehow with the battery storage on the formation lap and both drivers had a lot of speed on the straight as a result.

[00:35:05]>> [snorts] >> Looks like Mercedes lack a little bit in that area as obviously do Red Bull in terms of where they can deploy the energy and doing it in the most efficient way. But the significant thing about all of that and I've always talked about this going into these regulations is the problem of speed differential on the straight. When I say problem, I usually use the word in the context of potential danger. But of course there's another problem as well which is that and we see this a lot now the cars have these unexpectedly slow or fast straight line bursts as a result of which there's a bottleneck at the next corner particularly if it's all happening on the opening lap. So there's George who's just g been passed by four cars on the straight on the opening lap but he breaks really late and he's up alongside Lewis as they go into Lakecom and what's he going to do? Is he just going to back away and give everybody room? No, of course he's going to stay there. And he and Lewis tangled. And as a result of that, he was out of the race. Massive bonus points for Kimmy Antonelli. And on top of that, it effectively resulted then in a penalty for Lewis Hamilton, who in my view did absolutely nothing wrong on this occasion. There was just a lot of cars, a lot of traffic, all because of the ridiculous speed differentials on the straight. And Lewis basically just held his line, but he got a 5-second penalty. Now, that's another story. We'll go into that now. We might as well. Lewis as at Silverstone was not told by the team that he had that 5-second penalty until just before the pit stop. So quite clear, this has happened two races in a row now, but they haven't told him. So quite clearly it's an instruction from Lewis, I guess, to the team or the team deciding that Lewis can't take it and he needs to focus on the race or something because on the lap on the lap they told him to box. He got straight back on the radio and said, "I thought we were going to consult one another about this. Uh, my tires still feel great. why are we boxing? And of course, they had then had to say, well, you got a 5-second penalty, and we need to be very careful here what we're doing. As as it happened, it coincided also with the VSC. So, in some respects, it mitigated the damage. But the problem for Lewis was that he was stacked behind Charlotte Clerk. And then, in the panic of all of that, Ferrari failed to had to do the 5-second penalty thing. Then they failed to do a flap adjustment that Lewis wanted. And there was also a skirmish as he left with the mechanic who was going to do the wing wing adjustment but didn't have time and and there was a lack of communication and he and he fell over coming out as Lewis left the pits as a result of which the team then got a quite a significant fine some of which was held uh quite a significant fine for an unsafe release. All of that, all of that due to the ridiculous speed differentials caused by these 2026 Formula 1 engines on the opening lap on the Kimmel straight. Now, if there's an explanation, I mean, further down the field, the cars are building up more speed. They're all in a tow. They're all in a pack. Some of them doing 340. Pass was doing 347 or something compared with, and I repeat it, Kimmy Antonelli 307. Not that they were near one another. Of course they weren't. But this the differences in top speeds on that opening lap and indeed on other laps of the race was just absurd.

[00:38:12]Anyway, shortly after all that snapshot on the straight on the first lap, Charlotte Clerk got Max and it looked as if he was going to disappear and Max was going to be vulnerable to well to Oscar Pastry who was going quite well to Lewis Hamilton and it was going to be a struggle race for Red Bull. But then shortly after that, lap six, Max blast past Charl clerk on the straight as if Charles's going backwards. And indeed he was 316 compared to the 322 he'd been doing on the opening lap when he had slightly more fuel on the car.

[00:38:40]You tell me. I mean, it looks like Ferrari do a very good job obviously with the starts, but they do a very good job with the battery storage on the formation lap. Looks like Mercedes don't do a very good job there.

[00:38:52]Or is it that they just don't want to deploy too much energy early in the race till they see what's going on? I mean the races are now starting to be the strategy and the overall feel of the race is being defined by all this deployment business is well confusing is actually putting it nicely I think.

[00:39:12]Anyway, the result of all that was that Charlotte Clerk came out in front because he got his pit stop with the virtual safety car. And as I say, Kimmy chose his moment really even though his tires were a little bit older. His car was always better than a Ferrari.

[00:39:27]Indeed, the Mercedes was the best car around Belgium. And I think you could fairly say without too much doubt that had George had George actually just backed away from the whole thing, let everybody go and be very very careful through calm and kept going, he probably would have been second or third in this Grand Prix, the car was that good. Even if he was starting from 10th at the end of the first lap anyway. Um anyway, Kimmy Kimmy made perfect use of the best racing car and won the Grand Prix and now has a substantial lead in the World Championship. A substantial lead. But guess who's second now as a result of George's retirement? Lewis Hamilton has actually moved up to second place in the World Championship. Good luck to him. I felt very sorry for him today because I think he drove very well. Uh and yet it all went against him. Why they have this business of not telling him about the penalty? This is something that Ferrari need to get on top of. And if it's a Lewis thing, then I suppose they're never going to change it. But if it's not a Lewis thing, why has it happened two races in a row? And on top of that, obviously, there was a lack of communication within the Ferrari garage about doing the wing adjustment, actually doing the 5-second thing or compounding all these different factors going on. Uh probably most teams would would have made some sort of error as well, but it was a big deal and they needed to get on top of that or they do need to get on top of that. So, Sha finished a very good second and Max, I think, driver of the race, probably third in the in the Red Bull. Had no right really to be on the podium in that car. Very very good drive by Max.

[00:40:52]Faultless drive. Lots of things he was complaining about during the race. The obviously going down to the deployment and and that was all over the place.

[00:41:01]Then he had a problem with the downshifts as ever at Red Bull even before the 26 rigs. And then the car wasn't very good on hard tires either.

[00:41:08]Uh which suggests that again it's just lacking in overall aero efficiency. But I think it was interesting that he was able to hold off Oscar Pastri who did have some floor damage as a result of a a coming together with Charl on the opening lap. But a floor damaged McLaren is still going to be a much better car than a Red Bull. But he beat he beat Oscar Pasta. He obviously beat Lewis as well. And it's a fair bet that Max probably would have been second ahead of Charlotte Clerk had shall not benefited from the BSC. And one of the reasons of course that that happened was because Max Max came in because his left front was starting to go off and they couldn't keep him out for too much longer.

[00:41:47]Charlotte Clerk was almost on the point of overtaking Max and at that moment they brought him in and that was obviously as it turned out a little bit too early because had he stayed out a bit longer he could he too could have come in on the BSC. So it wasn't just that Ferrari were lucky. It was the way things went today for Max when he was driving the skin off the car without actually overstressing it if you see what I mean. Just a fabulous drive. But I thought it was quite interesting with with Max because he had made a point of saying after qualifying, you know, I owe this to Isak Hajara and the tow he gave me in sector 3. But I but I did make the point I made the point yesterday that I felt that Max had had looked so good in sector 2 particularly in the way he was using the using the car just what he was doing. his usual thing just absolutely spot on and and I think so it proved because he was that good sector two where all the decent corners are that he was able to actually hold it quite well through sector 3 and actually respond to the team saying look if you can just use the power a little bit less through turn 15 um we'll have more power for the rest of the lap and he was able to do that so as I suspected I think Max was being a little bit bashful yesterday when he put all the glory on Isak did a very good job to give him the give him toe, but nonetheless, it was Max as much as anything else that got that front row grid position yesterday in the Red Bull.

[00:43:07]And I think that's what that was proved in the race today. Bear in mind that Red Bull were not running a smaller rear wing for Spar. As I said on in the first video on Friday, McLaren and Mercedes both brought smaller cord wings for Spar. First time we've seen teams adapting to super fast circuits. They didn't do that in Canada. And I guess they'll have these wings now for for Monza, but Red Bull didn't for a simple reason that they wanted to go back to the old wing after the drama at Silverston with the Ferrari like DRS system. They wanted to go back to the old DRS and that didn't give them an opportunity then to do a smaller version of that original classic wing. So they were running with a relatively large rear wing, which also hurt them in a straight line. But Max was able to to use that, not use that. Max was able to drive around that and still finish on the podium. Uh and Ferrari with the other team of course that didn't have a smaller rear wing which makes it even more confusing when you look at Charlotte Clerk's 322 on the Kimmel straight on the opening lap.

[00:44:08]Lewis Hamilton 329 Kimmy Antinelli with a toe 307. So that is so strange and it's not the only thing that's strange.

[00:44:16]You know, different gears, different places of the lap between two drivers in the same team. still a common theme. And so it goes on. Yeah, Lando Norris. I think it's quite easy to say in retrospect they should have brought Lando in when the safety car when the virtual safety car was deployed because yeah, it would have been a free pit stop in effect, but they didn't because he started, as I say, on the hard tire, which is the logical thing for him to do. And I kind of get that, you know, he's he's he's going to pick up track position obviously with a little bit of uh from the BSC. And anyway, the point was with the stint, he was going to pick up track position and to run the stint as long as possible to make his tires as fresh on the mediums as much as they could. In retrospect, I suspect when they look back at it, it would have been better for him to have brought them in and stacked him behind Oscar, but that was the other downside, of course, stacking him behind Oscar. So, I think it's quite easy to criticize that. But equally, I think McLaren did a pretty good job with that car. I think Oscar to me was the more disappointing of the two because I always imagined him. I think some people would agree with me here.

[00:45:20]He's a sort of Australian Fernando Alonzo in the way he he he drives and his approach to racing. You know, he's just a pure racer. And, you know, show Fernando a little little bit of floor damage or a little bit of front brake duct broken away and he goes quicker. He certainly doesn't go any slower. And yet, the minute they told Oscar that he had that damage, it was like, "Oh, you know, I'll back away from this." And he never really looked threatening after that. Yes, he drove within within the limits of of the car that he had. And yes, of course, his tire de was worse because of the the floor damage, but I don't know, it was just an opportunity for Oscar at least to finish third in that race to beat Max and especially Lewis, who of course had that 5-second penalty and the mayhem of that pit stop.

[00:46:07]As it was, he finished fifth. That's why I say I thought Lewis drove very well.

[00:46:11]Never gave up. Very, very aggressive.

[00:46:14]Not aggressive, but just competitive in everything he was doing today. looked very very good. Uh Oscar fifth, Isak Haj very good six from the back had started on the hard tire came in under the safety car went to the medium and then back to the hard again. So that was quite a good strategy and he did very well and finished sixth ahead of Lander who was seventh and then Gabriel Bautilto who drove really well in the Audi won the midfield battle was and a lot of passing and a lot of aggressive racing there as well but that finished in the order of Baltto in the Audi, Avid Lindlad in the Vcar, the two Alpines of Colinto and Pierre Gazley and then Liam Lawson in the other Var who no doubt will be delighted tonight that a Kiwi has just won the open. Congratulations to Ryan Fox. Good moment mentioned that I think to Kiwis.

[00:46:58]So yeah, that was the Belgian Grand Prix. Next weekend, this is a double header before the August break. Next weekend is the Hungarian Grand Prix.

[00:47:05]From the sublime to the ridiculous. I don't think Hungary is ridiculous, but it's certainly one extreme to the other.

[00:47:11]Uh very very slow circuit relative to Spar. Uh couple of interesting corners.

[00:47:18]And of course, the 2026 power units will look a lot more respectable around Hungary, in terms of Lift and Coast, in terms of all the other things that we talk about endlessly, unfortunately. You know, anyway, you know what I'm talking about. So, there we are. We look forward to the Hungarian Grand Prix. Big thanks to all the members that took part in the live chat today during the race. It was a lot of fun and you made the race quite interesting actually for me. I'm not sure what it would have been like if you're just watching it, you know, as one normally does. So, big thanks to them for that. We'll do the same thing in Hungary. If you haven't joined yet as a member, delighted to have you on board for that. Be a lot of fun. Uh, in the meantime, big thanks to Jetcraft, to OEM exclusive, to Track Ninja, and to RECC Watches. See you soon. I think I'm doing a cam chat tomorrow. Try and do a live stream before Hungary. See you very soon. [music] >> [music]