The Friday in F1 Belgian GP started off with Max Verstappen’s strong run, but McLaren took over by the end of it as the two continue to battle.
The weather remained dry on Friday of F1 Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps, which helped the teams gather as much data in clear conditions even though it was cloudy. It is expected rain in qualifying, which now teams will have to adapt to as it happens.
What started as a sound day for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen with a commanding lead in FP1, he dropped to third behind the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The Dutchman was trying different things considering he will have a 10-place penalty.
Red Bull did drop the wing levels which lowered its outright domination chances, in order to help in coming through the field. His teammate Sergio Perez did not enjoy the day due to balance struggles, whether understeer or oversteer.
On McLaren’s side, Norris reckoned the team did all but he wasn’t feeling 100% still unlike teammate Piastri, who felt strong. Even though the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz stitched a good time, they both were not overly happy with the car.
They know they are behind Red Bull and McLaren, but the larger picture is understanding the car. Even Mercedes pair felt a bit behind on the straights as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell suggested, with the two F1 teams mostly to fight outside the Top 3.
After recent success, Hamilton for the first time felt on the slower side on Friday. As for Aston Martin, they hovered around the fag end of the Top 10, as they still are in the understanding the updates they have brought to its car.
Verstappen: “We tried quite a few things because it’s typically Spa where you have sector one and sector three where you want the top speed but it’s still a very long middle sector where you want cornering speed and it’s still very tricky to find the right balance. So, we are trying a few things to see what is better and we’ll look at it of course now in the data and analyse. We started out quite positive today, second practice was perhaps not quite as good. We have a few things to look at, you know, with all the changes we made as well and hopefully we can put it all together for the race especially as I know at the moment I have to start a bit back with my penalty for the engine and try to optimise it. Naturally you always want a good qualifying but the most important is the race so that’s what we’ll focus on.”
Norris: “Good. Still tough, still close. Red Bull are very quick at the minute. It’s tricky… I’ve just not felt very comfortable today with the car. I hope I just wake up tomorrow and feel a bit more comfortable with it! But we’ll try and improve a few things and see again. I know it looked good on the timesheets, but I’ve not felt super comfortable in just going out and doing it, so hopefully I can just get in a bit more of a rhythm and feel a bit better out there. We’ve prepared well. We’ve got a good set-up on the car and it’s working, but just from my side, and just feeling like I can just go out and nail it, I’m not quite there just yet. Just with downforce questions… Of course, generally for the rain you want to edge towards the higher downforce, and I think that’s maybe the direction to go in any way. But I don’t know just yet, so I’ll sit down with my guys and we’ll talk about it.”
Hamilton: “It was a pretty bad day. I don’t know what to say! Obviously it’s been feeling great in the past couple of races, it just felt completely different today. We worked on it, the first session was not great, but then in the second session we made some changes. It started off great, and then when I got to the soft tyre I just couldn’t improve, and there’s a bunch of balance issues we have through that. It was better in the session, but everyone else went even better, so to be 1.2 seconds behind is not great. Rain will be fantastic! Because if it’s dry then we’re not going to – at the moment – be in the greatest of places, but overnight we can make some changes for sure. I think if it rains then that opens it up a little bit and hopefully we can do a better job, and I think the car should be better in the wet than it is in the dry.”
Leclerc: “A very difficult day to understand, to be honest. A lot of difference of pace in different conditions and different tyres as well, so everybody was on a different plan. It’s been quite a few years now that it’s difficult to understand the picture on the Friday with those generation of cars, but today is even more so difficult. We’ve got to focus on ourselves, try to find the right compromise between tomorrow which will be probably wet and Sunday when it will be dry, but we are on it. We still have quite a lot of meetings to go through and hopefully we find the best compromise for tomorrow and Sunday. Unfortunately we are just struggling compared to McLaren especially, it’s a little bit everywhere. We don’t have any magical solution for tomorrow, but we’ll give our best. It’s the last race before the holidays, so I hope we can finish on a high.”
Alonso: “We got a lot of laps in today so we’ll analyse the data tonight and see what we can learn. Rain is possible tomorrow for Qualifying so we’ll have to be sharp with the decisions we make if we do get changeable conditions. We’ll work hard tonight to work out the best car setup for what lies ahead this weekend.”
The Top 10 saw Alpine’s Esteban Ocon make it in along with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Williams’ Alexander Albon, with the former two in FP2 and the latter in FP2. The Frenchman did not run in FP1 due to issue, but overcame difficulties to put in a good lap in FP2.
Teammate Pierre Gasly put in a goodish lap for Q2 as well. For Haas, Nico Hulkenberg did not enjoy as much and despite a Top 10 run, Magnussen feels they need to do more. For Albon, he was confused with the drop in pace in FP2 after a good FP1 outing.
The likes of Logan Sargeant and Stake F1 Team’s Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were so-so, with the Chinese driver needing to do more against teammate who is running the updates. Even Visa Cash App RB’s Daniel Ricciardo felt the need for more, while Yuki Tsunoda mostly spent time to improve race pace amid back of the grid start.
Ocon: “It is a pleasure to be back at Spa-Francorchamps and driving at this awesome circuit. This morning, unfortunately, we had a water leak on my car, which ended my session early while the team fixed the issue. In Free Practice 2 this afternoon, we were able to run to our programme and get some much-needed laps in. Our low fuel runs looked encouraging but it looks like our long runs need some work, especially on tyre management. We managed to gain plenty of information across both cars today and now it will be important to run through that see what works and what does not and make the necessary changes ahead of tomorrow.”
Ricciardo: “It was nice to drive here today in dry conditions; they resurfaced part of the track, and a lot of corners have more grip which feels good. Today was a proper test day for us, we tried a lot of things, and I was happier in FP2 compared to this morning. We still need to find a few more tenths for tomorrow but it may rain, and if quali is the only wet session, we won’t have much time to figure it out and find the grip. This will be a challenge for all of us. Sunday looks dry though, so at least we are comfortable, given what we learned today.”
Albon: “The car felt fine today; FP1 was really strong but not as representative of our actual pace. FP2, we reversed in the time sheets, but I think we’re somewhere in between. We had a good stint on the Mediums, then we put the Softs on and had a lot of traffic and messy running around us, but I don’t think we’re in a bad position despite some areas we need to improve. Looking to tomorrow, I think with some setup and tyre work we’ll be in the fight for Q3 but let’s see.”
Hulkenberg: “It was a tricky Friday in some ways, I didn’t feel the happiest in the car so we need to analyze the data overnight and find a bit more of a sweet spot and harmony between balance and performance. We learned some things today though so it’s all about putting it together tomorrow and putting the best package together. The weather in qualifying could be quite a bit different to Sunday so we’ll need to take a decision on set-up and downforce, it’s going to be interesting.”
Bottas: “Today has been a productive day of learning – this track never disappoints. We got to further test and understand the new parts introduced in Budapest, although Spa is obviously very different, while trying different configurations to get a clear picture of what we will need from our car for Sunday. While we enjoyed two dry sessions today, the question mark remains on tomorrow’s forecast – there’s some rain expected, which wouldn’t be unusual for Spa. In any case, we got a decent number of long runs under our belt today, gathering useful data for us to work on overnight. Sunday remains our top priority, and the sun is supposed to be out again by then – so we will need to set the car up accordingly.”
McLaren with new driver Dries Van Langendonck (as per press release) –
McLaren Racing today announced that 2023 World Junior Karting Champion Dries Van Langendonck has joined the McLaren Driver Development programme. The 13-year-old from Heusden-Zolder, Belgium is a promising young racer with multiple karting accolades to his name, including the 2023 WSK Final Cup. He recently finished second in the 2024 Super Masters Series with two podiums and a victory from four races.
Dries has impressed in the OK-Junior category of the 2024 FIA Karting European Championship, securing victories on two occasions at Valencia and Slovakia Ring as well as a second-placed finish at Val d’Argenton in France. He saw the chequered flag at Round 4 of the Champions of the Future in Sweden and is currently leading the COTF Championship.
Led by F1 Business Operations Director, Stephanie Carlin, the McLaren Driver Development programme will see Dries join the team’s talent pipeline at the first step where he will receive support in his development from karting to professional racing driver.
Stephanie Carlin, Director, F1 Business Operations, said: “I’m pleased to welcome Dries to the McLaren Driver Development programme. He has shown huge potential during his karting career and impressed massively in this season’s FIA Karting European Championship. We will now be working closely throughout Dries’ development as he takes the first step in our talent pipeline and joins the McLaren family.”
Dries Van Langendonck, Driver, McLaren Driver Development, said: “It feels amazing to join the McLaren Driver Development programme. I have been working hard on track to maximise my performances this year and McLaren will now provide great support to take me to the next level. It’s an honour to be part of the Papaya family and I’m focused on continuing my development under the guidance of Stephanie and the McLaren Driver Development team.”
Here’s how FP1 of F1 Belgian GP panned out
Here’s how FP2 of F1 Belgian GP panned out
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