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Tyres NorthamptonBelgium has not only changed its month but also boasts a different weekend format, with F1 Sprint back for the third time in 2023 and for the first time at Spa. With the longest track on the calendar set for a wet week, the drivers could face the prospect of racing two events in slippery conditions before they enjoy a summer holiday.
Spa-Francorchamps and the Hungaroring, the site of the previous race, represent two entirely different race tracks. While the Hungaroring is slow and twisty with barely any use outside of F1, Spa is a high-speed thrill ride with plenty of room and hosts many racing series throughout the year.
The track's characteristics should see the teams that did well at Silverstone, like McLaren, Mercedes, and even Williams, have strong showings, although expect Red Bull to be in a class of one again. The 2023 Sprint format could see two vastly different starting grids on Saturday and Sunday, with Hungary's qualifying session showing how close the 10 cars are this year. We'll almost certainly see some big names fail to make Q3 in Friday's Qualifying and Saturday's Shootout.
Safety is a talking point for the Belgian track again after the tragic death of another young driver, Dilano van 't Hoff, earlier this month. The teenager was racing in Formula Regional and crashed after the Eau Rouge/Raidillon corner sequence — the same site as Formula 2's Anthoine Hubert's death in 2019. Formula 1 is visiting when the track's safety is under the microscope, and the race director could err on the side of caution over all three days should the rain fall.
It's the C2, C3, and C4 tyres for the 2023 Belgian GP; one stop harder than the rubber available in Hungary that saw a variety of strategies at play. Whether the drivers will get much running on these three slick compounds is another story, though, with unpredictable weather forecasts over all three days.
Pirelli's two wet tyres, the intermediate and full wet, will almost certainly see use as F1 looks set for an incredible seventh consecutive round with rain affecting at least one session. The 100 km Sprint on Saturday means there is just one Free Practice for a team to hone a car's setup, so all 20 drivers will take the 7.004 km circuit come rain or shine on Friday's solitary hour of non-competitive running.
In case you missed the news, Red Bull Racing became F1's record holder for consecutive wins after taking their 12th victory in 12 attempts in Hungary. Max Verstappen won by over half a minute last time out, and there's little to suggest that anything will stop him in Belgium. He's won the previous two Belgian GP and is on his own seven-race winning streak.
Of course, rain is the great equaliser in F1, and if the heavens do open, a simple, otherwise inconsequential mistake could prove the difference between winning it and binning it. Verstappen seldom makes errors, but even the two-time champion is human, and there's no shortage of drivers lining up to take advantage of any slip-up.
Lando Norris is the man who has taken P2 in the last two rounds, and there's every chance McLaren will again be the second-best team in Belgium. Lewis Hamilton is also in some decent form, having scored his first pole since 2021 last Saturday and has scored three podiums in five races. Hamilton's wet-weather prowess is well known, and he'll undoubtedly be up there challenging for silverware if the expected rain does fall.
It's back to three days of competitive running with Sprint back in action. The Grand Prix itself starts at 2 PM on Sunday, but the Qualifying session for the race comes on Friday at 4 PM. Sprint is Saturday's entertainment at 3:30 PM.
Qualifying – On air: 3:30 PM, Session start: 4 PM Friday 28th July
Sprint Shootout - Oh air: 10:30 AM, Session start 11 AM Saturday 29th July
Sprint - Oh air: 2:30 PM, Session start 3:30 PM Saturday 29th July
Race – On air: 12:30 PM, Session start: 2 PM Sunday 30th July
Qualifying, Sprint, Shootout – Highlights 7:45 PM Saturday 29th July
Race – Highlights 6:30 PM Sunday 30th July
Qualifying/Sprint/Race – Depending on your forecast provider, the weather could be anywhere between 'possible showers' to 'all-day rain'. As so often is the case at Spa-Francorchamps, there's every chance we could see all four seasons in a day every day this weekend. Temperatures, however, are mild, with a high of just 19C, and Sunday is likely to sit in the mid-teens most of the day.
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