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The second half of the 2025
season gets underway at one of the truly classic circuits, as
Spa-Francorchamps hosts the Belgian Grand Prix from 25 to 27 July.
After the races in Shanghai and Miami, this will be the third weekend of the
year run to the Sprint format: just one free practice session on Friday,
after which it’s Sprint Qualifying, with the Sprint race itself run over 15
laps on Saturday, following by qualifying. The usual 44 laps of the Belgian
Grand Prix proper take place on Sunday. It’s the second time this circuit
has hosted a Sprint, following on from the one in 2023.
The compounds
For this event, Pirelli has chosen three dry weather compounds that are not
consecutive: the Hard is the hardest in the 2025 range, the C1, but then
there’s a jump to the Medium (C3) and the Soft (C4). That has not happened
since the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, when the trio consisted of the C2 as
Hard, the C3 as Medium and the C5 as Soft.
The new compound here is
the Hard, as the Medium (C3) and Soft (C4) are the same as last year.
According to the simulations, this trio should make a two-stop strategy even
more competitive in Sunday’s race, while adding a greater degree of
uncertainty to tyre management over the course of the weekend, especially as
it is a Sprint event, with just one hour of free practice and a different
dry tyre allocation. With this format, the regulations stipulate one fewer
set of tyres than on a normal weekend: each driver has 12 sets, six of Soft,
four of Medium and two of Hard. Furthermore, the Medium is the only tyre
permitted for the first two parts of Sprint Qualifying and the Soft must be
used in the third.
The circuit nestles in the forest of the Ardennes
hills and is famous for its changeable weather, even from one part of the
track to another and even in the height of summer. Therefore, it’s not out
of the question that both types of wet weather tyre, the Intermediate and
Extreme Wet, could come into play over the weekend.
In 2024
The vast majority of drivers lined up on the grid on the Medium. The
exceptions were Sainz and Zhou who went for the Hard and Ricciardo who opted
for the Soft.
The two-stop proved to be the preferred choice with the
Hard compound working best in terms of degradation and performance. Of the
19 drivers who finished the race, Zhou being the only retirement, just five
of them, Russell, Alonso, Stroll, Magnussen and Tsunoda, who took the
chequered flag in that order, pitted only the once to switch from Medium to
Hard. Russell won and Alonso finished ninth, the only two of this group to
score points. However, following post-race FIA scrutineering, Russell was
disqualified as his car was under the minimum regulation weight, which
handed the win to team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who had gone for a
Medium-Hard-Hard strategy.
The track
Spa-Francorchamps is fourth on the list of circuits that have hosted the
most rounds of the world championship, including in the first season, 75
years ago. It is one of the most spectacular tracks, very popular with teams
and drivers because of its technical complexity and the challenges it
presents. It is the longest track on the calendar, exceeding the seven
kilometre mark by four metres. Its three sectors have very different
characteristics: the first is the quickest and includes what are probably
the most famous corners, Eau-Rouge and Raidillon, after which comes a long
straight and the braking area at the end of it has been the scene for some
epic overtaking moves; the second is more twisty, featuring a mix of
medium-speed corners, several of them downhill; the third is more flowing
with a slight but nevertheless noticeable incline. Finding a competitive
set-up for all three sectors is quite a task and it is often the case that
cars are fast in one sector and slow in another.
Prior to last year’s
Grand Prix, much of the track was resurfaced with the aim of increasing grip
and smoothing out some bumps. This led to a much lower level of abrasiveness
and with more grip available, lap times were significantly quicker.
Keyword:
TWI (Tread Wear Indicator)
TWI is the acronym for Tread Wear Indicator. Just like road tyres, Formula 1
slicks have a physical indication to measure tread wear. On their surface
are six small cylindrical holes spread across the width of the tyre, with
varying depths depending on their position. They are numbered from one to
six, the first one located on the inner edge of the tyre. At the end of
every session, the surface where these TWIs are located is scraped using a
special tool to remove debris and reveal the holes. The Pirelli engineers
then insert a depth gauge in each one on all four tyres and measure how much
the tread has worn. This data is then compared and a percentage wear scale
can be created from it, for all tyres from all cars, starting obviously from
zero in the case of a brand-new tyre. The teams are provided with data from
their cars along with recommendations for tyre use over long distances.
Statistics corner
This weekend’s race is the 70th edition of the Belgian Grand Prix to count
for the World Championship, the 57th to be held at Spa-Francorchamps.
Nivelles has hosted the race twice and Zolder ten times.
The most
successful driver at Spa-Francorchamps is Michael Schumacher with six wins
to his name. The German made his Formula 1 debut at this track in 1991,
taking the first of his 91 wins one year later and Spa was also where he
clinched his seventh and last world title in 2004. Lewis Hamilton leads the
way when it comes to pole positions with 6 and podium places (11). Of the
teams, Ferrari tops the tables for wins (18), pole positions (17) and podium
places (51).
It’s the third round of the season run to the Sprint
format, a discipline in which Max Verstappen is the undoubted master. Of the
20 Sprint races run to date, the four time world champion has won 11 of them
and finished on the podium a further five times. A total of seven drivers
have won at least one Sprint: two wins apiece for Valtteri Bottas, Oscar
Piastri and Lando Norris and one each for George Russell, Sergio Perez and
Lewis Hamilton. 19 drivers have scored points in the short format, a table
headed naturally enough by Verstappen on 117 points. |
