The FIA received stinging criticism from all quarters of the F1 paddock and from the fans alike for their handling of the race start at the 2025 Formula One Belgium Grand Prix. Despite there being no rain falling come the scheduled off, the FIA’s race control directed the cars to commence the formation lap behind the safety car then issued the red flag and instructions for the drivers to return to the pits in the order they were due to start.
On everyone’s radar was a heavy weather cell heading towards the circuit deep in the Ardennes Forrest, and so this particular decision by the FIA officials was not completely unreasonable in the circumstances.
Even so there were drivers who criticised the delay, including world champion Max Verstappen. “It was not even raining,” he said in the post race media pen stating had the decision been his, the race would have started promptly.
Verstappen dismisses ‘cautious’ FIA
“Of course between turns 1 and 5 there was quite a bit of water, but if you do two or three laps behind the safety car, then it would have been a lot more clear, and the rest of the track was anyway ready to go,” said the world champion.
Verstappen was irritated that the 80 minute delay before a rolling start was sanctioned by the race director, suggesting the policy going forward cold be just to race only in the dry on slicks. “This is not really wet-weather racing for me.”
The reason given by the FIA for the lengthy delay, was the poor visibility a number of the drivers experienced on the formation lap, something Verstappen dismissed in an instant. “It would only be for a few laps, and the more you run, it will be much better. And if you can’t see, you can always lift.”
What made matters worse was the fact is behind the safety car, the drivers must stay line astern where the spray is at its worst. Once the race started cars were moving across the long Kemmel straight to find a clear view ahead, so the response from the drivers during the safety car formation lap was not representative of how it would be when racing.
Race control interfered with setup decisions
Yet it was the inordinate delay of almost an hour and a half where the FIA was savaged for its dithering and the result was being after finally going racing, only a handful of laps were complete before dry weather tyres were required.
Whilst the FIA officials obsessed over safety a number of teams had set up their cars for the predicted conditions. High downforce was the way to go for the likes of Red Bull and others, with a view to reducing the wear on the intermediate tyre. In the dry these tyres were destroyed in just a few laps, as the drivers all rushed to fit dry weather tyres as the sun beamed down on the track.
The extra downforce was punitive in the dry, for those who had predicted the weather correctly. “It was a choice that we made with the set-up of the car. It was then the wrong one because they didn’t allow us to race in the wet,” Verstappen said. “Once we got to the dry tyres, we were just too slow on the straight, and then with the general balance problems that I already have with this car, it made everything just a bit worse.
“You make all the decisions based on wet racing, so then also it just ruins your whole race a bit. It just ruined a nice classic wet race as well,” concluded the Red Bull driver who is now confirmed to remain with the team in 2026.
Hadjar exposes Hamilton’s true nature
Carlos Sainz reveals FIA pre-race warning
Yet should the teams have seen this coming, given the debrief which took place after the British Grand Prix three weeks earlier? Lewis Hamilton revealed after the race that the subject of wet weather was covered extensively in the driver briefing which takes place on Thursday evenings. Some believed the wet race in Silverstone should have been delayed a little longer, given the number of incidents across the opening laps in Northamptonshire.
“I think they were probably overreacting from the last race where we asked them not to restart the race too early because visibility was bad, and I think this weekend they just went a bit too much the other way because we didn’t need a rolling start,” explained the seven ties world champion.
But Carlos Sainz now reveals ahead of the Hungarian GP weekend that there were specific indications the FIA would act this way should the wet weather arrive as expected. Given previous tragedies at the circuit in the Ardennes region, the Spaniard now says: “I think Spa is a very particular case where there’s been a very dark past at this track, and the FIA consciously took a very conservative approach, and they warned us on Thursday that they would take a very conservative approach.
“Maybe we [as drivers] should have done a better job in communicating that [to our teams], or they should have communicated to the fans, to the world, we’re going to play it very easy because of its dark past, and this is what happened in the past and why we’re going to play it safe on Sunday. Just for everyone, maybe to have a bit more awareness.”
“But yeah, I do think we could have, obviously, raced a bit earlier than what we did, and got going a bit earlier after the red flag, and the safety car could have lasted a bit less,” added Sainz.
F1 should “innovate” for rain says Sainz
As the FIA has taken an ever increasing conservative view on racing in the wet, Sainz believes the sport which is at the cutting edge of technologies should be able to find a solution to the poor visibility. “I always thought Formula 1 should almost like, if possible, innovate and try something different,” says Sainz. ”And I think there’s certain kind of tarmacs that if you would put them [the cars] on a straight line, there would be no spray, and they exist. But most circuits don’t have it. In the end, the biggest problem for us is visibility, it’s what keeps us from racing.
The FIA trialed spray guards which could be fitted temporarily in wet conditions to the F1 cars, but abandoned the project when it failed to improve visibility. Racing in the wet is a ‘no no’ for other motorsports series, like NASCAR and IndyCar at the oval circuits which are famous for their lack of grip even in the dry.
Fans love wet races which often throw up surprising results for drivers in more lowly race cars, as happened to Nico Hulkenberg when he broke his podium duck this year at Silverstone. Further, certain drivers excel in these conditions, carving their way through the field when out of position at the start.
This was evident in what has been hailed as Verstappen’s ‘greatest ever drive’ last time out in Brazil, when he started P17 but went on to win the race by a margin of more than 20 seconds. Yet if the 2025 Belgium Grand Prix now sets the precedent for race control deciding on when its traceable, these days will be gone forever as F1 races only in the dry.
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