F1 - Belgian GP

F1 was finally back after a long break with the Belgian GP at Spa! A sprint weekend and rainy conditions would hopefully make for an interesting weekend right...?

Performances

McLaren - Good win from Oscar. He basically completely nailed the restart after the Safety Car and the overtake on Lando essentially won him the race. Also good tyre management from him to make the mediums last the full distance while holding onto the lead! Lando had an interesting strategy this weekend and it maybe could have worked but he made too many small mistakes that lost him a lot of time! This race was essentially a summary of the two driver's seasons so far: Oscar cool under pressure while Lando was quick but too error-prone.

Ferrari - Great podium from Charles! 4 podiums in the last 6 races in that car is really good. Lewis had a very bad qualifying but he had great pace during the race and was one of the only people to make overtakes during it! But at the end of the day a P7 is still nothing too impressive for where he should be.

Red Bull - Max did very well to win the Sprint but sadly that pace was gone in the main race. I think it just shows how difficult it is to overtake here these days (honestly I was surprised he stayed behind Charles the whole race). It looks like he's chosen to stay at Red Bull for 2026 so hopefully for his sake they give him a better car! Yuki had much better quali pace but ultimately didn't score points so still a failure of a weekend.

Mercedes - Pace is completely gone on the car. Good P5 from George honestly but another pretty awful weekend for Kimi after a terrible qualifying and only P16 in the race. It seemed the pressure from the whole Max thing and just being a rookie at such a big team is getting to him a bit so hopefully he can get some confidence back soon.

Williams - finally scoring points again! Fantastic P6 from Albon after a great qualifying. Carlos once again no points and P18. He's really being shown up by Albon this season! It makes sense because he is in a new team and all and he's had bad luck but I can't lie I thought he would be doing way better than this at the moment. Like P16 in the championship compared to Albon's P8 is quite bad.

Racing Bulls - good qualifying again and Lawson was able to turn it into some points with another solid performance. Isack seemingly had no pace this race and finished last (sidenote but this is maybe his weakness as a driver? Haven't really seen him perform in wet conditions yet)

Sauber - Bortoleto managed to pick up some points but sadly Nico couldn't make the one stop work and fell out of the points. But honestly any points in that close midfield fight for P6 in the constructor's is needed.

Alpine - Gasly cooked again to get a point in P10! Honestly give him a good car please and he'll shine! But yeah this car is horrendously bad now. Genuinely worst on the grid. (they have the most points ever for a team in last place which shows how close Formula 1 is these days!) Another anonymous weekend from Franco.

Haas - they honestly had the pace for points as shown in the Sprint but their strategy was a bit weird pitting twice and they couldn't get points in the main race. A real shame as their Sprint pace was really good!

Aston Martin - terrible pace and terrible weekend for both drivers.

Race rating - 3/10 - honestly this race was quite dull. Not a lot of overtaking or even close racing. And we didn't even get to race in the wet conditions which would have made things interesting, no we had to wait for 1 and a half hours just for some safety car laps and the track dried out so quickly!!!! And these regulations combined with the fact that Spa hasn't been good for overtaking in F1 for a while now means that the race, like the Sprint, was really not good. A shame though as Spa is always good in other types of motorsport just not F1 recently.

Team radio of the race - couldn't find a picture but Charles doing a Raikkonen and telling his engineer to 'leave me alone please' was pretty funny

Driver of the race - only one real option for me here. Oscar Piastri for doing the business on lap one and getting the overtake done and for making his mediums last until the end of the race! Big win for him!

News

Obviously there was big news before the race as Red Bull fired Christian Horner. This means that this weekend was the first weekend since the team started 20 years ago that he would not be in charge! My thoughts on the decision: I think it was coming anyway at the end of the season no matter what happened so they might as well give Laurent Mekies (the new team principal promoted from Racing Bulls) half a season to learn and embed himself in the team properly. And with the new engines from Ford next season it'll be a real new era for Red Bull. And it looks like Max is staying for 2026 now anyway so... good decision. (Not to mention all the off the track issues with Horner!)

Next weekend - the most underrated track in F1 (imo), the beautiful Hungaroring Circuit in Hungary. F1 has been here since 1986 and the twisty and bumpy track makes overtaking a challenge and often it's called 'Monaco without the barriers'. Races are often very hot as the race in held in the middle of Hungary's summer so tyre management alongside the car's chassis will be tested. (Also Lewis has won here 8 times so... how can I not love it?) Some great races from the past include: 1989 (Mansell wins from 12th at a track notorious to overtake on), 1997 (Hill almost winning in an Arrows but breaking down on the last lap), 2006 (Button's first win in wet conditions and De La Rosa's only podium), 2014 (Ricciardo winning in a nailbiter after Alonso's masterclass), 2021 (Ocon's first win after the lap 1 chaos and Lewis lining up on his own on the grid!)