Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Belgium

  • F3 – RND 9 Day 2 & 3

    Day 2-

    It was an all-PREMA front row with Beganovic on pole, though it was teammate Mini who made the better start to take the lead into Turn 1.

    Just behind them, Tim Tramnitz had gotten ahead of Santiago Ramos for P3, while Arvid Lindblad made a fast start from P27 and was already up to 16th by the end of Lap 1.

    But a Safety Car was required with Jenzer Motorsport’s Max Esterson having slowly spun into the barrier at Eau Rouge. The American driver was okay, and the field were back racing at the end of Lap 3.

    The battles were well and truly on as Beganovic got ahead of Mini at the end of the Kemmel Straight just after the restart, while Leon took back the P5 spot he had lost to Luke Browning.

    Lap 5 and Tramnitz was coming under pressure from Ramos and Leon and while he was able to hold on to P3, Browning was struggling and lost sixth position to Sebastian Montoya having ran wide at Turn 4.

    The top six from Beganovic to Montoya were covered by just two and a half seconds as they started lap 9 of 12, with Mini told by his race engineer to keep the pressure on his teammate.

    But making the moves was Leon as he got ahead of Ramos for P4 at the end of the Kemmel Straight, with Lindblad now up to 12th after getting past Rodin Motorsport’s Joseph Loake.

    DRS had now been made available, as Mini came under pressure from Tramnitz for second. He was able to hold off the MP driver but as they squabbled, it meant Beganovic was able to pull out a one second gap.

    As they started the penultimate lap of the race, Mini had closed back in on Beganovic while Tramnitz had fallen into the clutches of Leon.
    This was playing into the hands of Meguetounif, Browning and Leonardo Fornaroli in seventh, eighth and ninth place, as they close up to the top six.

    The final lap started, with Beganovic and Mini having pulled out a two second gap to the rest of the field. But in the battle for the final podium place Leon got ahead of Tramnitz at the Kemmel Straight.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Beganovic, P2: Mini, P3: Leon, P4: Tramnitz, P5: Ramos, P6: Browning P7: Montoya, P8: Fornaroli, P9: Goethe and P10: Voisin.

    Day 3-

    It was a great start from pole-sitter Voisin as he kept hold of the lead, but the big gainer was Montoya as he was up to second from fourth.

    Front row starter Alexander Dunne had a slow start and dropped to fourth while Fornaroli maintained third place.

    But behind them, there was a huge moment in the title race as Gabriele Mini fell to the back of the field following a collision with Oliver Goethe. The contact left the PREMA Racing driver turned around at the back of the field, while the Campos was forced to pit with a puncture.

    As they started lap 2, Voisin locked up heading into Turn 1, with both Montoya and Fornaroli right on the back of his Rodin car. He was able to keep the position, but Noel Leon could not do the same, losing P5 to Sami Meguetounif down the Kemmel Straight.

    The Safety Car was then required on Lap 3 when Martinius Stenshorne spun at Stavelot. ART Grand Pric debutant Tuukka Taponen was having his own separate incident coming into the corner as he collided with Joshua Dufek before spinning into the side of the Hitech.

    We were back racing on Lap 7 and Voisin had a great restart ahead of Montoya and Fornaroli, while Meguetounif’s charge continued as he overtook Dunne for fourth down the Kemmel Straight.
    But another Safety Car was soon deployed after Sophia Floersch and Joseph Loake collided and spun off at Turn 9.

    The race restarted on Lap 10 of 15 and once again Voisin had a good start, but Dunne was struggling once more, dropping from P5 to P10.

    A third Safety Car was needed after Christian Mansell hit the rear of Arvid Lindblad, sending the PREMA Racing driver into the gravel at Turn 9.

    At the same time, Charlie Wurz touched the rear right tyre of Mari Boya, giving the Campos Racing driver a puncture, before he went into the barrier at Turn 11. The Austrian was then forced to come into the pit lane to replace a damaged front wing.

    Voisin led the pack away on Lap 14 as we returned to green flag conditions, with Montoya and Fornaroli staying behind him. However, Leon dived down the inside of Meguetounif into Turn 7 to take back P4.

    Onto the final lap and Voisin had built up a lead of nearly one second as he crossed the line to take the victory, with Montoya in second, while Fornaroli finished third to take the lead of the Drivers’ Championship.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Voisin, P2: Montoya, P3: Fornaroli, P4: Leon, P5: Meguetounif, P6: Browning, P7: Esterson, P8: Ramos, P9: Tramnitz and P10: Dunne.

    Even without scoring, the result means PREMA Racing take an unassailable lead into the final round in Monza, making them the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Team Champions.

  • RW 14 – Belgium

    Lewis Hamilton has won the Belgian Grand Prix after team mate George Russell, who had originally come home in first, was disqualified following the race for an underweight car.

    The Mercedes duo had engaged in a thrilling late chase, with two-stopper Hamilton charging down his one-stopping team mate, but he was unable to pass on track for the victory, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finishing third.

    However, following the conclusion of the Grand Prix, a technical delegate’s report stated that Russell’s car had been found to be underweight, with the matter referred to the stewards.
    The Brit was subsequently disqualified from the results with Mercedes acknowledging a “genuine error” by the team.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Hamilton, P2: Piastri, P3: Leclerc, P4: Verstappen, P5: Norris, P6: Sainz, P7: Perez, P8: Alonso, P9: Ocon and P10: Ricciardo.

    Obviously gutting for George Russell, he did a wonderful drive and made a very good call for the one-stop. But sometimes this is racing… So Lewis now inherits the win, which he did somewhat deserve, he led quite a bit of the race, it makes the Brit the second driver to win two races so far this season!

    A very good race for Piastri, he stuck with the Mercedes duo quite a bit during the race. He did overshoot his pitbox, which meant he lost a couple of seconds doing so, so it makes you think, what if he didn’t would the Australian be celebrating his second win?

    And Leclerc, a very good race for him, unlucky for the Monegasque not to get the win, but he and the team should be very happy with the 3rd place. Sainz, didn’t have the best race he finished 6th but he seemed like he lost time if anything as Leclerc had pace?

    An okay race for Verstappen, again he didn’t really make any massive steps forward apart from the start where he climbed a couple of places. The same also goes for his teammate, he finished P7 after starting P2, this isn’t good for the Mexican as he really needed to be on the podium this race to prove he should be in the Red Bull, so time will only tell what happens next…

    A decent race for Alonso, back in the points again, which is probably is exactly what the Spanish driver would want going into the summer break.

    Now, we have a bit of a wait for the next race, as it is the summer break which means we are not racing for quite a few weeks. But we are back on the 23rd to 25th August for Round 15 of 24 which is the Dutch Grand Prix.

  • F2 – RND 10 Day 1

    Practice-

    Isack Hadjar started the Spa-Francorchamps weekend on the front foot for Campos Racing, narrowly heading up ART Grand Prix driver Victor Martins with a 1:58.730, just 0.010s quicker than his compatriot.
    PREMA Racing driver, Andrea Kimi Antonelli was able to improve to third late on in the practice session to complete the top three.

    There was no rush to get time on the board but once the first laps of the session were completed, Juan Manuel Correa led the way for DAMS Lucas Oil on a 2:02.634.

    A red flag arrived with just over 23 minutes to go as Rafael Villagomez hit the barrier out of Turn 9. He was ok but the Van Amersfoort Racing needed clearing up before the session was resumed.

    Practice got back underway with 14 minutes left, and this time there was a rush to get some running in compared to earlier in the session.
    Martins took over at the top for ART Grand Prix as the clock ticked into the final 10 minutes, setting a 2:00.773.

    The track continued to improve lap after lap and Dennis Hauger became the first driver below the two-minute mark with a 1:59.682 on his next effort.

    Martins restored himself at the top until Hadjar secured P1 for Campos Racing with a 1:58.761 to lead by 0.026s.
    The French duo could hardly be separated once again on their final laps, but it was Hadjar who recorded the fastest time of the session.

    Qualifying-

    It was Paul Aron that claimed an important pole position for Hitech Pulse-Eight around Spa-Francorchamps, his 1:56.959 putting him on top ahead of his title rivals.

    Gabriel Bortoleto was closest to the Estonian, 0.168s back in P2 while Championship leader Isack Hadjar wound up third on the grid, 0.2s down on his nearest rival.

    Before anyone could record a timed lap, there was a Red Flag as the ART Grand Prix car belonging to Victor Martins slowed to a half at the start of sector three.

    The session resumed with 24 minutes on the clock, and when the first time filtered through, Hadjar set the pace with a 1:57.803 just 0.102s ahead of title rival Aron in P2.

    Kush Maini and Franco Colapinto were one of the few that opted to put a second lap in on their first set of Soft tyres and the pair improved to fifth and sixth respectively.

    Drivers then returned to the track with 10 minutes left of the session on a fresh set of tyres for their next attempts and there were improvements everywhere.

    Aron improved his time to take provisional pole with three minutes to go on a 1:56.959. Hadjar couldn’t beat that and went second until Bortoleto went quicker still.

    The full top 10 are- Pole: Aron, P2: Bortoleto, P3: Hadjar, P4: Crawford, P5: Antonelli, P6: Maloney, P7: Colapinto, P8: Verschoor, P9: Hauger and P10: O’Sullivan who will be starting on reverse grid pole for Sprint Race.

  • RW 14 – Tyre Selection

    The last Grand Prix before the summer break takes place at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the most awe-inspiring race tracks in the world.

    Eau Rouge, Raidilon, La Source, Kemmel, Stavelot and Malmedy are just some of the names that have made the venue for the Belgian Grand Prix famous around the world.

    There’s been racing in the Ardennes for over a century with the first race, for motorcycles, taking place in 1921. The first Belgian Grand Prix was held the following year on a road circuit making use of three sides of a triangle which joined the towns of Spa-Francorchamps, Malmedy and Stavelot.

    Pirelli has already been able to assess the new asphalt, a month ago during the 24 Hours of Spa, the classic GTWC race for which the Italian company is the sole tyre supplier.

    For this, the 14th round of the season, Pirelli has chosen the same trio of compounds as used for the last two years, C2 (Hard), C3 (Medium) and C4 (Soft).

    In terms of stress on the tyres, it is one of the tracks with the highest average levels, even if it does not reach the peaks seen at Silverstone and Suzuka.

    The track features all corner types, linked by very fast sections, which makes it difficult for the teams to identify the ideal aerodynamic compromise.
    In fact, it is not unusual to see cars that are very strong in the fastest first and third sectors, struggling in the second slower one or vice versa.

    If there is a single venue on the motor racing calendar, not just F1, where variable weather can play a role, it is this one.
    not only can conditions change from one day to the next, but also grip levels can be dramatically different at various points on the track at the same time.
    Furthermore, because it is such a long lap, the slightest little mistake in judging the right moment to switch from dry to wet tyres or vice versa can carry a severe penalty in the race and even more so in qualifying.

  • Zendeli to replace Caldwell

    Lirim Zendeli will be returning to the Formula 2 grid this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps as he takes the place of banned, Olli Caldwell at Campos Racing.

    Caldwell, managed to rack up 12 penalty points this season which has prevented Caldwell from being allowed to take part in this weekend’s races.

    Since loosing his seat halfway through his rookie F2 season in 2021 due to budget issues, Zendeli has only raced cars once as he made a FIA Formula 3 Championship appearance with Charouz Racing System earlier this year.

    His 2021 F2 campaign featured four points finishes in 17 races, and before that he won once across two seasons in FIA F3 and also claimed podiums in the Toyota Racing Series.

    I’m very excited and happy to be racing a F2 car again. It’s been a year now since my last time in F2 and I’m looking forward to this experience. Spa has been good to me, last time I drove there in F3 [I won]. Taking over the keys from Olli will be a big challenge but I will try my best to find the limits again as soon as possible. I also want to thank Olli and Campos for their trust in me and I’ll give it my all to return it in good results.

    Lirim Zendelli on racing in F2 again.

    After the last sanction imposed by the FIA, unfortunately, we cannot have Olli with us in this race. Zendeli comes in his place and I wish him a very good weekend, we know he has been out for a year but we hope he will have a quick adaptation to the car and I think that with all the support of the team we can have a good weekend.

    Adri Campos on the news.

  • Traditional venues at risk

    Formula 1 boss, Stefano Domenicali has said “pedigree” is not enough for established venues to be safe from the upcoming calendar shake-up. After the Russian Grand Prix got cancelled last month, Formula 1 is still planning to hold a record 23-race season in 2022.

    There is space in the current Agreement for 25 races to be held in a season, this would create space for new venues to join the calendar, but even if it did go to 25 races, F1 will still need to disappoint some hopeful promoters.

    Domenicali gave an insight into the current discussions saying that there are promoters who have expiring deals and it is likely that some of them will drop off the calendar. There is a possibility that some of the venues could appear on a rotational basis with other venues.

    Apparently the choices of the tracks will be announced soon, and there shall be some new grand prix’s coming aswell. But it is not easy to plan everything in advance for example China.

    What tracks could these be?

    It is understood that France, Monaco, Belgium and Mexico have yet to secure a deal beyond this year…

    The French Grand Prix’s future is the most uncertain, despite recent encouraging words of support from the countries president, Emmanuel Macron, whilst Domenicali suggests that traditional venues like Monaco and Spa- cannot assume their places are guaranteed.

    We know we have to balance the arrival of new races with historic grands prix, and tracks that must continue to be part of our calendar. The arrival of offers from new promoters has an advantage for the F1 platform, and that is to force the organisers of traditional grands prix to raise their level of quality, in terms of what they offer the public, and infrastructure and management of the event. It’s not enough to have a pedigree any more. You also have to demonstrate that you are keeping up. There is also a lot of interest in the Far East. Guanyu Zhou’s arrival in Formula 1 is attracting attention and does not surprise us. Beyond Ferrari, in the end, it is the drivers who make the interest in this sport grow in their countries. We have seen it in Brazil, in Spain and there are many other examples. From China we have had new requests to host a grand prix, and Zhou has yet to have his first race.

    Stefano Domenicali

    My Opinion-

    I can no way see Monaco or Belgium come off the calendar this year, especially Belgium as there have been changes made to the track. I do understand though that they shouldn’t automatically have a spot on the calendar, as that is not fair to other countries which all have to go through the same process of extending the circuit contract.

    Also interesting saying that there could potentially be some new grand prix’s, obviously we have had the Las Vegas announcement but it sounded like there was more than one. I think F1 needs to be sensible about how many more new tracks or returning tracks will be coming back on to the calendar, as it could get silly very quickly.

  • Round 12- Spa Race

    Well… I don’t think anyone expected it to go the way it did today…

    First of all I just want to say a big well done to the fans at Spa, I admire every single one of you for for sticking it out in the rain all day to see some racing however, the rain wasn’t holding off today.

    As we done two laps behind the safety car, half points are awarded to drivers in top 10 and I think some teams and drivers will be happy that there is at least some points awarded this weekend!

    George Russell got his first podium in F1 today and some may think its not deserved etc but in my opinion I believe it is, the way he pulls out everything from the Williams is something else. He managed to get it to start on the front row of the grid which I cant imagine isn’t easy but he very much deserves these points, trophy and a better seat…

    Big shame for Red Bull today, when Perez was going to the grid for the start of the race he crashed, and we didn’t think he was going to be able to race due to damage but the FIA said yes but only if they could get all four tyres on in time and to be honest they did it in plenty of time, however because we didn’t have any overtakes etc because of the safety car being out Perez didn’t score any points. They had a chance at free points and close down the gap in the constructors too, but it just wasn’t there day.

    The top 10 are as following: P1- Verstappen, P2- Russell, P3- Hamilton, P4- Ricciardo, P5- Vettel, P6- Gasly, P7- Ocon, P8- Leclerc, P9- Latifi and P10- Sainz.

    Hamilton now leads the championship by only 3 points, so these next two races will mean a lot to both Hamilton and Verstappen. Norris, Bottas and Perez do not move any where in the drivers championship as none of them scored points today…

    One bonus is the fact we don’t have to wait too long for the next race, we’re back next week at Zandvoort!!

  • Round 12- Spa Quali

    WOW! What a quali… I don’t think anyone expected the results we got!

    Max takes another pole position! And next to him on grid will be Mr Saturday himself, George Russell and yes I know! No-one expected that but he had the pace their all qualifying! Hamilton will be starting P3! The rest of the top 10 are: P4- Ricciardo, P5- Vettel, P6- Gasly, P7- Perez, P8- Bottas, P9- Ocon and P10- Norris. Bottas has a 5 place grid penalty which sees him start 13th.

    The rest of the grid look like this (before penalties are added) P11- Leclerc, P12- Latifi, P13- Sainz, P14- Alonso, P15- Stroll, P16- Giovinazzi, P17- Tsunoda, P18- Schumacher, P19- Raikkonen, P20- Mazepin. Stroll also has a 5 place grid penalty which means he will start P20.

    Norris was so quick in Q1 and Q2, unfortunately in Q3 he had a big shunt which ended his qualifying and chance of pole. But the main thing is seeing him get out of the car okay! His being checked over as precautionary measures as usual, updates on him and his car will come as and when there is some. *UPDATE AS OF 22:00pm (BST) Lando has been given the all clear to race tomorrow which is good news, however he does get a 5 place grid penalty because for gearbox change so he will be starting P14*

    Bottas, didn’t have the birthday he was hoping for… qualifying in P8, I expected him to be up there in top 3 at least which is a shame but at the end of the day the points are awarded tomorrow and he has a lot of work to do in the race if he wants to score a decent amount. It does make me think now that George has got himself on the front row in a Williams, will this mean George gets the seat at Mercedes? The announcement should come soon!!

    Daniel Ricciardo starting P4 tomorrow which is amazing for him and the team, definitely shows his starting to get comfortable in the car which is brilliant for the constructors fight against Ferrari, lets hope Daniel gets a good amount of points tomorrow!

    Now I definitely didn’t see both Ferrari drivers starting out of the top 10. I think the team has a lot of work to do over night and figure out a good strategy so both drivers can score points.

    Predictions-

    My top five predictions for tomorrow are: P1- Hamilton, P2- Verstappen, P3- Ricciardo, P4- Vettel and P5- Russell. I think fastest lap will go to Hamilton.

    I think Latifi has a good chance at points again tomorrow, especially if Williams nail their strategy for him. Hopefully we see Bottas finish in the top 10 and not have an incident in the rain like Hungary and Imola.

    I’m very much looking forward to tommorrow, we should see some hard racing and maybe a surprise result!

    Times for tomorrow-

    The race starts at 14:00pm (BST) and 15:00pm (CEST). Don’t forget we also have an F3 race tomorrow as well.

  • Belgian GP

    We have been blessed with a triple header after the summer break and our first stop is the Belgian Grand Prix and I think this is a fan favourite for most including myself!

    Will Hamilton extend his championship lead? Or will Verstappen be ready to claw back some points after the last two races? And finally will it be Ferrari or McLaren come out on top this weekend in the fight for 3rd in the constructors?

    Who needs a good weekend back?

    First of all i’d say the most obvious one is Max, if he wants to get the second half of the season started in the right way he needs to be cool, calm and collected for this weekend. If he doesn’t I can see the following few weeks going Hamiltons way.

    Next up I would say is Valtteri, we all know the rumour mill on whether he should keep his seat at Mercedes and that decision will come soon… But if i’m being completely honest, Valtteri isn’t where he was last year and it shows in his previous performances this season, so I think he needs to prove too many that he deserve a seat in F1 whether that is with Mercedes or another team.

    Another one is Danny Ric, it’s been a tough one for him with getting used to a new car but I feel like his last race was ruined and we didn’t get to see what he has, as the race before Hungary was Silverstone and he had a good result their, so i’m hoping he will have some more good results in this second half including this weekend as its his 200th Grand Prix so a special one!

    Predictions for Quali-

    My top five for qualifying are- P1: Hamilton, P2: Perez, P3: Verstappen, P4: Norris and P5: Gasly. I’d like to see Ricciardo in top 10 and the same with Russell, his on a good streak at the moment and with him scoring points the last race, there will be no doubt he will be wanting to get some more so by getting a good quali position is always helpful!

    The reason Bottas isn’t in my top 5 is because he has a 5 place grid penalty so the highest he can start is P6. Lance Stroll also has a 5 place grid penalty from the last race too but I see him being out of the top 10.

    Times for the weekend are-

    Friday 27th- FP1: 10.30am – 11.30am (BST), 11.30am – 12.30pm (CEST). FP2: 14.00pm – 15.00pm (BST), 15.00pm – 16.00pm (CEST).

    Saturday 28th- FP3: 11.00am – 12.00pm (BST), 12.00pm – 13.00pm (CEST). Qualifying: 14.00pm – 15.00pm (BST), 15.00pm – 16.00pm (CEST).

    Sunday 29th- Race: 14.00pm (BST), 15.00pm (CEST).

  • Tyres for Spa

    Finally, we are back this weekend racing! Pirelli have announced the tyre choices for this weekend.

    We have the compounds in the middle of the range. C2 (Hard), C3 (Medium), C4 (Soft). This is the same as last years, which was a step softer than the tyres used in 2019.

    Last years race was won with a one-stop medium to hard strategy, all three podium finishers used this. They switched the tyres during a long Safety Car period which influenced this strategy. So this years strategy may be very different to last years depending on what happens at the beginning of the race.

    Spa is one of the most exciting tracks on the calendar and it contains a wide range of demands over the lap. As Spa is located in the foothills of the Ardennes- theres always a high chance of rain making an appearance over the weekend.

    This weekend we also have Formula Three joining F1, they are going into their fifth round of their season. The medium tyre will be used this weekend for them. This compound offers the most out of the three compounds, especially around the demanding and challenging track.