I attended the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix (and I’ve got some opinions…)

I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. That is what best summarizes my feelings when I look back on my experience of attending the Belgian Grand Prix this year. Let me tell you why… 

Normally I try to keep my writing as fair and objective as possible, highlighting any potential biases I have, but as this is a piece about my experiences regarding the Belgian Grand Prix, I cannot see how I can remain impartial, which is why this is an opinion piece rather than the report cards or race reviews I usually write. 

What needs to be said is that safety always has first priority. The safety of the drivers, marshals and the teams shouldn’t be compromised to give the fans what they want. Weather is not something anyone has any control over, so the decision not to race isn’t one I necessarily want to dispute. In fact, with a deathly crash still fresh in our memories, with the incredibly scary W-series crash at Eau Rouge/Raidillon on Friday, and a spin from Lando Norris on Saturday, I am rather glad that they assessed the situation carefully and chose not to race – but I do think that the whole situation definitely could have been handled a lot better.   

Let’s start with Safety 

What I would like to touch on, is the official statement F1 Media released. Here they say that “ (…) the safety of the drivers, marshals and spectators must always be the priority. (…)” From my experience, the last one doesn’t ring true. The safety of spectators was not the top priority, at least not on the Sunday. I have got two reasons for saying that:  

Firstly, weather conditions.   

As mentioned previously, the weather is not something anyone can control. So don’t think that I’m trying to put any blame regarding the bad weather on either the F1 circus or on the circuit itself. What I do take issue with, is the way this situation has been handled. The safety of spectators was not the first priority, because we were effectively left out in the rain. 

I was thankfully wearing a good-quality poncho and managed to stay warm and dry, but the teenager and his father sat next to us in the stands found themselves drenched to the bone – and they weren’t the only ones. On my way back to the parking lot after the ‘race’ I saw (and heard of) several fans ending up at first aid posts wrapped up in aluminium foil blankets because they suffered from hypothermia. 

Now I hear you ask, if the weather was that terrible, then why didn’t these people just go home? That’s because there was one very important distinction from the on-track experience and the at-home experience of watching the Belgian Grand Prix. From what I understood from friends who watched the race from home, it became clear pretty quickly that there wouldn’t be an actual race, that it would only be a quick procession behind the safety car to get the necessary laps in for points to be dished out. This wasn’t clearly communicated to the fans who watched the race on location.

It was suggested as an option by the Flemish (Dutch), English and German commentators (I’m not sure what the French commentator said, my French is pretty terrible) but it was made to sound like a very unlikely option – and we were told that the race still going ahead – even in a quick sprint format – was the most likely possibility.

In fact, up until the cars pulled into the pitlane for the very last time, the commentators made it sound as if the racing director would pull the safety car in at any moment and the drivers would still go and race. When the cars were pulled in for a second time, the commentators were actually still debating whether a rolling or a grid start was more likely.  Even as the clock ticked down afterwards, the different commentators hummed and hawed about the possibility of a race restart, whilst the possibility of not continuing was only brought up cautiously as a very unlikely ‘what if’ scenario.  

As a dedicated fan you obviously stick around, especially when time and time again you hear that there is still a chance… because you paid to see a race, and after sticking it out in the rain for so long, all you want to see is that race. The last thing you’ll do is give up, because it’s so incredibly close you can almost feel it in the air, and nobody wants to be the person who went home 10 minutes before a race-restart. No matter how violently you are shivering, how soaked you are, or how blue your fingers look.  

Now, I don’t want to hold the on-track commentators accountable, it is a very likely possibility that they simply did not have more information or were potentially instructed to say what they said. But if you, as an organiser, leave your spectators out in this terrible weather for hours, dangling a possible race-restart above their heads whilst you fully well know that it’ll keep raining and that you will not be restarting the race, you don’t care about the safety of the fans. I’m sure (or at least I hope) that it wasn’t done intentionally, but it is certainly something which should be taken to the debrief.

The least they could have done was to honestly inform spectators of the situation at hand, to estimate how big of a chance there was of them actually restarting the race, or admit that they simply were planning on a quick procession of cars behind the safety cars. Had they done this, then the fans themselves could make an educated guess on whether they’d like to stick around or go home. 

Hamilton actually confirms that racing directors must have been anticipating that the race would turn out as it did, leaving fans out in the cold unnecessarily.

“(…) of course you can’t do anything about the weather but we have sophisticated equipment to tell us what’s going on and it was clear the weather wasn’t going to let up. We were sent out for one reason and one reason only. Two laps behind a safety car where there is no possibility to gain or lose a place or provide entertainment to fans isn’t racing. We should have just called it quits, not risked the drivers and most importantly refunded the fans who are the heart of our sport.”  

Lewis Hamilton on Instagram

I’m sure that we weren’t the first fans left out in the cold, and we certainly won’t be the last ones either… but the truth of the matter is, we were left out there for nothing, our patience and perseverance were not rewarded. We paid to see a race, but instead our parade got rained on (literally and figuratively) and the ending was rather unsatisfactory. In total, I spent 12 hours sat in the stands on Sunday to see the shortest race in history. A race where they weren’t even permitted to actually race each other.

The cold rainy weather wasn’t the only hazard to the health of spectators however… 

Secondly, Covid-19.   

I had a weekend ticket, so I attended the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I think that on Friday and Saturday, Belgian governmental rules regarding Covid-19 were adhered to reasonably well. Everyone passing through the gates had to be masked, as here you often found yourself unable to keep distance to other spectators or the staff welcoming you. I also thought it was rather smart that they’d set up multiple boots at the entrance. One to check your vaccination card or negative PCR-test and another boot to check your ticket, ID and contents of your bag. Separating this out prevented major congestions at the different gates as people fumbled in their bags and pockets to find all the information required.  

It was also previously announced that track invasions would not be permitted, because distance could not or would not always be observed by everyone. So really, apart from shuffling past each other in the stands, close contact with others only really happened by your own choice. So far, so good. 

This was a different story on the Sunday, however. From communications I received from the circuit itself, there were about 75.000 fans in attendance. Some of these fans will have had tickets for covered grandstands, but the majority of them would either be sat on uncovered grandstands or could be found standing or sitting in different areas around the circuit. 

I understand that providing shelter for each and every one of these people would be impossible, so I certainly didn’t expect them to, but in the fanzone they had only two tents set up for fans to seek cover under. I think that in total, about 500 fans would have been able to seek and find shelter there, and I myself think that to be a rather generous estimate – an estimate which certainly doesn’t take into account the social distancing we should all be preserving, even when vaccinated or tested negative.  

With how the rain kept pouring down all day, with seemingly no reprieve like days previous, it is no surprise that spectators gathered in and around these spaces to try and find a brief moment of reprieve. Especially because there was no action on track serving as an incentive to stay out in the rain. You might argue that not observing the social distance rules in favour of staying dry is a personal choice, and perhaps it is, but that excuse will not fly when it comes to leaving the track, however.  

The track remained closed to prevent people from gathering at the podium, as it would be tempting not to observe social distancing rules whilst seeing your idols up on the three steps. Again, smart, but seemingly they didn’t give fans leaving the track a thought. There were no arrangements made to manage the crowd as spectators left the circuit – which is quite the oversight. Now people couldn’t use the track as a way to walk to the right entrance, spectators spent 30+ minutes squeezing past each other to get to their respective exits using the small and narrow pathways Spa-Francorchamps has laid out for our use. 

Straying from these paths is impossible due to mountainous surroundings. Although people certainly tried climbing up muddy slopes to get out quicker, the overall consensus was that you were stuck shuffling along. I think that the breath of the person behind me didn’t leave my neck once. Social distancing who?  

Perhaps they should have managed the crowd more effectively, allowing people to trickle to the exits one grandstand after the other, or perhaps they should have directed everyone to their closest exit rather than allowing them to zigzag around the circuit to find their way to the most convenient one for them, or perhaps they should have opened up the circuit after all to offer spectators more room to move around. As mentioned previously, I’m certainly not an expert, but it definitely would have been worth it for the circuit to have an expert look at potential exit strategies.  

The lack of concern for the safety of spectators isn’t the only thing I thought to be handled poorly however. Next up is the farce we call a race.  

The ‘Race’ 

In my (unprofessional) opinion, there are two reasons as to why they did what they did when it came to the race.

First of all, the race directors made the cars do a few laps behind the safety car just to be able to dish out points, because points=money. Considering the rather busy schedule we have ahead, with both Zandvoort and Monza up next, it is not surprising that they weren’t keen on delaying the race to Monday, despite several drivers mentioning that they’d be down for doing that. Everything needed to be packed up and taken to Zandvoort. Racing on Monday wouldn’t only delay this process, but would also cause trouble if one of the drivers had a big shunt during the race, because when were they meant to rebuild the car in that case? Having done those two laps means that it can be classed an official race and that they can pack up and move to Zandvoort without any further issue (or so they hope).  

They probably also wanted it to be classified as a race because cancelling or delaying the event would mean that fans could request for their tickets to be refunded. Running for even two laps behind the safety car means that technically the fans attending the race in person do not have any right to retribution. I know that the circuit and the Formula 1 group have since said that they’re looking into ways to cater to the distraught fans, but initial statements and communication I received hinted at the fact that this was unlikely to happen.

Reimbursements 

I know that several fans online have protested the fact that spectators in Spa might get reimbursed. But to be completely honest, I don’t understand their stance. If you are someone who thinks so, please get in touch, because I’d like to have a polite conversation and hear your thoughts.  

From what I understand, the opposing parties argue that spectators have seen the supporting races, which yes… technically is true, but I purchased a ticket to see an F1 race. If I had bought a ticket to see Beyoncé, I wouldn’t be satisfied with seeing only the supporting act. 

Other fans argue that the cars have been seen, which also is true… but if fans just wanted to see the cars they would have bought (cheaper) tickets for the Friday practise sessions. There you get to see the cars run, but miss out on the action you’d regularly experience on race-days.  

It has also been said that technically we have seen a race, as it is classed as one, but would you call a run where overtaking isn’t allowed a race? I certainly wouldn’t, no matter what the official regulations say.  

The idea that fans at least had a good Friday or Saturday should be enough is also an argument I heard often, but here people often forget that whilst I might have bought a weekend ticket, many other fans wouldn’t have. The Friday and Saturday were significantly quieter than the Sunday was, as usually tends to be the case during F1 weekends.  

I don’t think that any of us are asking for full reimbursement either, we all understand that weather is something which can’t be helped and that the drivers’ safety has priority, but the matter of the fact is that in this equation the spectators were the biggest losers. Whilst for some, attending an F1 race is a yearly occurrence, for others it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Weekend tickets, especially when you wish to sit in the (grand)stands, can quite literally break the bank. To then not get what you paid for is rather sour, and the least which can be done is for the pain (and costs) to be shared among all parties.  

Our favourite drivers and teams tell us time after time that we were the real stars of the show, which is certainly nice to hear, but I can tell you that none of us felt very glamourous. It would serve the sport well to back these words with action, to thank attending spectators for sticking around all day with at least a partial reimbursement or a token of appreciation. (Even if it would result in a ‘I attended the Belgian Grand Prix 2021 and all I got was a lousy t-shirt’ kind of gag-gift) 

The championship battle 

The way the situation was handled regarding dishing out points can also have a detrimental effect on the championship battle. I think that dishing out half points for what is essentially the qualifying result (with a few penalties applied) was the wrong way to go about things.

Unless one of them manages to pull a massive gap points-wise, people will always insist that one got an advantage over the other in Spa. If Max wins the championship battle, Hamilton fans will insist that the Dutchman was simply given the points as a present, as he didn’t really race to earn them. If Lewis wins the championship battle, Verstappen fans will insist that it’s only because Max couldn’t prove what he is worth and earn full points in Spa. It really is a bit of a joke, and I’m not the only one who holds that opinion, Vettel brought it up too.

“It’s a bit of a joke, no? That’s a joke, If you want to get a reward for qualifying, you should get points for qualifying. What did we do today [to earn the points]? I don’t know.” 

Sebastian Vettel

The decision-making process 

In different parts of this opinion piece, I highlighted how I questioned the decision-making process from the racing directors. Now, I am the first one to admit that I don’t have any insider knowledge. So perhaps they knew or did more than we can see. They had the tools and knowledge available to (presumably) make the best-informed decision, but from the outside looking in, especially for spectators, it certainly felt like they haven’t done everything they could or should have done.   

The Sunday was indeed very rainy, no surprises there. (The same can be said for the Saturday and Friday, although both were marginally better considering we had a few dry spells.) But what’s important to note is that the track was deemed safe enough for both Formula 3 and the Porsche Supercup to drive earlier that day. Sure, the safety car played a feature role in both, and especially in F3 they spent quite a few laps behind the safety car in different races to dry out the track before ‘properly’ starting, but in the end both supporting race categories were still able to venture out and have a good run. You might be confused as to why I am bringing this up, why this could possibly be relevant, but wait! There is reason behind my madness… 

I think, that if F1 would have managed the situation similarly to the support classes, that a whole lot could have been salvaged race-wise. Had they not gone in after the formation lap, but would they have remained behind the safety car for several more laps, then standing water (which spectators were told was the biggest issue) would no longer have been an issue. As Tom Coronel pointed out, each tyre of the wet compound disperses 35 liter per second, meaning that each car moves 140 liter. Add this up, then we’re talking about up to 2800 liter of water being moved per second when the entire grid is out on track. Had they done this, then perhaps we could have had some semblance of a (sprint)race before weather would eventually worsen and the race would have to be flagged.  

Now, all what happened is that the track was left to its own devices for hours on end whilst we waited for the rain to let up. With no action, no cars dispersing water, no sweepers clearing the track, standing water was allowed to reform. When eventually, after more than two hours, the sweepers were brought out to swipe it away, it was too little too late. In Dutch we actually have a very apt saying for this, they were ‘mopping with the tap running.’ 

As said, I’m not the professional here, and I don’t want to claim that this definitely would have been the solution, but different drivers echoed this sentiment – suggesting that (part of) the race would still have been able to go ahead if the situation was managed more effectively.

“I mean, I said it at 15:30 like, ‘let’s go’; I think the conditions were decent, but the visibility was very low, so I think if we would have started at three o’clock we had a better chance. But nevertheless, after that it just stayed really wet and it kept raining.” 

Max Verstappen

New Fans 

I also think that the indecisiveness and the lack of a proper solution by racing directors (either a cancellation of the race or running the race a day later) does little to help the sport in promoting itself. We know that lately there has been a big push to attract new (and younger) fans to the sport, but this certainly isn’t a way to sell yourself to a fresh fanbase, as the conclusion was rather unsatisfactory. In terms of spectators, they tend to be returning fans, but many of them felt quite disillusioned after the Sunday. 

It actually reminded me a bit of the situation in 2005 at the Motor Speedway in Indianapolis. I don’t think that the consequences for Spa (or the sport in general) will be as massive as they were for the American fanbase back in 2005, as F1 is massive in Europe, but it won’t be something which will be easily forgotten either.  

Mic drop, rant over.  

After reading all this you might think I am angry, and not simply disappointed as I highlighted before. This isn’t true however. I truly enjoyed most of the weekend. I’m not allowing the memory of the Sunday to taint my experiences of the Friday and Saturday.  

When thinking back on this experience, I will be remembering how delighted I was with the qualifying result on Saturday. Watching Max Verstappen drive himself to a pole position in a sea of orange (raincoats) made me smile so wide my cheeks ached for days, and watching George put a Williams on P2 made me shed some happy tears. I will also remember how my heart nearly thudded its way out of my chest with anxiety when seeing the massive crash in the W-series on Friday, and I will grin when remembering seeing the joy of the six Finnish fans sat with us in the stands the moment Emma Kimiläinen crossed the finish line as the winner on Saturday. (Although perhaps I would have recommended for them to keep their shirts on, considering it was freezing cold and raining. Then again, they’re Finnish, so they probably have a tougher skin than I do.) 

Anyway, I don’t regret going, because at least I attended a race which will go down in history books. Perhaps not for the right reasons… but the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix will be remembered for years to come… and I can say I was there for it, for all of it!