Sergio Perez, Force India, Spa-Francorchamps, 2018

F1 could revive Belgian Grand Prix victory lap

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: FIA race director Charlie Whiting says he understands why Formula 1 fans who visited the Belgian Grand Prix felt “deprived” by the lack of a victory lap.

What they say

Spa, the longest track on the F1 calendar, is is the only venue where there is no victory lap. Whiting explained this was not done out of a desire to begin the podium ceremony more quickly for the benefit of television, but out of security concerns.

It was done for security reason. Whether those arguments are still valid I don’t know. We’ve not had anybody say anything about the procedure, the teams are quite happy with it, TV is quite happy with it. But I fully understand why fans feel they’ve been deprived. I’ve never heard of any complaints.

I think it’s something we should take up with the promoter because it’s purely down to the fact the promoter, some years ago now, said that they were concerned about keeping seven kilometres of track secure if all the crowd start jumping on it. It would be a long slowing down lap, it would take three or four minutes.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Kimi Raikkonen staying in F1 at Sauber is great for him, but is it good for the sport as a whole?

Nice to see Raikkonen stay on if that what he wants but I’m disappointed a seat at a lower midfield team is being taken by someone at the end of their career when there’s so many young drivers waiting for a spot.
@Cliffery

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On this day in F1

  • 25 years ago today an engine failure at Monza meant Alain Prost had to wait one more race to clinch his fourth championship, and handed Damon Hill a third consecutive victory

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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51 comments on “F1 could revive Belgian Grand Prix victory lap”

  1. Don Panoz has passed away..

    1. shouldn’t be a surprise

      battle with pancreatic cancer, he enjoyed his last cigarette

    2. The man was a legend, even though he came quite late to motorsport.

  2. I don’t see RAI moving to Sauber as taking a young drivers seat at all, more an opportunity for Sauber to have an experienced driver to aid development, there’s still a seat in the team for a young driver, and I believe that’s how teams should be arranged. One young proven talent, one experienced driver. I doubt he’s taken a pay cut, and he knows all to well there is nothing like driving an F1 car. Sauber is not exactly McLaren atm, the engine is brilliant, and they have heavy backing from Alfa/Fiat… I could see them have some surprise results next year. Brilliant that Leclerc has been given the opportunity in a top team against a proven driver. If only Ocon had the seat next to Hamilton we could have been privy to something quite special next year.

    1. When you have drivers like Stroll, Sirotkin or Ericsson making up the numbers, it’s unfair to say a WDC driving in F1 is a bad thing

  3. Most of times I think single privateer cars would be an better option to a third car.
    I would like to see which combination Alonso would come up if allowed to get a Newey-designed car with a Ferrari power unit.

    1. Yeah it’s so easy, you just remove the TAG-Renault PU, carefully replace the Ferrari one, re-fasten the four screws you took out previously, and voilà!

  4. The possibility of Ocon not being in F1 next year is ludicrous. The determining factor behind it are one of the main reasons F1 is denigrated. As a F1 fan the notion of the most talented drivers missing out on a spot on the grid because of politics, money and nepotism is galling and a part of the sport I despise. (That and DRS).

  5. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
    12th September 2018, 0:45

    Raikkonen is regarded as one of the best in the paddock for development, setups and feedback. It is conceivable that Sauber utilizes his knowledge to drag themselves up the field, and when Raikkonen finally decides to retire, you have a much better team for younger racers to come into. I don’t see it as that much of an issue. Look at Sauber now, they’re kind of lost. They seem to have really weekends and really bad weekends, and they don’t seem to be able to link the dots.

    Would you rather have new talent coming to a perennial backmarker team, or would you rather wait two years and have new talent come to a possibly much better off team? Personally, I’d rather have a couple more years of Raikkonen to see how well Sauber can do.

    I also understand a lot of people are upset because Ocon is likely to be without a seat. Unfortunately he was likely never in consideration for the Sauber drive due to his Merc connection, so it’s irrelevant. Who else is a candidate for Sauber? There are a few drivers in lower Formula that are decent, but George Russell is the only that I feel deserves a spot in F1 right now, but his Merc connections rule him out of a seat at Sauber. Giovinazzi? Meh. That leaves Vandoorne as the only other worthy driver who could potentially lose a seat. However, if reports are true, he might be pairing up with Raikkonen anyways.

    1. I agree completely about Kimi and his knowledge of development, setups and feedback and the benefits of that for Sauber. If he is going to investment in the team as a part owner, then he and others might see this as a good opportunity to learn everything he can about the team, how it functions in all aspects, from the inside out as a driver. Then I would think as he steps aside Kimi would assume an active role in continuing to develop the team and grow his investment. I see this as an opportunity for Sauber to move up the grid, grow the team and more.

      1. @photozen,@breakturnaccelerate – I see what you are saying, and while I don’t really mind ‘losing’ Ericsson, either Vandoorne or Giovenacci won’t be in a seat now – the 1st one I feel deserves to show that like Perez, Magnussen, he’s not the mistake McLaren made it seem; the 2nd should really be getting a try in F1, I feel, and not in two years (he’ll be out of a competitive open-wheeler seat for too long).

    2. Raikkonen is regarded as one of the best in the paddock for development, setups and feedback.

      Didn’t know that, Todd.
      I always thought he was the more laid back, come late, jump in the car and race kind of guy.

      1. One expectation is that is why Vettel wanted to retain him as a team-mate.
        Will be interesting to see how SV and Ferrari make out next year without Kimi.
        Ferrari’s loss and Sauber’s gain. Gonna be great to watch.

    3. @braketurnaccelerate, whilst you say that Ocon was never in contention at Sauber due to his Mercedes links, those same Mercedes links didn’t seem to stop Wehrlein being signed for Sauber in 2017.

      1. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
        12th September 2018, 8:29

        @anon – Sauber wasn’t title sponsored by Ferrari/Alfa Romeo at the time either. That’s why they dumped Wehrlein for Leclerc in the first place.

        1. Apparently, according to Peter Windsor, Ferrari haven’t been instrumental in Kimi ending up at Sauber. They simply dumped him for Leclerc and Vassuer swooped. Which will make it a very interesting end of the year at the scarlet team.

        2. @braketurnaccelerate, it sounds a lot more like Wehrlein was dumped because the team felt he didn’t really perform that much better against Ericsson when taking into account Ericsson was at a weight disadvantage to Wehrlein (Ericsson had to run around 8-10kg over the minimum weight limit, whilst Wehrlein could run just on the weight limit – and the average difference in qualifying pace was within the potential difference in performance of Wehrlein being able to run that bit lighter than Ericsson).

    4. Spot on, Kimi going to Sauber isn’t the issue, if we ate going to point fingers at someone for keeping promising drivers out of the sport look at the Williams driver line-up, look at Ericsson

      Kimi will not only help on car development but will have an influence on his teammate development as well. Also he opened a seat in a top team that is being filled by a young kid.

      The COTD is a superficial view on the issue and fails to tackle it properly.

      In a perfect world we would have Ocon and Russell at williams and a young gun together with Kimi. Vandoorne? Haven’t we see enough of him?

      1. Vandoorne has been closer to Alonso than Räikkönen ever was. Chances are Vandoorne would have the upper hand.
        You’re right, the Ericsson issue is one that should be addressed immediately to improve the overall quality of the F1 grid and give promising young drivers a chance. But the same definitely also applies to the guy who blocked a perfectly good seat at a top team for five years now, while delivering an RoI that can only be represented in red ink.
        Obviously, Ferrari were to blame for that farcical situation, in Räikkönen’s situation I wouldn’t have asked to be replaced because I couldn’t even string more than two decent (as in ‘almost performing on the same level as my team mate’, not as in ‘solidly having the upper hand’) races together if my dear life depended on it. That’s just now how it works, although it’d be refreshing to see a driver ask for a demotion because he sees himself more as an HRT driver.

        Long story short, I’m really disappointed for Sauber. But then again, that’s the same team that has allowed Ericsson to waste at least four seasons in F1 (not including the 1st season at Caterham, which was something beyond wasted), ending the careers of two drivers whose sole mistake was not being dominant enough. In that respect, Sauber’s driver choice (if they had a choice, that is) is just par for the course.

        1. So if I understand correctly Vandoorne over Kimi because he was closer to Alonso than Kimi ever was?

          Seems a bit shortsighted to reduce Kimi to a single season comparison that has more factors to it than just Alonso don’t you think?

          What about the other adjectives, lets ignore them as well?

          Vandoorne is on a learning curve, but if you draw that curve you will see he has been performing worse this year than the last

        2. It’s a bit curious how some people think almost every driver on the grid is better than Raikonnen. Can you even recall a good race by Stoffel at this point? A race that you said “what a drive”?

          But sure, if I was in Sauber I’d certainly pass on Raikonnen, who cares about his experience, winning a world championship, his 20 race wins, 100 podiums (and right now 6 consecutive in races he finished, and counting). To not mention being one of the 4 most popular – marketable drivers in F1 right now.

          They should certainly pass on Kimi and go for a driver that won F2 three years ago, in a dominant car and has gotten 22 points in 2 years since.

          Much better for sure.

          1. Giving my COTD nod on this

  6. I understand where the COTD is coming from, but isn’t Kimi pretty much the most popular driver on the grid? At least he’s the most popular driver amongst members of this website, unless things have changed dramatically since I last read about the rankings. It’s hard to see how losing a driver of that stature would be good for the sport. Besides, there’s no guarantee that Sauber would have given the vacant spot to the most talented young driver – they might have preferred to bring in someone with more financial backing, like Marcus Ericsson, who has hardly set the world alight in his career so far.

    1. @estesark, he is still fairly popular, but not quite as popular as he used to be in the past if the latest set of fan surveys are anything to go by.

      In the last global fan survey by the Motorsport Network, Kimi was the fourth most popular driver – Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel, in that order, were all more popular than Kimi was, and I believe that has been the case for a few years now. It seems to be the case that, rather like Verstappen, his supporters tend to be the older members of the fan base – perhaps because they remember Kimi’s exploits in his earlier years, whereas newer fans to the sport will not have experienced Kimi’s more successful periods in the past.

      It has to be said that, eventually, he is going to have to retire from the sport sooner or later – furthermore, always having the same drivers at the same major teams for many years has also been a source of frustration for fans who want to see talented new drivers being given a chance to compete for victory. If you don’t make any effort to invest in new potential stars of the future, that is arguably even more detrimental to the future of the sport.

  7. @keithcollantine
    NASCAR has two drivers who won the opening race and haven’t won since. Austin Dillon as you mentioned in the Cup series and Tyler Reddick in the Xfinity series.

  8. re: COTD – There are at least a couple of other drivers currently on the grid that I would rather see give way to promising young drivers than to see Kimi go. Or, if life in F1 were really fair Ocon and Vandoorne would continue on in F1 instead of those other couple of drivers.

    1. @bullmello, well I guess if he takes the place of Ericsson, quite a few would say he made one of those couple of drivers go …

      1. @bosyber – Bingo! And, it would leave a space open (theoretically) for Ocon, Vandoorne or ___________?
        Ocon unlikely with Merc ties, but still hoping he can land a seat somewhere.

    2. +1 I totally agree.

    3. I’m a Vandoorne supporter, and I don’t want to see him leave F1.
      But it wouldn’t be fair for Stroll to leave F1 instead; he has shown more over the past 2 years than Vandoorne. All circumstantial, but hard to argue against.
      @bullmello

      1. @coldfly – Interesting point with some validity. Both drivers stuck in cars with dreadful performance and Stroll does manage a few bright spots where Vandoorne really has none that I can recall. It’s like arguing Vandoorne’s potential vs. Stroll’s brief glimmers. Hmmmm…

  9. I really feel for Ocon. It must be bloody hard for him to step up each race and drive his heart out knowing that others nowhere near his talent are going to be gifted seats for 2019. Seeing that tweet suggests that he’s starting to feel it.

    Hopefully Mercedes will get their fingers out (or their cheque book) to ensure he stays either at FI or at Williams. If they’re not prepared to do that, then release any contractual ties and let Red Bull sign him as one of theirs so he at least has a shot at Toro Rosso.

    1. @dbradock I agree with your second point. I really don’t get the whole “poor Ocon can’t find a seat” concept. If he was a free agent, someone would have snatched him a long time ago.

      Mercedes want to keep him on a leash, and that is a major problem for many teams. So instead of talking nonsense about adding a 3rd car to the grid, Toto should really just pay and have a seat for his junior driver, the way everyone else does. Besides that, he could have easily given him a promotion to Mercedes after 2 full seasons (and half in Manor), based on his performance alone.

  10. Mark in Florida
    12th September 2018, 4:03

    A great American innovator and inventor passed away today. Don Panoz who invented the nicotine patch and other pharmaceuticals also managed to save American endurance racing by founding the American Le Mans Series. I was able to see the mighty Audi R8 run at Sebring along with all the subsequent models that followed over the years. I was able to see the Ferrari 575m v12 run against the Corvettes. This was all made possible because Don had the vision and drive to bring European endurance racing to the American public. Thanks Don for enriching the lives of others.

    1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
      12th September 2018, 7:23

      I still remember the splitting headache the Esperante GTR1 gave me in 1997 and 1998 at Donington Park. Never heard anything like it, instantly became one of my favourite cars.

      Then shortly after followed ‘Sparky,’ one of the first experiments with hybrid power……. 20 years ago!!!!!

      1. (@rdotquestionmark I just missed seeing the bat mobile GTR1. It was an amazing looking car with a front engine when everyone else was running mids. I saw plenty of the Panoz esperante gt. I believe that Magnussen was one of the drivers. It was an interesting time in in racing. You had a lot of variety of cars and ideas on what car would be best. I miss those early days of the ALMS there was a lot of energy at the Sebring track when those big v8 cars came roaring by. Some of the cars ran the Judd v10 engine’s, wow those things sounded awesome screaming down Sebrings massive front straight. I was there to see Audis last race in America in a prototype. It was a bittersweet moment for everyone. I met Tom Kristensen several times at the track, he is a very nice and gracious man. He always signed stuff for the fans and his behavior was always as a gentleman. Great memories because of Don Panoz vision and plan for endurance racing.

  11. Regardless of whether Kimi SHOULD go or not (and who of us has the right to say he SHOULD…?) I am disappointed that those who give reasons for wanting to push him out give entirely agist reasons – which is as bad as being racist or sexist…!
    Except Brundle, who would have liked to see Kimi leave when he was at the top. So, that’s what HE would like… So what…!?
    Surely, if a driver wishes to continue, and seems capable of doing so (how quickly we forget/dismiss the recent Pole & Podium…), and a team wants him, why do people say he SHOULD go…?
    There are half a dozen other drivers, of various ages, experience and talent to whom I would be less sad to bid farewell… But why the agism…?
    There have been several F1 drivers in the past who have exceeded their ‘sell-by’ date. I can’t in all honesty state Kimi is currently one of them – and certainly not just because he’s been around a long time.
    In my view the reason why there seems to be a bottle-neck affecting new arrivals is simply because there are potentially more than 20 drivers who could cope adequately with F1… so get more teams…! And do it without all the restrictive regulations currently imposed. Compare this with a team wishing to join IndyCar – so much easier… but that’s another story.

    1. Of course, with that Brundle tweet, I wonder at what time he considers Kimi should have stopped then. After 2009 when he was booted from Ferrari bc. Massa was injured and they wanted Alonso? Or after his Lotus year? Maybe after two years of being beaten by Alonso? Would be interesting to hear Brundle actually articulate his thoughts there then.

    2. @BlackJackFan I agree and was getting poised to fire off something like what you have said about Kimi. I wasn’t thinking in terms of agism, but that’s a fair point on your part. For me it was moreso just that, as per Brundle’s comment, what driver who wants to keep racing in F1 and is offered the chance to do so, and one that he wants to take, just steps aside to make way for someone else? Does that happen? Has it ever happened? Did someone voluntarily leave and forgo untold millions in income while still loving what they do, to make way for Kimi? It is not new that there are far more drivers capable of being in F1 than there are seats. Sauber wanted Kimi and he is available for that now. They didn’t want someone else, or that someone would be there. I like Brundle, but perhaps he should just step aside out of the goodness of his heart while he is at the top of his game, for after all there are far fewer commentary positions at Sky than there are drivers on the grid.

      Personally I was immediately happy and relieved when I first saw the headline of Kimi going to Sauber. Guess I wasn’t ready to see him go.

      1. Hi Robbie – I liked your suggestion that Brundle could also be told to go – for much the same reasons. But commentators often speak without thinking, during races… Maybe this trait gets carried over to other situations… lol.
        Did anyone start a campaign to oust Murray – despite his numerous (and loveable) gaffs… People tend to stay as long as they’re wanted, and willing to continue… and why not…?

        I don’t have much sympathy for those who declare: “Kimi (for example, because they don’t like him) should make way for Stoffel (for example, because they are a fan).

  12. Toto would soon talk to every media how big loss to not having Esteban on the grid while doing almost nothing to avoided it. Just like how he deal with Pascal before.

  13. I agree with both the COTD and Berger. Brundle has an interesting point as well.
    – Concerning Ocon’s tweet: How can one ‘eat F1’ LOL?
    – The image of Dieter and Kimi back in 2001, though.

  14. Horner says that he isn’t writing off the season. I am 100% sure that is true. But unfortunately it is also a bit sad for me. If Horner felt there was any hope of winning a championship next year, he would have written of the season months ago to focus on next year.

    I find it sad that even the 3rd best team feels the need to scrap it out in a year when 3rd is already bolted on. They are doing it because that is the only option they have. 3rd this year. 3rd next year. Probably 3rd the year after that. So the reality is that they need to look like a classy 3rd, not just an also ran. So the target of one of the best funded teams is to finish a classy 3rd. Yay for all of us!

    Dear F1.

    We met in the summer on 1993. Our love was intense to begin with. I loved you and I really felt that you loved me back. But things have changed and I don’t think you love me anymore. As a result, I will still look at you and like you, but I find it hard to love you anymore. It isn’t me, it’s you. You have allowed our teams to grow distant (in pace) with your arrogance. You have allowed people to enter our relationship that are a drain on us (CVC, Stroll, Erricson). It now seems possible that you are going to cast one of our good friends (Occon) out into the cold. He was good to us, but you have turned your back on him. I love him hanging around and want to see more of him. Recently you have demanded that I pay to see you now which I accepted because I love you and you show me more of yourself than you ever have before. But it still makes me feel distant from you.

    If our relationship is to continue, I really need you to go and see a counsellor. I can’t keep defending you to my friends when deep down I know they are right about you. I love you, but you are abusing me and it needs to change. I know in the past you have seen counsellors like Dr CVC and Dr Ecclestone. However they only ever saw you as someone who could give them money. They didn’t have your best interests at heart. I have found a great doctor for you to see and I hope you go to them and listen. Dr “Your Fans” has an excellent reputation and really only has your best interests at heart. Yes, he can be a little bit narrow minded at times, but he really cares about you and wants to see you.

    I am sure that if you visit him that he will bring us and all of our friends closer (in performance terms) while still allowing our friends to be themselves and individuals. He will still allow them to shine if they put the effort in. He will also encourage you to only allow our true friends with the right skill to enter our relationship.

    So finally, F1. I still love you, but you need to change. Otherwise one day you will wake up and find out that no-one loves you anymore and that will be a sad day for both of us.

    1. @mickharrold Why would they write off the season months ago? Months ago they were trying to ensure they were at least third in the WCC. And how do you know they haven’t been working diligently on next years effort? Teams have to do both, right? And for RBR they didn’t know what Pu would be in their 2019 car until relatively recently. I have no doubt that as soon as they decided, Newey had his hands on all the necessary info m, not to mention an actual Pu, with which to start the project for next year, with Honda.

      But yeah if your point is that Mercedes and now Ferrari have a lock on their Pu(s) over everyone else, and they are too complicated, and the token system in some people’s opinion has guaranteed that only Mercedes would dominate until the next rule change, etc etc, then sure, F1 has it’s issues. Liberty is now here to try to rectify what BE left them. But he had 40 years, and Liberty hasn’t had two seasons, let alone two that are unencumbered with previous BE related contracts that they need to see expire.

      1. RB : 248 points
        Renault : 86 points.

        RB could have taken the car that they developed for Melbourne and not changed a thing and they still finished miles in front of the rest. And that is without taking into account the points thrown away through crashes and unreliability. So yes, they could have turned off months ago and still finished 3rd.

        I get your point about Liberty. I am “Glass half empty” there still. I think they understand that things are dire and need to change. The Concorde agreement has meant that they can change little right now so their hands are tied.

        But that is my point. RB need to finish a classy 3rd this year because next year is going to be the same and the year after that is probably going to be the same as well. If RB thought they even had a remote chance next year, it would make 100% sense to just put all their effort into next year. But Horner states that they are still developing this years car. Which suggests that they have already given up on next year and are resigned to 3rd. While Horner was trying to make a good news story out of this, my underlying feeling that this is a bad news story based on their lack of possible achievement for next year.

        And that makes me sad for F1. It’s not like RB aren’t trying or haven’t tried over the last 5 years. It’s just that even they know it is an impossible mountain to climb. Good Luck to McLaren and Renault though. Mt Everest awaits unless things change.

        P.S. on the BE thing. I am old enough to remember the BE glory days last century where he took the sport to new heights. However, the teams forced him to sell out his ownership to CVC. After that, he did a brilliant job of working for CVC and building their profits while destroying the sport, but he was an owned man by then. I am 100% sure that BE was part of the problem, but there is plenty of blame to go around there. I am very happy to see the end of BE, but way more happy to see the end of CVC. They were the real problem here and the teams must remember that they were the ones who put CVC in charge. I think if they had left it with BE, we would still have a mess, but it wouldn’t be as bad as it is right now. Remember also that the FIA sanctioned these engines and the aero rules. BE is an easy scapegoat for everyone else with dirty hands. But like McLaren/Honda. Once you move away from your easy scapegoat, you are exposed to the truth. Honda may have been a part of the problem, but they weren’t the whole problem and neither was BE.

        1. @mickharrold To be clear I do agree with you on the frustration that it seems a Mercedes/Ferrari lockout for the Championships for the foreseeable future. It does seem like Renault will still lag with their pu and Honda likely still has much work to do too. You seem frustrated with the state of F1 yet are taking it out on Horner and RBR. Or perhaps I’m missing something.

          I don’t think RBR and Horner are doing anything wrong here. If working further on this year’s car was detrimental to next year, I don’t think they would be doing it. So I think you are wrong to assume that working still on this year’s car is a sign they have given up on next year. They can see very well for themselves that they are in a strong, sole 3rd in the WCC and nothing will change that in the remaining races. I surmise that since for the most part the regs are fairly stable, new front wings aside, that means they are still learning and developing this year’s car because it will help them with next year’s car. As to next year’s car, I doubt that Horner and RBR are assuming that they will make no progress and therefore stagnate. They are of course hoping, even if it is like hoping for a miracle, that the Honda pu combined with their car, will be strong and reliable. They cannot sit and assume, like you can, that they are going nowhere in the next few years, even if the odds seem highly against them. They are racers, so they are going to try to win this weekend, and they are going to continue working with Honda and on their car, and the days and weeks and races and seasons will clock by as they ply their trade with all their best effort, and with hope, and with perhaps even a little luck, which often comes into it too.

          As to BE. My short answer would be that even if one cannot lay everything on him, he was the man in charge, and so the buck stopped with him. Just as it does with team principals sometimes, or coaches of sports teams etc etc. The captain of the ship is the captain for a reason.

          I don’t think the teams forced BE to sell out to CVC. There was an awful lot of financial stuff going on by BE well ahead of CVC’s involvement, including him trying to float F1. Many investment entities have been involved. It was when the teams started to revolt for more money from F1, which everyone seems to agree nowadays is necessary for their survival, that BE had to placate them or lose them to a breakaway series. It’s complicated and of course I am speaking in generalities and there is plenty that can be read on the subject, but I would not say that it is accurate for you to say the teams were the ones that put CVC in charge. Everything leading up to CVC’s involvement was on Bernie, and it was his withholding of moneys from the teams to feed his own bank account that caused the teams to revolt. BE is an easy scapegoat because he was the main man, the main scapegoat, with all the greed in the world intact. Similarly Honda was not just part of the problem at Mac, they were the main part of the problem, even if not the whole problem.

    2. @mickharrold, in your lament, it does rather come across as a case of “love is blind” with your comments about those early seasons, since in reality a lot of your complaints were just as valid, if not even more so, in those years.

      After all, 1993 and 1994 saw the grid being filled up with a lot of rubbish drivers – figures like Jean-Denis Délétraz, Paul Belmondo or Jean-Marc Gounon were only there because of their money (I think Berger said that he thought that most of the grid from that era didn’t deserve to be there and only had a seat because of their money).

      I feel that people tend to over romanticise and whitewash that era of the sport – the focus is always narrowly on just a few drivers (Prost, Senna, Mansell, perhaps Schumacher and Berger as well), and usually on a handful of teams, quite often Williams and McLaren. The waves of pay drivers and bankruptcies that hit the grid in the early 1990s, the injuries that so many drivers suffered, the political infighting and public arguments, the performance gulf between a handful of rich powerful teams and the rest of the field – all of the dirty, nasty and painful bits that we didn’t really want to see have been quietly forgotten, leaving an idealised picture that the sport will always fall short of.

  15. I’m so pleased that a victory lap in Spa could finally be a reality. It’s really disheartening to end the race like that, only a handful people having paid 500€+ for gold 1 stand can enjoy something right after the race.

    I even talked about it to the Belgian commentator that has some privileged access in Spa but I’ve been said it was down to length also, not only security and that little could be done about it.
    So I’m really happy to see Liberty (again) having thoughts about F1 fans, something I haven’t felt for years.

    1. I’ve always been disappointed by the lack of a victory lap at spa. Can’t remember when they first dropped it, but I seem to remember Damon Hill in 1993 getting in trouble for missing the pit exit and doing a full victory lap.

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