Aussie watch ahead of the F1® Belgian Grand Prix 2024
Matt Clayton
Thursday, 25 July 2024
Caught your breath from Budapest yet? A fifth race in six weekends awaits at Spa this Sunday – and for Aussies in two classes, there’s a lot on the line.
And the score in 2024 is 7-6 – and no, we’re not confusing Formula 1® for tennis ...
Seven is how many wins Max Verstappen has as he bids for a fourth straight world title, while six is the number of other drivers who’ve each won one race this season as we head into round 14 this weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix (July 26-28). And while the venerable Spa-Francorchamps circuit has been home sweet home for Verstappen (he was born in Hasselt, an hour from Spa) in recent years with three straight victories, wins that looked almost pre-ordained for the Red Bull Racing driver two rounds into this season are now hard-fought battles, if they’re battles he can even win.
The RB20 has been caught – and passed, if last weekend’s McLaren domination in Hungary is any indication – as F1’s benchmark car, and signs of the old Verstappen have emerged in recent times as his mood gets darker, his vitriol on the team radio more venomous and his driving more aggressive. His lead still stands at 76 points – that’s more than three Grand Prix wins with 11 to go – but McLaren has drawn to within 51 points of the lead of the constructors’ championship by scoring 63 points more than Red Bull in seven weekends.
Do Red Bull need to make a driver change to secure the teams’ title, and does that involve an Australian, a New Zealander, or neither? Is a return to Spa what Verstappen needs to stem the tide? Can McLaren shine on two completely different types of circuit within seven days?
They’re all questions this weekend might provide answers to, but as far as the Aussies in action at Spa goes, here’s what we’re watching before the mid-season break presses pause on proceedings.
Piastri impervious to pressure
There was a lot of angst and aggro late in Hungary – Verstappen raging, Norris needing to be convinced to follow a team order – that it was easy to forget that Oscar Piastri was on track to win his first Grand Prix, and seemed completely unruffled about the landmark moment. “He is the youngest and wisest member of our team,” said team principal Andrea Stella afterwards, and Piastri carried himself like a driver who was happy to get his breakthrough but looking ahead to the next one and the ones after that.
Piastri has been on a golden run of late – he’s scored points on every race weekend this year, the only driver to do so – and the bigger the stakes get, the same his approach is. His temperament is one of, if not the, biggest arrows in his quiver; as McLaren’s team radio buzzed with chats back and forth with Norris in Budapest, Piastri kept his head down and his right foot heavy and offered the most minimal commentary as he took his first win in his 35th start. It looked assured, and repeatable.
Can he become the second driver besides Verstappen to win more than one race this year in Belgium? Piastri’s speed at Spa was evident a year ago when he qualified and finished second in the sprint, but a first-corner crash with Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari in the Grand Prix left him with no race experience ahead of this weekend. Piastri being who he is, that’ll be dismissed as a potential disadvantage. And if he and Norris are running 1-2 again …
Ricciardo is right to be grumpy
An enraged Daniel Ricciardo isn’t a common sight, but the RB driver was seething after a baffling lap seven pit stop call in Hungary made him a passenger in a hot high-speed DRS train for the final 63 laps with nowhere to go, watching a good weekend melt in front of his eyes. “We were just driving around,” he shrugged after coming home a pointless – in both senses of the word – 12th. There’s more context than that number offers, though.
With Sergio Perez not in the front-running picture yet again in Hungary, Red Bull Racing has never been more vulnerable to McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari – and with paddock whispers turning into a full-blown roar that the Mexican may be replaced during the mid-season break, the opportunity lost for Ricciardo in Budapest hit harder than usual. There’s no telling what he might be driving by the team the series resumes at Zandvoort in three weeks’ time …
Belgium, then, is the right venue at the right time to brighten his mood. Ricciardo won at Spa in 2014, had two more podiums in the subsequent three years, and has always been rapid in the Ardennes. A strong weekend may not make or break what happens next, but it can only provide clarity to a cloudy picture.
Mansell marching towards the top
The F1® calendar still has 14 starts to go if you add the three Sprint weekends into the mix – that’s longer than entire seasons were not so long ago – but it’s getting down to the business end of the FIA Formula 3® schedule, and Australia’s Christian Mansell is a young man on a mission.
The 19-year-old has really kicked on this season; 12th at the end of 2023, the Maitland teenager drew to within 22 points of series leader Gabriele Mini (Prema) in fifth with another strong weekend for ART Grand Prix in Budapest, a pair of top-five finishes seeing him become an outside yet legitimate championship chance.
Spa offers great memories for Mansell, too; last year, he produced one of the drives of the season to surge from 23rd on the grid to second in the feature race, a performance later recognised as the Best Comeback of the Year at the end-of-season prizegiving ceremony in Monaco. Reprise something similar to that, and Mansell might go to Monza for the season finale with, at the very least, a top-three championship finish within reach.
The Formula 1® Belgian Grand Prix 2024 will be available to watch live on Foxtel and Kayo. See our article What time does the F1® Belgian Grand Prix 2024 start for Australians? for your local timings.
