Belgian GP Thursday

19:20

As a goodnight present - some more classic Spa action from the Motorsport Images archive: Alain Prost leads as things go awry for Nelson Piquet in 1985

19:16 That's where we'll leave you on this news-packed day, which began with the possibility of Marcus Ericsson stepping in for Kimi Raikkonen at Alfa Romeo this weekend, then featured two major pieces of the 2020 driver line-up falling into place, and plenty of speculation over the next moves and reaction to everything that had occurred.

Thanks for your company today, we'll be back with our usual Autosport Live coverage of every moment of track action from Spa over the rest of the weekend.

19:14 It seems a long time ago now on this packed day, but earlier on Mercedes officially announced that it had picked Bottas rather than Ocon to be Hamilton's 2020 team-mate.

Though Bottas came out fighting with a superb start to this season, he's long since trailed away from Hamilton in what initially looked like it might become a spicy intra-team title battle.

Team boss Toto Wolff has mentioned "weaknesses" that Bottas still needs to deal with. Here's Edd Straw's take on the problems Bottas must swiftly eliminate in what is already a battle to hold onto his seat for 2021:

The lingering weaknesses Bottas must eliminate now - F1 - Autosport Plus

Valtteri Bottas's fight to remain at Mercedes starts again for 2021 after completing a deal to remain with the team next year. With Ferrari and Red Bull looming as a threat, he must remove his lingering weaknesses

19:08

Twenty years ago this weekend, this was the battle for victory in the Belgian GP supporting Formula 3000 race - Jason Watt fending off Gonzalo Rodriguez.

Both were drivers who could've made it to F1, but tragedy struck both within a month of that Spa race. Rodriguez was killed in a Champ Car crash at Laguna Seca, and Watt was left paralysed in a motorcycle crash just after also winning the F3000 finale at the Nurburgring - though he would later return to racing in an adapted car.

The 20th anniversary of the Watt/Rodriguez fight probably won't be on many people's minds in the Spa paddock this weekend, but we felt it was worth marking.

19:00 From someone talking about an unchanged 2020 team-mate to someone talking about their new one... Reporters raised Hulkenberg's suggestion that Ocon's nationality was "one piece of the puzzle" in his Renault deal with Ricciardo this afternoon.

"Actually, maybe this is breaking news as well: Esteban is also Australian. He has an Australian passport. I have a Monegasque [one]," was Ricciardo's not entirely serious response.

But also: "I’m not convinced the team is making decisions based on marketing at the moment. The one objective and the reason I signed, is because they want to be a top team and fighting for championships.

"Maybe the French thing is a bonus, but I would definitely say performance and growth in the team is the bigger reason why they signed with him."

18:56 Hamilton's first reaction when asked for his thoughts on Bottas getting a fourth season as his team-mate: "Is it four years already?"

He was clearly very content with the news.

"We have a great relationship, Valtteri and I, it's constantly improving," he said.

"I think it was a smart decision from the team, and I really look forward to working with him - I really enjoy working with him in general, we get on well both outside and on the track."

18:54 Earlier today we mentioned Magnussen bluntly dismissing any suggestion that his 2017 Hungarian GP "suck my balls" spat with potential 2020 Haas team-mate Hulkenberg might sour their relationship should they end up sharing a garage next year.

Haas team principal Gunther Steiner was very relaxed about this, given how much his current employees Grosjean and Magnussen have clashes on track:

"We are running into each other even without history!" he joked. "We would manage..."

18:46 Later in the weekend we'll hear from Ocon about sealing his return to the F1 grid with Renault for 2020. In the meantime, here's some insight on what he's been doing in his behind the scenes Mercedes role this year:

18:45 What's the first thing you think of when you think of Spa? For most people it's surely Eau Rouge.

Autosport Performance recently looked into how F1's most famous corner had changed over the years (more than you might think) and how drivers' perceptions of it had shifted, and also got some expert tips on how to tackle it.

Here's the full feature, which also includes Ricardo Zonta's take on BAR's infamous pair of Eau Rouge shunts in 1999 Belgian GP qualifying:

The evolution of Eau Rouge - Autosport Performance

It's now flat in a Formula 1 car, but Spa-Francorchamps' iconic corner, Eau Rouge, is still a challenge not to be underestimated

18:41 Haas has had a perplexing year in which it has at times appeared to have the fourth-fastest car on pure pace but somehow finds itself only ninth in the constructors' championship amid tyre woes, split specs on its cars and that entertaining title sponsor eventfulness.

After a run of races where Magnussen and Grosjean were driving different specification cars, they're back in the same equipment this weekend - a 'refined' version of an upgrade that first appeared in Germany last month.

But Magnussen doesn't think there's any certainty of light at the end of the tunnel yet:

"I think we got some good data to compare directly across the cars, but it’s hard to say what we learned," he said of the split-spec races.

"It’s going to be a process of ironing out the problems with this upgrade and try and work our way through the weaknesses and build up the strengths we’ve seen on this upgrade."

18:25 For a bit more insight into Gasly's mood today, here's how his media session ended:

Q. Have you talked to Kvyat about the situation?

PG: Nothing.

Q. Are you expecting help on that front?

PG: No.

Q. Have you spoken to Alex Albon about what he can expect at Red Bull?

PG: No.

Q. What can he expect?

PG: It’s a top team. They have their way of working. It’s a really strong team and really competitive so for him it will be a positive change.

18:20 There's perhaps more interest in the Honda engine upgrade, partly because it'll mean a grid penalty for Albon on his Red Bull debut, but also because this is the first year when Honda might really be a team to fear at a power track:

Honda brings new F1 engine for Belgian GP but not for Verstappen

Honda will introduce its third engine upgrade of the Formula 1 season at the Belgian Grand Prix, but Max Verstappen will not have use of it for strategic reasons

18:16 Vettel was also asked for his thoughts on Mercedes turning up with a new engine spec this weekend, something Ferrari doesn't have just yet.

He shrugged it off - "for us the plan is clear and we won't have a new engine yet" - and Hamilton pretty much did too, with Edd Straw reporting that the world champion suggested the new Mercedes unit wouldn't be a huge difference.

18:15 Here's more from Vettel playing down the talk of Ferrari having an excellent shot at ending its win drought this weekend. He says his priority for the remaining part of this troubled season is to help the team make sure it's "drawing the right conclusions" because it's going to be a long 2020 as well otherwise.

"Next year, the rules will remain relatively the same, so this year will give you some idea of what will happen in the next year and a half," he points out.

18:13 This week we've been counting down the 50 most influential people in modern motorsport in a new annual feature - The Power List.

Plenty of the movers and shakers, and drivers, in the F1 paddock feature in it:

Autosport’s 2019 Motorsport Power List

This list covers the 50 most powerful people in global motorsport – with all roles, both in and out of the spotlight, considered by Autosport's experts.

18:07 Lando Norris has confirmed he has the all-clear to race after a tendon inflammation from running left him wearing a supportive boot during the week. The boot is gone and Norris is ready to go.

18:04 In Lewis Hamilton's media session just now, he was very adamant that Ferrari will be a real threat here at Spa and also at Monza next weekend.

That's very much in line with what Mercedes engine chief Andy Cowell recently insisted to Jonathan Noble:

The one area Mercedes is losing - F1 - Autosport Plus

Mercedes may have a perfect championship record in Formula 1's turbo-hybrid era - which it looks set to extend in 2019 - but the main battleground that pushed it to the front of the grid is now being won by another team

18:03

Charles Leclerc was one of several F1 drivers expressing their sympathy for Pierre Gasly this afternoon. However, that wasn't what he was being asked about when this shot was taken

17:57

Racing Point is the latest team to add a pair of fins to the point at which the chassis joins the nose, adding a solution not dissimilar to Mercedes' interpretation.

These help to regulate the airflow over the chassis and helps to control it around the pushrod pick-up point. The fins have been used in conjunction with an S-duct on other cars, but Racing Point doesn't run one and so these are largely to bring airflow down the flanks of the car.

17:51 In his social media post immediately after Renault announced he was being replaced by Ocon next year, Hulkenberg hinted at "a whole bundle of factors" that meant the decision was "not only about performance".

He's been elaborating on that to reporters, including saying that Ocon and Renault both being French was "one piece of the puzzle”.

We've got plenty more on Hulkenberg's latest career development to come later today and tomorrow on our news pages, including the chances of him ending up joining Magnussen at Haas, the other factors Hulkenberg believes were involved in Renault's choice and the moment he saw the writing was on the wall for his time at the team.

17:43

Lots of interest in Renault's ousted man Hulkenberg this afternoon. We'll have Scott Mitchell reporting back from there shortly

17:42 Racing Point's Lance Stroll has a knack for avoiding letting anything slip in a media session that us dastardly reporters might 'spin up' into a storm.

Erwin Jaeggi was at Stroll's media session earlier and we've spent really quite a lot of time trying to pick out some highlights from it for this live blog.

We can tell you that Stroll felt it was "nice just to take some time off and relax" over the summer.

And when pushed for his thoughts on the increasingly possibility of another year with Perez as his team-mate, he offered: "as a driver you just don’t want to have too much controversy inside the team" - which he won't get with Perez because "so far it’s been smooth".

Stroll said approximately 900 other words during his chat with the press but we'll leave you to imagine those.

He'll now hopefully punish us for our sarcasm by getting involved in a spectacular race incident and then being gloriously quotable about it on Sunday. Please.

17:36 Adam Cooper is fresh back from hearing from Sebastian Vettel, and reports that he's been playing down the suggestion Ferrari ought to win here given its engine performance advantage - arguing that Spa has too many corners to be considered "a drag race", and the same for Monza.

Technically this weekend marks one year since Vettel's last F1 win. But he doesn't accept that's the case and says he's still claiming Canada (where he was dropped to second by a penalty) as a win...

17:33 And back to JACK BENYON for thoughts on another F2/F3 star who some think could have a 2020 F1 shot:

One of the rumours that has emerged recently is that Formula 2 title contender Luca Ghiotto could be in with a shout at Toro Rosso too.

Aside from a test with Williams in 2017, Ghiotto has no F1 experience. But that’s still more than Albon had entering F1 in 2019.

“For me it’s good because people are talking,” Ghiotto told Autosport. “I would like to have a chat with them. So far it hasn’t happened.”

Here's my take on Ghiotto's F1 candidacy:

The underrated driver who could 'Albon' his way to F1 - F1 - Autosport Plus

There's a driver on the 2019 Formula 2 grid that has shown plenty of promise over the years, but is still a step away from making it to the top level. But one current Formula 1 rookie's journey to grand prix racing has given this underrated driver hope

17:30 Here's a vote for Vips from Scott Mitchell earlier this week too:

The new blood Toro Rosso needs for 2020 - F1 - Autosport Plus

As Red Bull auditions drivers for its top team, there's an assumption that Toro Rosso will just end up with whoever is deemed not good enough or not ready yet. It needn't be that way, there's a better option waiting in the wings

17:30 More from down the hill in the F2/F3 paddock, where JACK BENYON hangs out:

Red Bull's next star?

FIA Formula 3 is also in action this weekend, and while he’s not in the championship’s top team ART, Juri Vips is the driver everyone has their eyes on as Red Bull’s next heir to an F1 throne.

Of Red Bull’s current junior pool, Vips is the only driver looking likely to score enough superlicence points – he needs third in the F3 Championship and he lies second – to reach Formula 1, which has led to him being linked to a sensational Daniil Kvyat style jump from F3 (which was GP3 in Kvyat's day) to the top level.

When asked if he was ready for F1, Vips said: “I don’t know, because I’ve never driven one. But I’d like to hope so! I think the management at Red Bull and Toro Rosso are much better at judging that. They’ve done that a lot in the past. I feel like I’ve had a really good season.”

17:28 We'll also be hearing from Grosjean, the under-threat Haas driver, in a little while.

Earlier today his team-mate Magnussen said he was "fairly pleased" to not be part of this year's driver market when quizzed on the topic by Adam Cooper.

If Grosjean goes, his likely replacement is Hulkenberg - a man with whom Magnussen had a famous spat in Hungary two years ago.

That's a topic Magnussen really didn't want to get into today.

“It was dramatised massively, I'm getting really tired of this subject," he said. "Between me and Nico there’s really been only once incident in Hungary two years ago. It’s incredible we are still talking about it."

Well in fairness, that incident did require multiple Autosport journalists to listen to a video recording approximately 378 times to work out if Magnussen told Hulkenberg to simply "suck my balls" or "suck my balls, honey" and we still didn't really reach an absolute conclusion. It was like one of this optical illusions that becomes an internet sensation. And the jibe is just so much more glorious with "honey" in it.

17:24

Back to 2019, and Kevin Magnussen...

17:23

Vettel and Leclerc will be two of the next drivers we'll be hearing from. Back in 1961, Ferrari took a 1-2-3-4 at the old Spa with its 'Sharknoses'. In this recently digitised shot from Motorsport Images, local hero Olivier Gendebien leads team-mates Phil Hill (the eventual winner), Wolfgang von Trips and Richie Ginther

17:19 So why did Mercedes opt to keep Bottas and not give Ocon a shot? Edd Straw and Scott Mitchell debate that in the Spa paddock:

17:17 So does Ocon's 2020 move to Renault mean he's now off Mercedes' radar?

It's going to be a short while before we find out, but on Saturday there will be a joint press briefing featuring Ocon, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul.

Those three sharing a table suggests that either Mercedes still does have a hand in Ocon's career, or Wolff's saying a very friendly goodbye. We'll find out on Saturday, and let you know on our news pages.

17:06 Here's Kvyat's full thoughts on being overlooked for a return to Red Bull in favour of Albon:

Kvyat understands why Red Bull F1 picked Albon to replace Gasly

Daniil Kvyat says he understands why Red Bull picked Alex Albon to replace Pierre Gasly at its senior Formula 1 team instead of him

17:03 Still to come this afternoon, we'll be hearing from:

Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc - The pre-race favourites given Ferrari's engine advantage?
Lewis Hamilton - Our runaway world championship leader
Nico Hulkenberg - A man who's just lost his drive
Daniel Ricciardo - A man who's just got a new team-mate
Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris - Err... Well compared to most people in this paddock they've had a pretty uneventful summer, haven't they? Oh, Lando hurt his foot, and managed to do so without a dramatic news chase over whether a stand-in driver might be called up:

Minor injury left McLaren F1 team's Norris wearing supportive boot

A minor injury left McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris requiring a supportive boot days before the Belgian Grand Prix, but he should not have any issues for the race

16:58

Here's a great shot of the Mercedes exhaust from Giorgio Piola, and you can see the two wastegates peeking out slightly further down the engine cover than usual. This lets Mercedes tighten up the bodywork around the main exhaust.

And what's that little silver thing in the very centre of the image? It's one of FOM's exhaust microphones, which allows the TV feed to crank up the volume on the V6 turbo-hybrid powertrains.

16:57 Visit Motorsport Images' site for hundreds of thousands more.

16:56

Down at Motorsport Images, we have a team of archivists and picture editors working tirelessly to make an ever greater number of pictures from our huge photo archive available in digital form. Among the latest epic shots uploaded from Spa's F1 history is this Rainer Schlegelmilch shot of Ayrton Senna on the way to victory in the 1989 Belgian GP

16:48 Less coy about his feelings is Pierre Gasly. Here's Scott Mitchell's full report on why the demoted ex-Red Bull driver believes his return to Toro Rosso goes against promises the team had made:

Gasly: Red Bull demotion to Toro Rosso went against what I was told

Pierre Gasly says his demotion from the Red Bull Formula 1 team came as a shock because he was told he would keep his drive until the end of 2019

16:43 Daniil Kvyat is the Red Bull/Toro Rosso driver least in the limelight by some distance today - he hasn't just abruptly swapped teams, and there aren't tens of thousands of his countrymen cheering his every move, so he can get on with things in peace.

He's been quite coy about his feelings on Albon getting the Red Bull call-up and him being left at Toro Rosso, his remarks largely along these lines: "I don't have any disappointment or anything, I think my job doesn't change and my year has been fantastic, so I look at that rather than at other things, that are a bit more out of my control". We'll have more on that shortly.

Kvyat became a father just before the summer break and was also asked about life with a newborn daughter at home.

"It was OK, no problem," he said. "It is not as bad as some people think."

Autosport's most recent new dad is raising an eyebrow at that.

16:39

Bottas spent some of his break testing World Rally Cars, as captured in this Motorsport Images shot of him at work with M-Sport. He's now tried the Ford, Citroen and Toyota...

We're pretty sure a rally move wasn't that "plan B" he'd been talking about, but we have been doing some digging around the WRC service park to find out more - keep an eye on Autosport over the coming week...

16:36

Curiously enough, Mercedes has appeared in Belgium with a higher-downforce rear wing - so what's going on here?<br><br>With Singapore only a few weeks away, it would be conceivable that the team is looking to get some more data on it in practice, before swapping for a lower-downforce wing for actual normal Spa use.

Curiously enough, Mercedes has appeared in Belgium with a higher-downforce rear wing - so what's going on here?

With Singapore only a few weeks away, it would be conceivable that the team is looking to get some more data on it in practice, before swapping for a lower-downforce wing for actual normal Spa use.