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Formula 1 Belgian GP

F1 Belgian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2

Updates from the Friday practice sessions at Spa-Francorchamps for the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix

The support race paddock and new grandstand at Eau Rouge

F1 returns after its summer break with major developments off the track taking focus, headlined by Audi’s announcement it will join the championship as a power unit supplier in 2026.

It followed a shake-up in the F1 driver market, as Daniel Ricciardo’s early split from McLaren at the end of the season was confirmed earlier this week. With Fernando Alonso heading to Aston Martin to replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel in 2023, attention turns to Oscar Piastri and whether he will end up at Alpine or McLaren.

On the track, Max Verstappen leads the F1 world drivers’ championship by 80 points over Charles Leclerc thanks to back-to-back wins in France and Hungary before the summer break.

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Stopwatch
Sainz goes fastest with a 1m46.538s on the softs - 0.2s quicker than Verstappen's earlier effort.
Breaking news
Here's the latest on the engine-related grid penalties for this weekend, headlined by Verstappen and Leclerc: 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/verstappen-to-join-f1-title-rival-leclerc-at-back-of-belgian-gp-grid/10358206/
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More from Matt Kew on the porpoising clampdown: "TD039 comes into effect this weekend, whereby the FIA will be monitoring the vertical movements on the cars to effectively limit porpoising for the safety of the drivers.

"The compression through Eau Rouge helps push the cars into the ground to make the movement but despite the Gs, it looks like the Williams is still managing to bounce most notably of all."

Mechanical problem
It hasn't been a great start to practice for Bottas either who is out of his Alfa Romeo having only completed two laps.
Leclerc has asked for a seat change at Ferrari (no, not like that). It looks like he had a new seat in for FP1 but it wasn't to his liking so he's reverted to his old one.
Stopwatch
Hamilton slots into second place with a 1m48.420s set on the mediums.
Tsunoda gets a slide on as he complains of rear locking, but avoids any major issue to catch the car and make it back to the pits.

Matt Kew's latest insight - the unofficial ‘most sparky through Eau Rouge’ leaderboard:
1. McLaren
2. Red Bull
3. Alfa Romeo

It's the one they all want, I'm sure.

Stopwatch
Perez makes it a Red Bull 1-2 with a 1m48.474s - also on the hards - to go 1.7s off Verstappen.
Stopwatch
Leclerc pops up to second place on the times, 2.2s off Verstappen's earlier effort, but he is on the hards while the Red Bull driver set his time on the softs.
Zhou has asked for a helmet change as he says his helmet is lifting up on the straights. That's less than ideal.
Stopwatch
Verstappen hasn't gone rusty over the summer break, as he puts in a 1m46.755s to go 2.3s quicker than anyone else.
Mechanical problem
Ocon reports he has a problem with his Alpine and suspects it is an issue with the differential or the gearbox. He duly pits to allow his team to take a closer look.
Quote
Autosport F1 editor Matt Kew is trackside at Eau Rouge: "Two clear yellow lines are forming on track to show different lines through Eau Rouge from where the car floors are pounding into asphalt, sparking and presumably leaving marks on the ground."
Stopwatch
Verstappen tops the times with a 1m47.456s on the softs, with 18 of the 20 drivers on the track now. Just Hamilton and Bottas missing at present.
Careful! Latifi gets released from the Williams garage right into the path of Verstappen who was exiting pitlane at the same time. They avoid contact but that's been noted by race control.
The Belgian GP also sees the enforcement of F1's new Aerodynamic Oscillation Metric, or AOM as it'll be known, which will limit cars porpoising during the race.
Stopwatch
While we've revealed far too much of what we got up to during the summer break, Sainz posts the first proper lap time of the session, a 1m51.622s.
Latifi loses a small part of bodywork from his Williams, while our spies trackside also noted Perez lost a piece on his way to Eau Rouge. Always got to wait for the glue to fully dry and time to set. Any model maker knows that.
Sainz agrees with Albon's assessment as he switches to the hard dry tyres after a lap of checking out conditions.
Despite the thick cloud cover and earlier rain Albon reports the track is "completely dry" despite all the drivers on the track being on the intermediates to start with.
Green flag
Off we go for FP1!
Liam Lawson is also making his F1 debut in this session, taking up one of the young diver FP1 slots for AlphaTauri. He's in Gasly's car for the session.
But it isn't great news for Leclerc fans, as he's set to take a hefty grid penalty into this weekend with a Ferrari power unit change. He might not be the only one this weekend either, but more on that when we get it.
Enough about all that though, it is almost time for the first official F1 track action in 26 days. We've missed it.
And 'F1nally', there's no word on a certain energy drinks branded-team partnering up with a certain German manufacturer. But that one seems to be only a matter of time.
To rather push home that point, Alfa Romeo will end its F1 partnership with Sauber at the end of 2023.
This morning Audi officially announced it'll join the F1 ranks from 2026 after the next gen rules were rubber-stamped during the summer break. There's no official word on who it'll partner up with, but all signs point to Sauber.
So that's where we are at on the F1 driver market. But that's not all, the team side of things is also going through changes, to quote Black Sabbath.

Elsewhere, Albon has secured his long-term future at Williams, while Ricciardo's unexpected arrival on the F1 driver market could shake-up plans at other teams yet to nail down its 2023 line-ups.

Here's a look at Ricciardo's options to stay in F1: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/what-are-ricciardos-options-to-stay-in-formula-1/10357194/

The Piastri tug-of-war between Alpine and McLaren looks set to be decided by an F1 Contract Recognition Board hearing planned for next week.
Then earlier this week that storyline picked up momentum when McLaren and Ricciardo made a mutual agreement to part ways at the end of 2022, opening up a slot in the team's driver line-up for next year.
Alpine reacted to Alonso's exit by announcing its junior driver Piastri as part of its 2023 driver line-up, a plan he disputed, which put the wheels in motion on a potential McLaren move.
Starting with the F1 driver market, Alonso dropped a bombshell the day after the Hungarian GP by making a shock move to Aston Martin to replace the retiring Vettel.
Before practice gets going, let's recap all the goings on from a very busy F1 summer break...
Green flag
A day can be a long time in Formula 1, so 26 days can feel like a lifetime. There's been plenty of action in that time but all of it off the track, until now. We're just under 30 minutes away from first practice at the Belgian GP.

By: autosport.com

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