The only element of F1's Spa travesty really worth celebrating

Trying to connect the words '2021 Belgian Grand Prix' with 'celebration' is an exercise fraught with peril. Really, very little about the weekend was worth celebrating after the washout led to a one-lap ‘race’ behind the safety car.

It utterly undid the fine actions Formula 1 witnessed the day before – from pole-winner Max Verstappen and his shock front-row companion George Russell.

In the aftermath of the abandoned race, the Williams squad still celebrated its first podium since Baku 2017, and Verstappen’s Red Bull team wasn’t exactly disappointed to close gap to Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton essentially for free.

Yes, they could’ve done so by more if full points had followed a full race, but there will likely be extreme dissatisfaction from some quarters if the Dutchman secures his first title by less than the total he took from Spa come the end of this super-close campaign.

Neither Williams nor Red Bull was responsible for F1’s Spa farce – competitors can only play the circumstances before them. It was the tone deaf normality of the podium proceedings that grated and perhaps Russell would’ve been wiser not to say it “doesn’t matter” how his first F1 podium arrived.

But such is the challenge of live broadcasting, and as this was one of F1’s best young drivers securing his first silverware on the back of a brilliant qualifying performance, such exuberance can surely be forgiven. And it must be said he struck a much more conciliatory tone in the post-‘race’ press conference.

“Obviously not the way I’d have liked to have scored my first podium,” Russell said. “A little bit of a strange feeling achieving it in this way but at the end of the day we’ve been rewarded for such a fantastic job [on Saturday].”

George Russell, Williams, second position, celebrates on the podium

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

PLUS: The critical calls that led to the memorable moment of an infamous Spa F1 weekend

Perhaps the celebration F1 fans should choose to remember better was the one in the Williams garage after he’d crossed the finish line at the end of Q3. After Russell had rocketed to the front row in the thrilling wet qualifying session, the sound of his team’s cheering could be heard in delightful background snippets as his engineer announced all the drivers he’d humbled by securing second in 2021’s eighth fastest car.

But there was another element to why Williams was so pleased at the end of the Spa weekend overall.

It’s 10 points accrued – nine for Russell and one for Nicholas Latifi, his reward for his best F1 qualifying performance after various grid penalties for Hungarian GP start blunderer Valtteri Bottas and the unfortunate other star of Spa qualifying, Lando Norris, plus Sergio Perez throwing away his seventh place in the queue with his embarrassing pre-grid crash. While the 10 the team had also picked up in Hungary had all but sealed eighth in the 2021 constructors’ championship, its Spa haul has cemented that placing.

“Obviously not the way I’d have liked to have scored my first podium; a little bit of a strange feeling achieving it in this way, but at the end of the day we’ve been rewarded for such a fantastic job" George Russell

Haas, with its undeveloped car and rookie drivers was never likely to threaten that level in 2021 – especially after missing points in the Baku and Budapest bedlams. But Alfa Romeo has a car that is just 0.045s slower than Williams on average in 2021 (based on Autosport’s supertimes calculations). Now it has no chance, really, of taking a fourth successive eighth place in the constructors’ (a result that came in 2018 as Sauber).

No wonder the team felt the outcome at Spa “hurts us all” in a statement issued on Monday. Everyone should feel that way, but really if it had produced a faster car then Alfa might've been in the position to capitalise on unexpected situations.

In a year when so much of car development is frozen, the team should hurriedly reflect on how Williams has turned a 0.094s supertimes deficit in 2020 to its current superiority.

Then there’s the driver factor. Russell’s qualifying brilliance has boosted Williams all year – it’s a big factor in the supertimes calculations and now it has earned materially meaningful bounty too.

George Russell, Williams FW43B, Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo Racing C41

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

PLUS: The biggest losers from F1's Spa non-race

Kimi Raikkonen was outqualified by Mick Schumacher at Spa. And while Antonio Giovinazzi’s performances have generally been much better, it’s hard to assess how good he has been given Raikkonen’s inconsistencies.

It’s not hard to imagine Alfa’s 2021 looking considerably better if it had a topline up-and-comer at one of its steering wheels. Not to deliver the cliched, and factually wrong, ‘outperforming the car’ element often quoted by F1 observers, but to regularly take the C41 closer to where it can truly reach.

Having leapfrogged Alfa, Williams is reaping the reward of its hard work to battle back since the awful days of 2018-2019. It's clearly worked well on car development (considering how little was allowed by regulation for 2021) and is running a very tight ship operationally – as evidenced by the calls in made in qualifying.

The team did, as Dave Robson, head of vehicle performance, acknowledge that it was “lucky” to a certain extent in qualifying at Spa.

Williams could afford to think just about escaping from each segment rather than saving tyres or run plans for the later moments – something Robson says is “much more difficult for the frontrunners”. But the team made its calls brilliantly and was rewarded.

And this wasn’t with a wet-weather set-up, which don’t really exist in F1 anymore given the risk of being embarrassingly caught out if the forecasts turn out wrong.

The teams set the cars up for optimum dry running and let their drivers get on with it – natural fluctuations in aerodynamic philosophies (for instance high-rake versus low-rake, with the former ‘naturally’ offering more benefit in the wet because the rear of the car sits higher) creating the handling differences.

George Russell, Williams FW43B, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“So we were basically a fairly normal [dry] Spa set-up,” said Robson. This meant a low-downforce rear wing the team did not change all weekend, and being “right down the middle of the Gurney flap range”.

On Russell – he delivered yet again for Williams, albeit with the team was under no illusion if it was “a fully dry race, I can't see any way we can hang on to P2”, per Robson.

Russell recalled the tough times he’s experienced at the back of the pack since arriving in F1, therefore explaining the pride he feels at its recent results, no matter the elements of fortune that flow through them. He remains the most likely driver to partner Hamilton at Mercedes next year, with the latest rumours suggesting an announcement coming at the upcoming Italian GP, possibly in tandem with the confirmation of Bottas moving to Alfa.

"The vast majority of the team here today, trackside, were here in 2019. So, we all went through that together. And while it is very tough, I guess it's that kind of shared experience that really starts to build the team" Dave Robson

Russell’s performances in the last three seasons have helped Williams’ recovery, as the team has worked to rebuild its confidence and operational nous. It knows it lacks experience of dealing with the differing pressures that come with front-of-the-grid running, but that will come if it can stay on its current upward trend.

“The vast majority of the team here today, trackside, were here in 2019,” Robson explained. “So, we all went through that together. And while it is very tough, I guess it's that kind of shared experience that really starts to build the team.

Mechanics on the grid with George Russell, Williams

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“We’ve worked hard to make sure we still did all the things that make us a good race team. We did those in 2019. And, in terms of lap times and results, that was never obvious. No one could see it.

“To be honest, there were times when we weren't sure whether we were really doing it right. Because a year like that really does sap your confidence. I think there were glimpses last year – Mugello and Imola – where we didn't score points [but we] genuinely earned places through being a good race team.

“Hungary, and again [in qualifying at Spa], I think we did we did everything well. We deserve it, I think. It has been a vindication of all the work the last couple of years.”

Looking back at Spa 2021 will be painful for many. But, other than Verstappen claiming another excellent pole and safety being rightly prioritised in terrible wet conditions, seeing one of F1's most-storied squads capitalise on its own gains in many areas, allied to a young driver proving his worth yet again, is probably the only element that deserves positive reflection.

George Russell, Williams FW43B

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images