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🇧🇪 Formula 1 2021: R12 – The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method ☔

After several hours of filler, and some more filler after, fans that had waited for several hours for action at the Belgian GP were given just enough laps under the safety car for F1 to classify its drivers and give out half points to drivers in the championship standings, for the first time since Malaysia 2009.

It means double-points (but half points) finishes for just Williams and Ferrari and Max Verstappen “winning” ahead of a first podium for George Russell and championship leader Lewis Hamilton. The reigning champion keeps his lead, but it has been reduced to just three points in the first part of a triple-header that takes in the Netherlands and Italy.
Normally, a race where eight of the 10 teams (sorry Alfa Romeo and Haas) score points would be celebrated, but this felt somewhat hollow. It means the biggest talking point of the weekend, other than weather that normally brings out a Cliff Richard karaoke session, is George Russell’s amazing lap in qualifying, that, had he been just a tiny bit quicker, would have been enough to claim his first F1 victory.
On intermediate tyres, Russell pushed his Williams - maybe the 14th-16th-best car on the grid - to previously unseen heights and a quarter of a second away from pole position. The lap was even more stunning when you consider Lando Norris crashing at Eau Rouge and required a check up from Sebastian Vettel and a trip to hospital, which would, or should, put some level of fear and caution into a driver.

With the context of the weather, and previous incidents, and media speculation over his future, the lap was not only one of the best qualifying laps in the hybrid era, but possibly beyond too. A lap worth every one of the nine points awarded for his second-placed finish. And probably one that seals Valtteri Bottas’ fate at Mercedes, with the British driver showing again that he can push and even beat the drivers at the top.
It was simply not a safe environment for the cars to race in, with a lot of visibility-killing spray and reduced grip levels throughout the longest track on the F1 calendar. Wet races are amazingly exciting, but there is often a fine line between excitement and danger, as Norris’ incident in qualifying showed. Belgium has seen its share of crashes in the wet, with the 1998 race start being memorable for around half the field being clattered into in the first corners, so while its never fun to watch the fastest cars in the world lined up for hours under their own personalised gazebos, it is completely understandable.

So what’s next? A trip to Zandvoort, and a closer title race than we had going into Spa. But the way all of these statistical milestones have happened - Russell’s podium, another Verstappen win, even a fastest lap for Haas, is absolutely not how 99% of people in F1 would have wanted this to happen. But, 100% of people watching would have wanted the drivers and teams to remain safe.

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