Official 2023 Belgian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[Piginapoke]

We’re onto Belgium, the last race before the summer break- fast in places but also a lot of slow corners. Expect Red Bull to fly here, as last year.

Lando gets to go on the winners’ poll after the last two excellent races from McLaren. I’m keeping Sainz and Leclerc on there out of sympathy.

It’s a Sprint weekend, sorry. Here’s to a great race.

Date(s): Friday 28 July to Sunday 30 July 2023.

UK Broadcast Timings (and track time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1. Qualifying and race highlights are shown on Channel 4.





2022 Race Highlights:

https://youtu.be/dnnh8unDP4Y

Live timing for all sessions available here:

https://www.formula1.com/en/f1-live.html

Lap times, PU component use, technical reports and Stewards' decisions for the weekend will appear here:

https://www.fia.com/documents/championships/fia-fo...

Weather forecast (wet):

https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/b9f7c4da70871...

Tyre options:

Medium range- C2-C4:



2022 Result (Max domination):

[mk1coopers]

Thanks for the thread PiaP, currently the most interesting thing about an F1 weekend

[Piginapoke]

mk1coopers said:

Thanks for the thread PiaP, currently the most interesting thing about an F1 weekend

It’s a low bar!

[Sandpit Steve]

Quite a few circuit changes for this year, corners re-profiled, runoff areas extended and resurfaced.

Let’s pray for a monsoon on Saturday, so the whole s***t day gets binned.

McLaren should be good again, having proved last weekend that Silverstone wasn’t a fluke.

Should we leave MV off the poll, and we can all vote for who we think wins without him?

[Silverbullet767]

I had erased last year's result out of my head. He really went from 14th due to a grid penalty to win with a massive gap over his teammate who qualified 2nd in the same car.

[JulietRomeo]

Sandpit Steve said:

Should we leave MV off the poll, and we can all vote for who we think wins without him?

+1,111,111

[WPA]

Sandpit Steve said:

Should we leave MV off the poll, and we can all vote for who we think wins without him?

Or just set the poll on how many seconds will MV win by.

[eps]

Thanks PiaP!

Looking forward to the qualifying at least and hoping for a bit of rain to spice things up!!

[TikTak]

Thank once more PiaP! Could probably scrub the Ferraris and Alonso off there tbh. Add Piastri.

Yay Spa! Love this place. Weather looks changeable so who knows what we'll get.

Assuming there is no crazy SC incidents. Max to win. Norris to split the RBs with Checo 3rd. Piastri, Mercs and Ferraris behind. Alonso, Stroll, Albon and Danny Ric fumbling about for the last few points.

[suffolk009]

Spa is my facvourite circuit both to watch and drive.

Hoping for a great race -- perhaps Max will bin it when he nods off through complete boredom.

[rich861]

Looking very wet..

[suffolk009]

rich861 said:

Looking very wet..

Wet for Friday and Saturday. Then Met Office suggesting sunny with <10% chance of rain on Sunday. But then, it is Spa...

[BrettMRC]

A Redbull win, but I think one of them will DNF here with an engine failure.

Norris to be best of the rest, Mercedes next and a squabble between Ferrari & Alonso after that.

Ricicardo to pick up a point.

[Fundoreen]

Have the mudguards been approved yet? Due to the glacial F1 pace for everything except the actual car we could have another 2 lap safety car race. Will people still be happy losing all that admission money?

[phil1979]

suffolk009 said:

Spa is my facvourite circuit both to watch and drive.

Hoping for a great race -- perhaps Max will bin it when he nods off through complete boredom.

Love Spa.

Hoping for a Norris victory, a good showing from Ric, and Hamilton to bin it into Bono's motorhome whilst dedicating it to all the children of the world who dream the impossible.

[mat205125]

Predictions are:

Verstappen for the win
Norris for a 3rd podium in a row
Albon to make Q3 and score points
Mercedes to out perform Ferrari, however be behind McLaren
Aston fighting Alpine for the scraps of the points finishing positions .... or Ocon taking out Gasly at Le Source on Lap 1
Weather to play a big part in all three days
No points for Alpha or Alfa

[paulguitar]

Fundoreen said:

Have the mudguards been approved yet?

No, the trial was not a success.

phil1979 said:

Hoping for a Norris victory, a good showing from Ric, and Hamilton to bin it into Bono's motorhome whilst dedicating it to all the children of the world who dream the impossible.

Might want to consider seeing a therapist.

[entropy]

I thought this thread was a joke at first. I genuinely didn't know the Belgian GP was this weekend and was expecting the summer break.

[axel1990chp]

I’ll be tuning in for all of this one, minus FP1.

Love spa and still yet to go! Maybe next year

Can see Norris being fields above the rest in second, so I’ve voted for him, but I just can’t see past an MV domination. He drives extremely well here, talented in the wet and the DRS down kemmel for RB will be light speed. That being said, can see Perez qualifying poorly as per usual but him taking a podium regardless solely because of it.

LH to get caught up in argy bargy first corner with some damage.
Reckon we’ve got 2 safety cars on our hands this race too, which could spice things up!

Aston to stumble backwards but Fred driving the hell out of it to gather some pride back for the team!

Can’t wait to watch it, happy race people!

[Mark-C]

mat205125 said:

Predictions are:

Verstappen for the win
Norris for a 3rd podium in a row
Albon to make Q3 and score points
Mercedes to out perform Ferrari, however be behind McLaren
Aston fighting Alpine for the scraps of the points finishing positions .... or Ocon taking out Gasly at Le Source on Lap 1
Weather to play a big part in all three days
No points for Alpha or Alfa

Well that saves me posting my thoughts! Looks about right - quite hard to predict where Perez will end up though.

Podium of Verstappen, Norris, Piastri