[Official] Rate the Grand Prix: Belgian Grand Prix 2023

[Born Racer]

What score do you award it?

[Richard C]

No real doubt or battle up front. Some great racing mid pack and back. Spa is always interesting somehow. Overall average, so I gave it a five.

Richard

[rika]

4.


Boring
Not much action.
DRS efect is too high, that means no fight
Not even a bit of rain could save that race



Stupid flares, that is dangerous!
And I thought that was pohibited?

[chillibowl]

Agreed on it pretty average. A lot of content to digest over the weekend so feeling a bit oversaturated. 5

[bjohnsonsmith]

The Ardennes weather, which is always a factor, livened things up briefly but it wasn't as obliging as it could have been. 6 because it is Spa.

[bathurst77]

7 from me. max coming up fro m 6th early then lots of action and some great passes in the mid and back end of the field. As an Aussie it wasnt very cheerful with Oscar pincbed and danny not able to do much.
Was surprised that Haas had fastest lap for most of the mid part of the race.

[GT6]

Well if you ignored the top 4 then it was actually a good race with some good overtakes so gave it a 6

[Aysedasi]

I found the highlights pretty dull. The score is docked by two points for the stupid DRS on the Kemmel. 4.

[fergus_r]

7. I thought it was pretty entertaining overall. DRS didn't seem to be as powerful as usual here, meaning it was one of the rare (dry) races where there was actually some overtaking in corners, and with the different pit strategies there were always cars running close together.

The first 10-15 laps in particular were great - a long train of cars not splitting up from each other like they usually do. It was a bit quieter after that but I felt there was more going on than a lot of other GPs I've seen this year.

Not to mention the threat of rain and the fact Max didn't lead every lap from pole, and also had a scare when it started to drizzle a bit.

[Badlands99]

Boring throughout - 3 - I need to find another fence to paint!

[steve_r]

Dire. People point to periods of Mercedes domination, but this is different. When Merc were dominating, when something went wrong, such as a grid penalty either Ferrari or Red Bull were competitive enough to grab a race win or at least challenge. Or the teammates would be close enough to put up a genuine challenge from time to time.

The fact that this is such a great track and the fact that it rained and the fact that Verstappen had a grid penalty perhaps gave me higher expectations that I should have had, which made the non-event that we were served more disappointing.

A harsh 2 from me.

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by steve_r

Dire. People point to periods of Mercedes domination, but this is different. When Merc were dominating, when something went wrong, such as a grid penalty either Ferrari or Red Bull were competitive enough to grab a race win or at least challenge. Or the teammates would be close enough to put up a genuine challenge from time to time.

We all have different opinions, usually depending on which team/driver one supports, and I have to disagree with you. The Mercedes domination lasted 7 years whereas RedBull have really only dominated last year and this. And apart from Rosberg's one title there was really only one driver in it. Ferrari's brief period of competitiveness was a bit 'iffy' to say the least.
I agree with those here who liked the midfield battles and gave it a 6. Spa is a fantastic circuit.

[steve_r]

Originally Posted by morninggents

We all have different opinions, usually depending on which team/driver one supports, and I have to disagree with you. The Mercedes domination lasted 7 years whereas RedBull have really only dominated last year and this. And apart from Rosberg's one title there was really only one driver in it. Ferrari's brief period of competitiveness was a bit 'iffy' to say the least.
I agree with those here who liked the midfield battles and gave it a 6. Spa is a fantastic circuit.

We do have different opinions, and that is fine. But Mercedes domination included some intense teammate fights, and included periods when Ferrari and RBR took race wins. That is not the case at all now.

[S griffin]

I think it could have been better. I miss the days when two drivers in a team would race for the win. The dominance has got too much. We need someone else winning for a change.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by steve_r

We do have different opinions, and that is fine. But Mercedes domination included some intense teammate fights, and included periods when Ferrari and RBR took race wins. That is not the case at all now.

This is the first year that RBR have totally dominated, winning every race with Verstappen wining the bulk of them. That wasn't the case in 2021 or '22.

[steve_r]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

This is the first year that RBR have totally dominated, winning every race with Verstappen wining the bulk of them. That wasn't the case in 2021 or '22.

I could start looking at the 2022 season for signs that RBR did not dominate, but that doesn't help the current snoozefest at all.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by steve_r

I could start looking at the 2022 season for signs that RBR did not dominate, but that doesn't help the current snoozefest at all.

They dominated in 2022 but not to the extent they have this year, winning every race. As for the snoozefest, the DRS trains don't help, otherwise there is other stuff going on down the field during a race. If the focus is purely on who wins, then it can get boring.

[chillibowl]

is it just RBR dominating or that after 12 races no other team seems to be getting handle on how to get closer to them and at this point in the season it doesnt look like they are going to try to either?

Mclaren's improvement has been a bright spot though but is that down to their efforts or a confused Ferrari team, a floundering Alpine, a backwards moving AM, and an uninspired Merc?

[Aysedasi]

I think it's a little more than that as, prior to Spa, McLaren appeared to have leapfrogged those other teams, but the Spa performance (by Lando anyway) wasn't so convincing. Let's face it, RBR have everything pretty much wrapped up for themselves and Max already so there's little incentive for the other teams to do much more with the '23 cars unless it also assists their '24 prep.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

is it just RBR dominating or that after 12 races no other team seems to be getting handle on how to get closer to them and at this point in the season it doesnt look like they are going to try to either?

Mclaren's improvement has been a bright spot though but is that down to their efforts or a confused Ferrari team, a floundering Alpine, a backwards moving AM, and an uninspired Merc?

RBR and Max are locked in for this season.

I am guessing here, but I can imagine that teams had significant updates that may have required enough lead time that this would result in a somewhat planned schedule of release. Of which we have seen teams recently phase in some updates (such as McLaren). On top of that, there may be some level of "opportunistic" updates in that they may have figured a quick revision to something. Those might have been small revisions.

While everyone is devoting some time to the 2024 cars, the question is what is the ratio of money spent to develop the 2023 car vs. 2024 car? I think teams might feel they are in two broad categories...

(1) They have a good design/aero concept, but they just need to develop it.
(2) They are working a dead end and need to rethink their design/aero concept.

For those in the first group, any improvements to 2023 car probably can flow over into the 2024 car. So they may continue some level of 2023 development. Especially if they are in a points battle that may have end of season payout implications.

For those in the second group, they probably are nearly focusing completely on 2024 at this point. But as mentioned, anyone who is locked in a close constructors battle and the outcome impacts funding, they may choose to be strategic on some 2023 upgrades.

Richard

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by morninggents

We all have different opinions, usually depending on which team/driver one supports, and I have to disagree with you. The Mercedes domination lasted 7 years whereas RedBull have really only dominated last year and this. And apart from Rosberg's one title there was really only one driver in it. Ferrari's brief period of competitiveness was a bit 'iffy' to say the least.
I agree with those here who liked the midfield battles and gave it a 6. Spa is a fantastic circuit.

This is an interesting comment because Driver 61 have posted a list of the championships that were resolved earliest in the season.
The earliest was Schumacher in 2002 (6 races before the end), Mansell 1992, 5 races before the end, and the next 4 seasons were all more recent seasons with Schumacher, Vettel and Verstappen (2022) named but not Hamilton, because all of his championships were resolved with 3 or less races to go.

I know the way points are applied and the length of the season makes a difference but for all the talk about Mercedes domination what we have had since the 2021 final race decision is Red Bull domination at something approaching an all-time level.

We could suggest that all those who thought Mercedes dominated and wanted someone else to win have now got what they asked for....

[BertMk2]

I've only seen the C4 highlights but from that it looked like a good race, plenty going on behind Max and some inventive overtakes going on with the tyre and setup offsets that we saw.

[S griffin]

I saw the C4 highlights too and certainly there some good battles up and down the field. Just need someone to give a Max a race and then it will be more enjoyable. The ingredients are there for some good racing, we just need more competition at the front

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

The earliest was Schumacher in 2002 (6 races before the end), Mansell 1992, 5 races before the end, and the next 4 seasons were all more recent seasons with Schumacher, Vettel and Verstappen (2022) named but not Hamilton, because all of his championships were resolved with 3 or less races to go.

In 2019 and 2020 he only had his teammate to beat and we all know which way that would be allowed to go.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by morninggents

In 2019 and 2020 he only had his teammate to beat and we all know which way that would be allowed to go.

When the #2 isn't as good as you, it's bound to happen, just as it is now.