It was just right
Fernando Alonso: “We know that safety is priority, we even spoke about that on Friday, at the previous briefing. And I think at the beginning it was not raceable conditions with visibility, so I think the race started at the right time, to be honest.”
Gabriel Bortoleto: “Safety is first always. I think when we went out for the first time it was just so much spray, so much aquaplaning that if we raced in that condition someone could get hurt. I love racing in every condition but when it’s not good, it’s not good, and we need to be realistic on that. I really feel like today we started at the right moment, and FIA did a very good job on that sense.”
Pierre Gasly: “To be fair, when we started, first lap we couldn’t see a thing. So that was the right call to put a red flag. Then there was a big cloud coming, was there a window for five minutes potentially but I think they did the right choice. Then it’s always the same question: could you restart the race 10 minutes earlier or later? I think at the end of the day, knowing the history of this track and what happens, as a driver, you’d rather be 10 minutes too late than 10 minutes too early. So I think on my side they did the right call, and [you can] always argue a couple of minutes earlier or later, but at the end they went on the safer side, which was the right one.”
Pierre Gasly, Alpine
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Liam Lawson: “Honestly, I think it was very well timed. We did a few laps under the safety car, the conditions were getting better and I think it was honestly the right time to start the race. The spray is always going to be bad in Formula 1, but I don’t think there were any crashes or anything like that. For us, at least where I was, it was comfortable.”
Esteban Ocon: “The FIA did a really good job in that sense taking care of us. I think they did the right thing in starting when it was the right time.”
Oscar Piastri: “The past few years, particularly here, we’ve given the FIA feedback that we would much rather be on the safe side than risk anything. And I think that’s what we did today. I think if you were to be picky, maybe we could have done one less formation lap. But in the grand scheme of things, if that’s one lap too early, is it worth it? No.
“Also, us three [podium finishers Piastri, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc] are the worst people to ask, because we have the least amount of cars in front of us. So yeah, for someone at the back, the first time we tried to start the race, even for myself with just Lando ahead, I couldn’t see a thing. So you can only imagine what it’s like for the guys at the back. So that’s always a tough thing to balance because the guys at the front have an easier time than the guys at the back.”
Yuki Tsunoda: “Right decision.”
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Michael Potts / Motorsport Images
Slightly too late, but no big deal
Franco Colapinto: “I think it’s tricky for the FIA, in Silverstone [people] were saying it was too wet, now that it was too dry, it’s tricky for them I think. It’s very difficult to judge before the cars go out on track, I think it was too wet when they red-flagged it once, maybe then too late, I don’t really have an answer. Of course we will talk to try and understand if we should have gone earlier or not.”
Isack Hadjar: “We completed 44 laps. The race was well managed. Visibility was great when we restarted. Maybe we could have taken less margin, but definitely well handled up there.”
Lewis Hamilton: “We obviously started the race a little bit too late, I would say. I kept shouting, it’s ready to go, it’s ready to go. And they kept going round and round and round. So I think they were probably overreacting from the last race where we asked them not to restart the race too early because visibility was bad. And I think this weekend they just went a bit too much the other way because we didn’t need a rolling start.
“I think they still did a good job. Of course we did miss some of the extreme wet racing, which I think would have been nice. But for some reason the spray here, this year at least, it’s like going through fog. I don’t know what we’re going to do to try and fix it.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images
Charles Leclerc: “I think it’s always a fine-tuning. I have to say that on a track like this, with what happened historically, I think you cannot forget about it. For that reason, I would rather be safe than too early. Again, I think it’s a constant discussion and will probably feed the people that made this decision back that maybe it was a little bit on the late side, but I wouldn’t have changed anything.”
Carlos Sainz: “In a normal track, yes, I think we could have started maybe 5-10 minutes earlier. In Spa-Francorchamps and the history of this track, it’s better safe than [unclear]. You guys got the whole race, you got to watch the full race, so I don’t think it was a bad call. A safe call! My respect to the race director, because he told us after Silverstone and the accidents in Silverstone that he would play it safer here, and that’s what he did. Better safe than have an accident and be regretful.”
Too late
Alex Albon: “I do [think it could have started earlier]. By the time we actually started, it was almost slicks. Not sure if it would have changed too much. Maybe it would have made the race a bit more exciting, to have a bit longer of a wet stint in the race.”
Max Verstappen: “Of course we spoke after Silverstone to be a little bit more cautious with the decisions, but this was at the other extreme for me. […] They didn’t allow us to race in the wet.
“[I would have liked to race at] 3pm straight away. It was not even raining. And of course between Turn 1 and 5 there was quite a bit of water, but with two laps behind the safety car, then it would have been a lot more clear. And the rest of the track was anyway ready to go. It’s a bit of a shame.
“This didn’t make sense. Then it’s better to say, you know what, let’s wait until it’s completely dry and then we just start at 6, because this is not really wet-weather racing for me.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Simon Wohlfahrt / AFP via Getty Images
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