Split strategy the right call to get Hamilton into F1 Belgian GP top 10

Heavy rain was forecast for the Sunday of the Belgian Grand Prix, tempting several Formula 1 teams to adopt higher downforce settings – even if that meant breaking parc ferme rules and starting from the pitlane. For the majority this came at a cost, but not to Lewis Hamilton as he raced to seventh place in Belgium.

Ferrari went into qualifying on Saturday with both cars in low-downforce trim but, while Charles Leclerc ultimately qualified third, Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 when his last run was deleted owing to a track-limits infringement at Raidillon. That would have left him 16th on the grid so, with rain in prospect, the team felt there would be fewer downsides in starting from the pitlane.

That proved to be the case as race control took a cautious approach, pausing the grand prix for nearly 90 minutes after a formation lap behind the safety car, then mandating a rolling start after four neutralised laps. This reduced the impact on Hamilton further and he was able to blitz past Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Franco Colapinto and Nico Hulkenberg within moments of the race being green-flagged.

On lap nine he dived past 13th-placed Pierre Gasly into Stavelot, not conventionally an overtaking place in any racing category. He was first to pit for slick tyres at the end of lap 11. First-mover advantage enabled him to emerge from the pitstops sequence in eighth place and he then got by Liam Lawson, although he was subsequently unable to make progress past Alex Albon’s Williams, partly as a factor of the extra drag.

Leclerc had to withstand considerable pressure from Max Verstappen in the early laps before dry conditions began to play into the hands of those who had stayed at the low end of the drag range, and Verstappen – who had adopted higher-downforce settings ahead of qualifying – fell back.

“For sure it was the strategy that when you’re in this situation you have to gamble a little bit,” said Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur when asked by Autosport to explain the thought process behind being the first to pit for slicks, and whether Hamilton initiated it.

“The situation is that we were degrading the inter a lot and we were far away from the crossover [where slicks become faster] just because the inter was a disaster – they were completely gone. You put on a new set of inters, you are also six seconds faster.

“But I think it was the right call at the right moment – a bit aggressive, we were quite close to doing it with Charles, but Charles would then have been in traffic. It meant that we did it with Lewis and I think it was the right call at the right lap.

“Don’t try to split the team and the drivers, it’s always a collective decision…”

Given the likelihood of wet conditions, it seemed counter-intuitive to enter qualifying with lower downforce settings relative to the cars surrounding Leclerc on the grid. But once the downpour that forced the start delay had finally cleared, bright sunshine emerged and dried the track much faster than expected.

It was drying at Stavelot before the race was green-flagged, and a dry line was forming at Pouhon by lap seven – so Leclerc, having clung on to third in those early laps, had an easier job of holding Verstappen at bay once drying conditions swung the balance of power away from those in higher-downforce trim.

“It wasn’t that obvious that today it would be 100% wet – and you saw the race and it wasn’t full wet,” said Vasseur when asked by Autosport about the rationale behind Ferrari’s initial set-up choices.

“We had this forecast kind of saying that, ‘OK, you will have tonnes of showers all the day’. But we also knew yesterday the situation for the quali and we knew also that in case of rain, then you have also the spray, it’s difficult to overtake.

“And so I think that it was a choice, not an easy one, and it was a bit 50-50 on the grid. You know, it’s always kind of a bet because even this morning, I wasn’t expecting that we’d have the sun in the afternoon.”