Max Verstappen was keen for the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix to start despite the fact that behind his Red Bull no other driver could see through the spray, rendering Spa-Francorchamps almost undrivable in Formula 1 cars.
In the end, on Sunday evening local time, after more than a three-hour wait they finally did do laps, but only two behind the safety car to get the half points to kick in and give the ‘race’ some sort of closure.
Starting from pole meant no visibility issues for Verstappen, but in retrospect, the Dutchman was pragmatic during the press conference afterwards: “Of course now in hindsight, it was very important to get that pole position.
“But it’s a big shame to not do proper laps but the conditions were very tricky out there. I said at 3.30 let’s go. I think the conditions were decent but of course, the visibility was very low so I think if we would have started at 3 o’clock we had a better chance. Nevertheless, after that, it just stayed really wet and it kept raining.
“Of course it’s a win but it’s not how you want to win. I think today you know big credit goes to all the fans around the track, to stay here the whole day in the rain, in the cold, windy conditions, so I think they are actually the bigger winners.
“This is of course not what you like, especially not for the people at the side of the track, the fans. They expect a race. But the conditions today were not good. It just kept raining all the time. I think from 3 o’clock onwards it just got worse and worse and when you already start that late in the day there is not much room to move around, even though we still waited for like three hours.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t improve. Of course, when you are the leading car the visibility is naturally a bit better, so it’s difficult on my side to judge how others felt. I think at 3.30 I said it was OK to race from my side but of course, the visibility behind was very bad.
“With the recent events you don’t want to risk a big shunt to happen or even you know the risk of it. It just didn’t feel right. Of course, the fans won’t agree with what happened today but you also have to think about safety at the end.
“[Visibility] was the biggest problem. I mean the grip was low, we know that, in the wet. We don’t have a lot of grip with these tyres but when you can’t see where you are going or you don’t know where the car ahead of you is, that’s never really nice, so you can’t properly race like that,” explained the Dutch ace.
With the spray now settled, facts are Verstappen scored half the normal 25 points for the ‘win’ on Sunday, which puts him within three points of Lewis Hamilton who leads the championship after 12 rounds. Or is that 11.5 rounds?