Inside Line: The race that never was

It rains a lot in the Ardennes, a fickle micro0climate pays havoc with weather predictions as it did with this year's Formula 1 weekend. What promised to be a humdinger of a season resumption race was water-logged.

On the day, Michael Masi was in the least envious position as race director, whatever happened he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. In the end, he went halfway, sort of, and as a result, I watched, bewildered, as they went through the podium ceremony straight-faced.

There was no race, there should have been no podium and for sure no points dished. But the powers that be thought otherwise and it is what it is.

But common sense should prevail and if there is a lesson from this saga, it is that two laps do not constitute a race and that in future if half points are to be awarded, then at least have around 25% of the race completed at racing speeds before that happens. If not, then the race should be null and void. Move on.

As for the weather, nothing we can do about it when it arrives angry, sitting it out was the only logical thing to do, however this time it did not work because nature was persistent with its misery for most of the weekend at Spa.

On the bright side, Max Verstappen was declared 'winner' and got himself half the 25 on offer, which was more than Lewis Hamilton got for third, and with half the season set to run the difference between the pair is a mere three points.

In other words, we head to Zandvoort for what we can call round one of this title fight, which is set to go ten or eleven rounds more, COVID-19 willing.

So that is a good thing.

However, this was really an anomaly of a weekend due to the weather which was almost impossible to have been predicted, let alone covered for in the rules. Let's face it no one had a clue what was happening during more than three hours we waited, as many important eyeballs scoured the FIA regulations for direction. There was none.

Had Masi closed shop at 4pm, for example, and it stopped raining as the stripped cars were being loaded into trucks, he would have been castigated by all and sundry. Had he allowed an hour sprint race to take place, when they peeled out for a second time, and someone got hurt... now that would be unthinkable.

By design or not, Masi opted for the middle-ground which in the end was the most sensible for him, as he too is an F1 fan and wanted there to be racing as we all did. No one is very happy, no one is very unhappy but, most importantly, apart from an errant Sergio Perez, there was not much bent metal and no one was injured or worse.

While he cops a load of bitching, I will be in Masi's corner for this one. And remember he is not alone, he had experienced and capable Stewards on the case advising him. It was a collective decision no doubt with him, as the boss, bearer of the news.

Shooting the messenger (something we are all too familiar with on this site) is not cool.

In closing, I recall Dubai Autodrome's 'race that never was' because of rain! During my tenure as Comms Manager at the venue, we hosted a couple of rounds of the GP2 Asia Series.

In 2008, we hosted a double-header with one race on Friday and the second on Saturday. Day one was a cracker with Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS) winning a race that included the likes of Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Pastor Maldonado and Vitaly Petrov.

Overnight it started to storm in Dubai like seldom before. With drainage not a high priority in a region where rain is rare, let alone torrential, monsoon style downfall. That morning arriving at the track we were met with flooded corners everywhere.

In Turn 1, which deeps steeply down, the water level was such that some of the staff were out in a jetski! It was a proper deluge.

The cars never left the pits, which were flooded, and thus a superb event turned into a miserable one, and of course, great disappointment (collective depression for Autodrome staff actually) because we were all revved up for a great race... which never was; much like Spa on Sunday.