Autoweek rounds up some of the other leftovers from a relatively quiet Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
Hamilton Bemoans ‘Weekend to Forget’
Lewis Hamilton described his Belgian GP weekend as “one to forget” after his prospects were wrecked by his poor qualifying display.
Hamilton started from 18th position but made gains during the wet stages of the race, and unlocked further positions by being among the first of the drivers to make the transition to slick tires. That netted Hamilton seventh, which he retained through the checkered flag, behind Williams’ Alex Albon. Hamilton has still finished all of his Grands Prix for Ferrari in the top 10, but has yet to reach the podium.
“Not the result that I want this weekend, and definitely a weekend to forget, but positives to take from the car,” Hamilton said. “I think everyone in the team worked so hard. We obviously had these upgrades. Everyone back in the factory worked so hard. And then when you come and put a performance like I had in these past two days, it's tough because that's not what the team deserves.”
Hamilton was nevertheless confident about his and Ferrari’s prospects moving towards Budapest.
“Charles did a great job,” Hamilton said. “Clearly the car is improving because Charles was able to hold on to another podium I definitely feel confident going forward through here. As I said, having learned more about the car today, fine-tuned it, I'll set that up, go to it for next week. We have the factory on Wednesday. So, yeah, I don't see why we wouldn't have better results going forward.”
Nico Hulkenberg Back to Reality
Nico Hulkenberg followed up his shock and long overdue maiden podium in Britain with a return to his more familiar positions in Belgium.
An early pit stop for slicks gained Hulkenberg places as he held ninth place, but he played the team game and allowed the stronger Gabriel Bortoleto through. Hulkenberg still held 10th though his tires were worsening and, wary that a low-downforce-spec Pierre Gasly was surging towards him, Hulkenberg came in for another set of tires. The ambition was to reclaim 10th, but Hulkenberg fell short and wound up 12th. Bortoleto’s ninth nonetheless extended Sauber’s streak of top 10 finishes to five Grands Prix.
Horrible Weekend for Aston Martin
Aston Martin endured one of its least competitive weekends, with the AMR25 off the pace at Spa-Francorchamps.
After failing to score in Sprint, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll qualified slowest, while the race was a write-off as the decision to lean towards a wet set-up left both drivers exposed.
Alonso tried out a new front wing during practice but was downbeat over the situation, declaring in the team’s own post-race release that “it hasn't delivered the improvements we were hoping for.”
It ended a run of four races in the points for the two-time world champion, for whom 2026 surely can’t come soon enough.
Finishing What They Started
Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix was the 25th occasion in history in which every starter was classified.
All 20 cars reached the finish, with Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar bringing up the field, despite the opening stint taking place in tricky wet conditions. The feat was achieved only once between 1950 and 2005, at the 1961 Dutch GP, but in recent years the increased reliability of the cars has led to a higher percentage of classified finishers.
In fact, nine of those 25 occasions have occurred since the start of the 2023 season.
Staněk Wins in F2 after Finishing Third
Formula 2’s title race remains unpredictably close after the two leading drivers in Sunday’s main Feature Race were penalized.
McLaren protégé Alex Dunne mastered the wet conditions but was handed a time penalty post-race for a starting procedure infringement, which dropped him to ninth. Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad provisionally inherited top spot but he was excluded due to non-compliant tire pressure.
That meant third-on-the-road Roman Staněk vaulted to victory, ahead of occasional Haas tester Ritomo Miyata, and Williams’ Luke Browning.
In the championship, just 12 points split the leading quintet of drivers, with Leonardo Fornaroli taking the lead of the standings, three points clear of Richard Verschoor, who failed to score all weekend. American Jak Crawford endured a difficult weekend, failing to score in either the Sprint or Feature races, but remains firmly in the title hunt in third place, nine points down on Fornaroli.
In Formula 3, American Brad Benavides—26th in the championship—claimed a surprise pole position, but torrential rain on Sunday morning meant the series’ race was unable to take place. Ferrari junior Rafael Camara leads Red Bull protégé Nikola Tsolov by 28 points, with just two rounds remaining in Hungary and Italy.
Anthoine Hubert Remembered
The Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 paddocks convened on Thursday evening to remember the late Anthoine Hubert.
Hubert was part of the Renault young driver program, and the reigning GP3 champion, when he was killed in a horrific multi-car accident at the start of the Formula 2 race in 2019.
As has become a tradition, organized by friend Pierre Gasly, the paddock gathered on the pit straight on Thursday evening—donning ‘Racing For Anthoine’ shirts—and some participated in a group run of the track. Gasly made a short speech before laying flowers at the scene of the accident.
Tributes were also paid to Dilano van ‘t Hoff, who was killed in a Formula Regional race at Spa in 2023. Gasly donned Hubert’s Renault cap throughout the weekend at Spa in place of his usual Alpine headgear.
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