Spraygate and a rookie respecting his elders - Things you might've missed at the Belgian Grand Prix

Belgian Grand Prix

Spraygate and a rookie respecting his elders - Things you might've missed at the Belgian Grand Prix

Not everything at Spa may have caught the eye

Chris Deeley

Monday 28 July 2025 10:57

That sure was an F1 race, wasn't it? That thrilling spectacle of drivers holding each other just out of DRS range for 25 laps, the crowd-pleasing tyre management, the, uh, third thing that goes here.

Oscar Piastri did a very nice job to win Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix from team-mate Lando Norris, extending his championship lead ever so slightly, by nursing his medium tyres through the latter stages of the race.

That's the stuff you know though, even if you haven't even flicked on a highlights package. That's not what this column is for!

We're here to tell you the things you might not know, such as...

Pray the spray away

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There's a few reasons that Spa-Francorchamps might not have a long-term spot on the F1 calendar, and one of them if one of the most infuriating in the sport: spray.

It rains here, a lot. It also takes a hot minute to get dry and clear up the track, leading to the annual 'but why aren't they even trying the wet tyres?' conversation. The answer, every year, is that while the wet tyres would keep the cars on the track, the danger of them running into each other when completely unsighted by the spray from the cars in front is too high.

Forgive us then, for celebrating the return of The Good Spray. The podium boys made sure everyone got a good drenching in champagne, a few weeks after some decidedly muted celebrations at other races. This, we can get on board with.

Groundhog Day (no, not the ones in Canada)

Ollie Bearman, you poor young man. Finishing just out of the points is always agonising for a mid-table team, but to do it twice in a row is gut-wrenching. Three times? You start to wonder if you're cursed.

What must Haas and Bearman be thinking, then, about the fact that he's now finished one spot out of the points for four consecutive races? Well if I know how F1 teams think about this – and I absolutely don't – expect to see the team advertising to hire a plague doctor in the next few days.

As David Croft was very eager to tell everyone on the broadcast, Bearman has tied the record for the longest run of consecutive finishes in the same position...if you don't count first. So, Bearman has not tied the longest run of consecutive finishes in the same position.

Belgium's big losers

Speaking of a cursed lack of points, only one team have left Spa with absolutely nothing to show for their weekend's work.

Aston Martin might well be putting together a competitive package for 2026 with the help of Adrian Newey, but hoooooo boy do they stink right now. Fernando Alonso had finally come to the party in recent weeks to the tune of 16 points in four races, but Spa was him finish 17th and Lance Stroll come home in a 14th.

They're now just one point clear of Haas in the constructors' championship. That's right, if Ollie Bearman had converted a couple of those 11th place finishes into tenth place finishes, Aston would be ninth in the standings. And that is bad.

Rookie duties

It's nice when the young people respect their elders, isn't it? Little bit of hope for future generations, and all that.

In that spirit, it was oddly touching to see Kimi Antonelli holding up an umbrella for Lewis Hamilton when the veteran Ferrari driver was getting ready to race. Of course, the pair worked together for some time at Mercedes. See? Respect for a man old enough to be his father.

Remembering Anthoine Hubert

It has, somehow, been six years since Anthoine Hubert's tragic accident at Spa in 2019, which took his life.

Hopefully this isn't too jarring a tonal shift for a typically snarky, irreverent column that wraps up the hits and misses from the weekend, but it was genuinely touching to see Hubert's mother Nathalie watching Sunday's race from Alpine's garage with Pierre Gasly's mother, Pascale.

Gasly also did his now-traditional 'Run for Anthoine' at the track, and laid flowers at the scene of the accident which claimed his friend's life. Vale, Anthoine.

Pierre Gasly's and Anthoine Hubert's mothers watching the Belgian Grand Prix together from the Alpine garage ❤️ pic.twitter.com/8fBnnGlCWM
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 27, 2025