The Formula 1 event in Spa is in serious jeopardy due to heavy rain

The Brit indicated that this weekend could repeat what happened on the day of the race in 2021, so there would be almost no action on the track due to the conditions and poor visibility.

There has been a lot of attention on the safety of the “Spa Francorchamps” track lately, following the unfortunate passing of Dutch racer Dilano van ‘t Hoff during a FRECA race. In response, the GPDA sent a letter to the Formula 1 governing body requesting updates on the investigation and ways to improve safety across all racing categories.

“At the moment, we’re in constant comms with the FIA following the tragic passing of Dilano in FRECA,” Russell was asked by Autosport about the GPDA’s communication with the governing body and provided assistance.

“The two questions are, is Spa safe enough? And then it’s the question of the conditions, and I think the fact is motorsport will always be dangerous when you’re traveling at these speeds. If you were to put a ranking of risk of all the circuits for sure, Spa is one of the riskier circuits, along with Jeddah, and along with Monaco, for example, Suzuka, to a degree. Then when you get the combination of the weather, it’s very challenging. It’s the visibility, we have no visibility whatsoever, and the way I describe it to try and give some perspective is driving down the motorway in pouring rain and turning your windscreen wipers off, and that’s genuinely how it feels from the cockpit. So [there are] not really any short-term solutions. I personally think Spa is safe enough, but it’s just we need to find a solution for the wet for visibility. We’ve spoken about it, and I think between everybody, we concluded that we don’t think it needs it,” he said. “They’ve obviously made a lot of progress with the run-off, so that’s probably the most important thing.” Russell pointed out that it is inevitable that the rain will affect the race weekend in Spa.

“I think, fortunately, the weather I think looks better on Sunday,” he said. “So I think Sunday will be going ahead. But following recent events, I think the FIA have to be bold with their decisions when it comes to safety when it comes to visibility. We know what the situation was two years ago. We don’t want it to be strung out as perhaps it was then. But as I said, we are going to need some bold decisions. We all want to race; everybody wants to race. But when you’re going down that straight at over 200 miles an hour, and you can’t see 50 meters in front of you, there will be huge incidents. So yeah, they’ve got a big responsibility this weekend.”

When asked about the possibility of racing in the rainy conditions experienced at Spa on Thursday, the Mercedes driver acknowledged that a similar decision was made to call off the race two years prior. He believed driving in such conditions would be safe for a single F1 car, but it would become unsafe with 20 cars on the track simultaneously.

Drivers starting from the third position would have limited visibility of only 20 to 40 meters. He cited the recent incident in the FRECA as an example of what could happen when drivers couldn’t see in the rain. The fear was that a car could end up in the middle of the track, causing a major accident. The driver admitted that canceling a race is never ideal, but it was necessary to avoid such incidents.