Why F1 is braced for more yo-yo racing in Belgium
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Athletic.
The race is on, and energy concerns abound as F1 heads to the iconic Spa Circuit. So should we expect another weekend of yo-yo racing and drivers complaining? And can Ferrari again take the fight to Mercedes after winning two of the last three Grand Prix? I'm Ed Straw, and joining me to look ahead to Belgium are Nelson Valkenburg and Mark Hughes. Well, Spa is always a classic. Nelson, it's a little bit closer, I guess, for you than it is for us.
I can drive it. I can drive it. Just my regular car, two hours from home. Of course, I stay in a hotel, but it does feel like a home race.
Absolute luxury.
Why is Spa-Francorchamps expected to amplify F1 energy management challenges?
But, Mark, it is a classic venue, isn't it? Even though it's changed so much over the years. Always great to go to one of those iconic circuits that have been around for so long. Obviously, Spa has been hosting Grand Prix since long before the World Championship even began.
Yeah, I mean, it feels like a different sort of venue to any other on the calendar. It feels like, well, it feels like what it is. It is a public road, or it used to be a public road, and it just feels like that. And it feels like, you know, you're... it's a place where you use for going from town to town rather than going round and round. It feels almost like this must be for a different sport. You know, it doesn't, it doesn't feel like all the others. Uh, and it is magnificent, you know, and it's, um, the contours of the place. Uh, and you know, when you look at how it was formed, if you into geology and all that with tectonic uplift and all, all those things, it's fascinating. And, uh, Yeah, it's obviously one of the most challenging venues that has ever been devised.
And even in its shorter form, it's still one hell of a roller coaster ride.
Yeah, and the great thing is that because it is that shortened form, actually, you end up driving on the old circuit. You almost end up on it by accident. You don't have to go looking for it. There'll be a point, I think anyone who's gone to Spa has probably had that moment of, oh, I'm on the old track. Brilliant. Yeah. So, yeah, just absolutely steeped in history, but also, Mark, one of the great iconic driving challenges. Drivers have already warned that with the current power units, it could be a little bit neutered. So what are you expecting? Should we be worried?
Well, I don't know about worried, but, yeah, I think we're going in the expectation that this is going to be a real sort of extreme test of how you manage the electrical energy over the lap. It's going to be spread very, very thinly around that place just because of the length of the circuit, apart from anything else. But also it is quite possible, you know, you could use all your allocated energy I think it's six megajoules, isn't it, that we've got for the race? Or is it seven?
It's seven megajoule harvest limit for a qualifying lap and 8.5 limit for a race lap. But, of course, that's how much you can harvest. So you get seven megajoules plus you should have the full battery. So that gives you 11, ideally, if you perfect it for a qualifying lap.
Yeah, so you could easily use it all in the first sector and have nothing left for the rest of the lap. Obviously, that's not going to be the way they're going to do it. But that just gives you an idea of how thinly spread that extra electrical energy is going to be. And I think... Although you're going to be through Sector 2 with not very much power in terms of you're going to be pretty much on the ICE entirely through the twists and turns of Sector 2. That challenge is still going to be there in terms of getting through those corners as fast as possible. But I think in the race, there's going to be a lot more tactics involved in that section of track because then it follows with the overtaken section in sector three up to the bus stop.
So, yeah, you're probably going to see a little bit of yo-yoing there. Sector one versus sector three and with a little bit of tactical lifting off and trying to regain that little extra bit more energy through sector two.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:49
2
Why is Spa-Francorchamps expected to amplify F1 energy management challenges?
0:49–15:03
3
How do Spa’s sector layouts create 'yo-yo' overtaking and energy trade-offs?
15:03–16:17
4
What are the limits on harvesting and deployment (megajoule rules) that matter at Spa?
16:17–40:06
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Race F1 Podcast
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