{"id":74869,"date":"2024-07-26T12:03:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T16:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=74869"},"modified":"2024-07-26T12:03:40","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T16:03:40","slug":"1143935_2024-f1-belgian-grand-prix-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=74869","title":{"rendered":"2024 F1 Belgian Grand Prix preview: Racing in the Ardennes hills"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>The 2024 F1 Belgian Grand Prix is round 14 of the season<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The race takes place at\u00a0Spa-Francorchamps circuit<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Red Bull Racing&#8217;s Max Verstappen still leads the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorauthority.com\/news\/1142473_2024-f1-standings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2024 Drivers&#8217; Championship<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>2024 Formula 1 World Championship<\/strong> continues this weekend with round 14, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorauthority.com\/news\/belgian-grand-prix\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Belgian Grand Prix<\/a>, the last race before the summer break.<\/p>\n<p>The race once again takes place at the legendary <strong>Spa-Francorchamps circuit<\/strong> nestled within the beautiful Ardennes hills. It features a long, unrelenting track that serves as a stern test for car and driver, where average speeds are close to 145 mph and drivers experience up to 5 g in some corners, such as Turn 10, known to fans as Pouhon.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"static-marker-video-player-primis\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Measuring 4.35 miles long, Spa boasts the longest track on the circuit, leading to a <strong>race that lasts just 44 laps<\/strong>\u2014the fewest on the calendar. The first and third sectors at Spa feature long straights and flat-out sections, but the second sector is twisty. This makes it challenging to find the right balance for the car set up.<\/p>\n<p>Another issue is <strong>the weather<\/strong>. Due to its size, it&#8217;s not uncommon to experience different weather conditions in various sections of the track at Spa; for instance, it can be raining at one end while completely dry in another. The current forecast calls for rain during Saturday&#8217;s qualifying session and fine albeit cloudy weather during Sunday&#8217;s race.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_wrapper first_wrapper\" readability=\"8\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" name=\"tccimg_100892264_m\" title=\"Spa-Francorchamps, home of the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAD\/ACwAAAAAAQABAAACADs=\" alt=\"Spa-Francorchamps, home of the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"first_image lazy\" data-width=\"1024\" data-height=\"576\" data-url=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/spa-francorchamps-home-of-the-formula-1-belgian-grand-prix_100892264_l.webp\" data-src-h=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/hug\/spa-francorchamps-home-of-the-formula-1-belgian-grand-prix_100892264_h.webp\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/spa-francorchamps-home-of-the-formula-1-belgian-grand-prix_100892264_l.webp\" data-src-l=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/spa-francorchamps-home-of-the-formula-1-belgian-grand-prix_100892264_l.webp\" data-src-m=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/med\/spa-francorchamps-home-of-the-formula-1-belgian-grand-prix_100892264_m.webp\" data-src-s=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/sml\/spa-francorchamps-home-of-the-formula-1-belgian-grand-prix_100892264_s.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Spa-Francorchamps, home of the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The track surface is on the abrasive side, which results in extra wear for tires, though some parts have been re-laid in the lead up to this weekend&#8217;s race, with a new track surface awaiting the drivers from the exit of Turn 17 to the exit of Turn 4. The surface in the pitlane is also new.<\/p>\n<p>The long track combination with a rough surface results in some of the highest tire wear of the seasons, with high averages across all four corners of the car. Pirelli has nominated its mid-range compounds for the race, the C2, C3, and C4.<\/p>\n<p>Going into the weekend, Red Bull Racing&#8217;s Max Verstappen leads the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorauthority.com\/news\/1142473_2024-f1-standings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2024 Drivers&#8217; Championship<\/a><\/strong> with 265 points. McLaren&#8217;s Lando Norris is second with 189 points and Ferrari&#8217;s Charles Leclerc is third with 162 points. In the Constructors&#8217; Championship, Red Bull leads with 389 points. McLaren is second with 338 points and Ferrari is third with 322 points.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s possible Verstappen will run a new engine unit this weekend, which means he will incur a 10-place grid penalty as he&#8217;s already reached his allocation of four engines for the season. Spa is a track where overtaking is possible, meaning Verstappen could still win, though the move will be risky as both McLaren and Mercedes-Benz AMG have shown strong performance in recent rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2024 F1 Belgian Grand Prix is round 14 of the season The race takes place at\u00a0Spa-Francorchamps circuit Red Bull Racing&#8217;s Max Verstappen still leads the\u00a02024 Drivers&#8217; Championship The 2024 Formula 1 World Championship continues this weekend with round 14, the Belgian Grand Prix, the last race before the summer break. The race once again [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}