Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix Prediction: Will the rain make the race more interesting?

The 12th race of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship season takes place on the last weekend of July. It is the last race before the traditional four-week summer break, and also the last chance to stop Red Bull's winning streak before going on vacation. Will any of the teams miraculously find a winning recipe or will the Bulls finish the first part of the championship with 12/12 wins? The current season began on March 5, 2023 with Max Verstappen's victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Less than five months later, still only two drivers and only one team can boast of victories in this championship. Sergio Perez has a modest two, and Max Verstappen as many as nine. Red Bull Racing – 11/11. “Terrible dominance” of one team, but also one driver, which unfortunately already after the first third of the championship killed any uncertainty when it comes to winning the championship. The reality is, Red Bull simply did a much better job than their rivals and are happily reaping the rewards of that work, while everyone else is left scratching their heads and looking for some magic that will stop the new record holders for the number of consecutive victories in the Formula 1 World Championship.

Racing is not unknown in Belgium. Races have been organized on the Spa Francorchamps track since the 1920s, and since its first season in 1950 it has been part of the Formula 1 World Championship. In earlier years, Spa was a dangerous 14-kilometer track, made for speed and largely made of public the road. It was one of the stops in the inaugural season of the World Championship in which Juan Manuel Fangio won. It remained part of the calendar until the late 1960s, but as accidents with fatal outcomes were almost a regular occurrence on this track, there was a lot of talk about safety issues and drivers' concerns about driving in such a dangerous arena. In Belgium we will have two activation DRS zones. The first activation is located 240m before turn 2, and the detection is 230m after turn 4. The second activation is located 30m after turn 19, while the detection is located 160m before turn 18. Pirelli has prepared a medium-hard tire compound for the Belgian Grand Prix. Therefore, the selection is C2 (hard), C3 (medium) and C4 (soft) tire components. There are also intermediate and full wet tires.

As part of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, the third sprint race of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship season was held on Saturday afternoon. It rained again, the start was delayed again and Max Verstappen in Red Bull won first place again. The two-time world champion, Max Verstappen, temporarily lost first place to the great debutant Oscar Piastri in McLaren, but in the end, they still finished the sprint as they started - Max in first and Oscar in second place. It was proven that despite the chances Red Bull are fastest on the track and McLaren are the most improved team. Earlier this season, Charles Leclerc struggled a lot when driving in the wet or in situations where track conditions changed quickly. It was precisely in such changing conditions that he performed very well in qualifying at the Spa-Francorchamps track and will start from first place on Sunday. Ferrari really needs a good result before the summer break, after a lot of weak performances at Silverstone and Hungaroring. I will take a risk at this race and pick Ferrari to finish in the top 3, as a surprise before the break in F1.

OUR PREDICTION: Leclerc podium finish