Christian Horner: "We could never have dreamt of getting to summer break unbeaten, that's never been achieved before. It's all about teamwork and everybody doing their bit and that's what has happened through the first 12 races of the year. For Max it's another masterful win. He managed the race after making his way from P6 to take the lead in the second stint. Checo also had a brilliant first lap, taking the lead of the race and in the end bringing home our fifth 1-2 of the season. All credit to everybody back in Milton Keynes, this result is their result and the way they're applying themselves is the reason that we're making the history we're currently making. We need to keep the intensity but for now, everyone deserves the break and then we come back hard in Zandvoort."
Scuderia Ferrari goes into the summer break with the satisfaction of scoring its third podium finish of the season, courtesy of Charles Leclerc. He drove a solid race and his pace was strong and consistent from start to finish. Carlos Sainz was very unlucky, involved in a racing incident with Oscar Piastri at the first corner, which led to him retiring at half-distance because of the damage to his SF-23.
Charles got away well from pole but was powerless against the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez who soon headed the field. The Monegasque kept pushing which meant he was able to comfortably keep ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Charles shadowed his rival at both pit stops, coming in one lap later, defending against the undercut. He also took on the same tyres as Hamilton, first the Medium and then the Soft. This was Charles' 27th Formula 1 podium, Ferrari's 801st.
The team now heads into the obligatory summer break knowing there is still much to do to close up on Red Bull, but with the satisfaction of having done a good job in Belgium, the podium finish being well deserved. Without the incident, Carlos would also have been near the front, capable of bringing home a good points tally. The season resumes at the end of August, the 27th to be precise, with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: We are happy with Charles' podium, it was well deserved and it's a nice way to head into the summer break. Apart from that, I'd say the weekend in Belgium had several other positives. The pace was good all weekend, on rain tyres and slicks, both the Medium and Soft. We made the right strategy calls and all the pit stops went well. Overall therefore, I think we have made a step forward and we must start off from this point when we are back on track, because only with this attitude can we aim to beat our closest rivals.
It's a shame for Carlos because he too could have got a good result given that his pace was similar to Charles' all weekend. The first corner here is often tricky and racing incidents after the start are always a possibility and that's what happened. We opted to keep him out on track until the rain shower in the hope there might be a red flag which would have given us the chance to fix the car, but then it became clear that wouldn't happen so we decided to retire him.
This first half of the season has seen many highs and lows, but today it was clear we have reacted well after recent races that had not gone the way we wanted. The team all deserve the break, having worked so hard at the track and back in Maranello over the past months and when we come back, I want to see that same sense of determination.
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and George Russell sixth in today's Belgian Grand Prix. Starting third on the soft tyre, Lewis avoided contact as the field squeezed into turn one to maintain his grid position.
George, lining up eighth on the medium compound, lost out however as he was boxed in behind the damaged McLaren of Piastri and dropped to P11.
As the race settled into its rhythm, Lewis dropped behind Verstappen to P4 before stopping for the Medium tyre on lap 12. George extended his stint until lap 24, switching to the Soft tyre.
George dropped to P16 but quickly made his way back through the field and up to P6, managing the soft tyre to the end. Lewis boxed for a second set of soft tyres but was unable to undercut Leclerc ahead. He then took a new medium tyre on the penultimate lap and set the fastest lap of the race.
As we head into the summer break, the Team has extended its advantage over P3 in the Constructors' Championship to 51 points.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: We struggled with the car at points today and experienced some bouncing. That was the main limiting factor this weekend, so we've got some work to do to understand that more. We've got the shutdown coming up, but we will get our heads down this week, review the data, and see what we can do to make progress.
Going into the summer break, I feel that we are on the right trajectory overall. There is so much hard work going across the Team to upgrade the car and help us to make those important steps forward. I believe we are making progress and the direction we are going in is the right one. We will go away, recharge over the summer break and come back refreshed and re-energised.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: With the everchanging weather and a sprint race thrown into the mix, it's been a challenging weekend in Spa. At times, our pace has been good. However, on the slicks today, we needed another tenth to be able to challenge for a podium. On the run to Eau Rouge at the beginning of the race, George unfortunately got boxed in behind Piastri's damaged McLaren. That meant that he was stuck in a pack for the first stint. Once he was clear, we made good progress, but we lost too much time to be able to challenge Alonso at the end. Lewis also couldn't get close enough to place Leclerc under pressure, so our options were limited.
It was good to bring home a point for fastest lap, but we need to focus on bringing more performance. The first half of the season has been tough, and everyone in Brackley and Brixworth has been working incredibly hard. We're looking forward to the break and will be back in Zandvoort ready to take on the final 10 races of the season.
BWT Alpine F1 Team collected four points from today's Belgian Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon climbing from fourteenth on the grid to eighth place at the chequered flag at Spa-Francorchamps. Pierre Gasly was unfortunate not to capitalise on a strong getaway from twelfth on the grid as he fell narrowly short of the points in eleventh.
Esteban's eighth place sees him score his first points since the Canadian Grand Prix to move back into the top ten in the Drivers' Championship ahead of the summer break. He converted a two-stop Soft-Medium-Soft strategy coupled with a number of fine overtakes to cruise his way into the points.
Pierre made a strong start from twelfth but was left with nowhere to go on the run-up Eau Rouge on the opening lap after becoming stuck behind the slow moving McLaren of Oscar Piastri. That allowed a number of cars to jump Pierre who changed plan to a one-stop Soft-Medium plan while keeping an eye on possible rain, which failed to materialise into a position where Intermediate tyres were necessary. Despite a charging late effort, he finished three seconds away from the final point.
The team looks ahead to the summer shutdown before Formula 1 returns in Zandvoort in August.
Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal: "The team leaves the Belgian Grand Prix weekend with ten points scored, which is a vast improvement after the last two races where we left without scoring points due to factors beyond our control. We could probably count ourselves unfortunate not to have both cars in the points today with Pierre just shy of the top ten after his race was compromised on lap one after being caught in traffic in Eau Rouge. Esteban did a very good job to rise from fourteenth to eighth with a well-managed two-stop strategy including a string of clean and decisive overtakes. Credit to both drivers for their performance this weekend: Esteban today back in the top ten and Pierre yesterday for finishing third in the Sprint.
"Today marks my final race with the team. I'd like to thank the efforts of all those at the track and at our factories in Viry and Enstone during my time here and I wish them all the best for the future."
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "After a positive Sprint event on Saturday, today in the race we have had some more difficulties. With Oscar, unfortunately there was an incident in corner one, Oscar ran out of space, and he touched the wall, breaking the steering system and he needed to retire the car.
"On Lando's side, we tried our best to stay in the points. We knew we were vulnerable in terms of top speed on the straights, and this was an issue in the race. However, thanks to the strategy and thanks to Lando driving exceptionally well while there was some rain, on new Softs, we could find some free air, exploit the pace of the car, and this led us to a good P7 finish.
"We are happy that we scored a good chunk of points over the weekend, it has been a very strong stint before the break. I would like to again thank the whole team for the exceptional work that led us to being competitive and scoring so many points in the last four races, and we can look positively at the races post-shutdown."
Alfa Romeo F1 Team KICK executed a solid recovery race at the Belgian Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu making up places to finish just outside the points-scoring positions, in 12th and 13th respectively. Both drivers had a busy afternoon as they were enmeshed in battles and end-to-end action, in which their C43s demonstrated good pace and was able to fight on an equal footing with its rivals.
With the summer break now looming, the team will regroup to analyse the weekend's racing, before recharging the batteries ahead of the final European back-to-back races, the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "Both drivers and the team executed a solid race today: we were able to recover some positions on track, finishing close to the top ten and, most importantly, matching the pace of our competitors. As a positive to take from this weekend, we reckon we have made a decent step forward in these weather conditions and on this type of track, comparing our weekend performance to previous ones on similar layouts. Of course, we were aware that from our starting positions today, scoring points was going to be a tough job without anything happening on track; nevertheless, both drivers had good pace today, and in terms of top speed, have been able to both defend their positions and attack to move forward through the field. Now, one final effort awaits us before a well-deserved break: we will analyse this first half of our season, aiming to make a significant step forward in terms of performance. We will be recharging our batteries over the next few weeks, getting ready for the second half of the season, which will for sure be tougher and tighter: we will come back in Zandvoort fully focused and motivated to get back to scoring points in each event."
Mike Krack, Team Principal: "We delivered a more competitive performance today, with both drivers racing well and managing different strategies. Lance was one of three drivers to make only one stop - and that required some excellent tyre management across both stints. With the threat of rain in the middle part of the race, we kept his options open as long as we could and really stretched out the final stint on the Softs. Fernando's race was a bit more straightforward and, with clean air for much of the race, he was able to show good pace to bring home fifth place.
"The 12 points scored today ensure we maintain third place in the Constructors' Championship. This was an important confidence boost for everyone in the team before the well-earned summer break."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg finished 15th and 18th respectively at Round 13 of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the Belgian Grand Prix, held Sunday at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
Magnussen started from P16 on the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires and went for an aggressive undercut by pitting on lap five, taking on Yellow medium tires, to emerge in contention for the top 10 positions. Magnussen came in for a second time on lap 26, taking on another set of medium tires, and held 13th place, before relinquishing positions late on to rivals on fresher rubber. Magnussen completed the race in P15.
Hulkenberg began the race on medium tires from the pit lane after changes were made to the set-up of his VF-23 outside of parc ferme regulations. Hulkenberg also ran a two-stop strategy in the race, changing on lap 13 for softs, before coming in once more on lap 25 for another set of the soft tires. Hulkenberg used the compound to set the fourth-fastest overall lap time during the race and was classified in 18th place, securing a two-car finish for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team enters the summer recess holding eighth position in the Constructors' Championship on 11 points.
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: "The team got the best out of what was possible from our car, and both fought hard. In the end, we came short on our issue of tire life, so we fell back in the middle of the race. We couldn't fight with the others and if we go into overtime with our tires, we just get slower, and that's what happened again. We know our deficit, we're working on it and hopefully we can resolve it fast but all in all, the team did a good job. For Nico to change his car around, it was all executed very well. Now we go on summer break, and hopefully come back stronger."
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "Following on from the last race, where we feel we took a step forwards, we have also generally been more competitive, and to score a point here is a good reward for everybody's hard work and persistence. Yuki ran a strong race, making really good use of each of his tyre sets to keep his car in the top 10. The fight for points was on merit pretty much all race long, so he should be pleased. It was more difficult for Daniel, as he spent a good part of the race in traffic. We weren't able to get him into free air to put together a strong sequence of laps, as he was able to do in Hungary to good effect. It was unfortunate, however, his strong performance in the Sprint race yesterday highlights we are making progress. We still have work to do to get the car where we want it, but we have more updates coming, and everyone in Faenza, Bicester and Trackside is focused on pushing hard to develop the car and improve our competitiveness."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "We started the race with Yuki in P11 and Daniel in P19, so we decided to split the strategy between the two cars: Yuki started on the medium compound, and Daniel on the soft tyre. Yuki managed a fantastic start and ended up in P8, keeping his position for a very long time. I think some cars were staying out, postponing their pitstop, just waiting for more rain to come later in the race. Yuki was in P6 at one point, but of course, certain other cars were faster and could overtake us. In the end, Yuki finished P10 and scored one point for the team, which is very important. What is even more relevant is that the aero development is going in the right direction, and this is evidence of the fact that people in Bicester are doing a good job. As for Daniel, he started towards the back of the grid today as his lap time got deleted in qualifying on Friday, because of violating track limits in Turn 4. It's a shame as he showed great performance yesterday, being close to scoring a point in the Sprint race. Starting further back today was really difficult because it's really hard to overtake. We still miss some load on the car, but I'm convinced that when Daniel is more familiar with the car and tyres, he'll do a really good job. In general, the team did a very good job. We haven't scored a point in a long time, so we're very pleased and are looking forward to the second half of the season because I think we can still improve our performance."
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: Another tricky day, which started very well with Alex executing some very good overtakes and making strong progress. He was able to back this up during the 2nd stint and seemed to have things under control. The third stint was much more difficult with higher tyre degradation than expected, in part due to racing hard with the quicker Alpines. We opted to make a third stop, which led to some more overtaking but a frustrating result.
Logan's pace and tyre management compared very well to Alex's but he wasn't quite able to make the same progress on track in the opening stint, which made the subsequent stints more difficult.
There were some good aspects to today, but the race also highlighted some weaknesses of the car, which we are working on.
After winning yesterday's Sprint, Max Verstappen did the double, winning the Belgian Grand Prix for a third consecutive time. It extends Red Bull's winning streak to 13, the team unbeaten so far this season. This was the reigning world champion's 45th career win. Alongside him on the podium in second place was his team-mate Sergio Perez and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, third having started from pole position. The additional point for fastest race lap went to Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages, the Englishman finishing fourth.
Medium and Soft were the most used compounds during the race, with the Hard only used by Norris for 12 laps in his second stint. 13 drivers opted to start on Softs, seven on Medium. The softest of the three compounds Pirelli brought here proved to be very competitive, also giving the teams greater flexibility in terms of strategy, with seven drivers opting to push right from the start, stopping before lap 10 (Sainz also pitted having sustained car damage) while others extended the stint as much as possible, like Gasly for example, who pitted after 23 laps. Those who started on Mediums also adopted different strategies: Russell managed to do 22 laps, Stroll just two fewer, while Tsunoda stopped on lap 9 and Alonso on 10. This compound was the out and out choice for the second stint, with much more similar stint lengths, in a window between 15 and 20 laps.
The most critical moment of this phase came shortly after half-distance when, for around ten minutes, it rained slightly. Lap times rapidly increased, reaching the limit for the crossover point to intermediates, but then the rain stopped and the track dried quickly. For the final stages, based partly on what had been learned in the first part of the race, the Soft was back in favour with the teams and drivers. Here too the stint lengths varied: the first three finishers completed a similar distance (Verstappen 14, Perez 15 and Leclerc 16), Norris did 27, while Ocon and Zhou ran for 19 while Tsunoda and Hulkenberg did 20.
Three drivers did just one stop - Russell, Stroll and Gasly - the first two of these finishing in the points, while the Frenchman was just outside in 11th. Another trio, the two Williams drivers and Lewis Hamilton, made three stops. In the case of the Williams pair it was for strategic reasons, while the seven times world champion came in for a set of new Mediums to secure the extra point for fastest race lap.
Mario Isola: "Finally, a day with reasonable weather, rain only making an appearance briefly without having any significant impact on the way the race played out. Coming into this final part of the weekend practically in the dark, increased the number of unknown factors and, along with the large number of dry weather tyres available, as they were only used for a few laps in yesterday's qualifying, this gave the teams a wider than usual range of possible strategies. Degradation on the Soft and Medium tyres was in line with our simulations given the relatively low track temperature. These low temperatures also meant the Hard was not very competitive and it was only used by one driver for a few kilometres. In terms of performance, the other two compounds were up to the task and the stint lengths varied according to whether a driver chose to push right from the start to make the most of the available grip, or manage the situation to lengthen the stint as much as possible, which was the case for the three drivers who only made a single pit stop.
Finally, I would like to congratulate the fans (380,000 attendance) who put up with some very wet weather. They were rewarded with a great show, partly down to the Sprint weekend format which meant that, right from Friday, there was plenty of excitement on track. Formula 1 is soon going to take a short break, although we still have two more days of testing on Tuesday and Wednesday here at Spa, working with Aston Martin and McLaren. The daily work programme will depend a lot on what the weather has to offer."
