The simulations confirm the pre-race concerns. Spa will be one of the most critical appointments ever on the energy management front, forcing teams to develop decidedly particular hybrid usage strategies. The most common approach will be to concentrate the delivery of electric power on the straights of the first and second sectors, using the entire central sector to recharge the battery.
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Charging for an entire sector
Managing the energy of the hybrid part promises to be decidedly challenging at Spa, not only because of the 7-kilometer length of the Belgian track but also because of its nature as a high-speed circuit. Teams had to develop new delivery strategies, which involve exploiting the extra boost of the electric motor in the first and third sectors, mainly on the Kemmel straight and the run from Stavelot to the Bus Stop. By doing so, the cars will be forced to face the entire second sector without electric power, having to regenerate and recharge the battery instead.
That Spa was a critical circuit on the energy front could be guessed from previous editions. From Federico Albano’s data relating to Norris’s qualifying lap in 2025, it can be seen how with ground effect cars in Belgium, the throttle was floored for as long as 1’10’’. The problem also lies in the length of the individual straights, with as many as 21 consecutive seconds at full throttle between La Source and Les Combes and another 20 seconds between Stavelot and the Bus Stop. Not by chance, Shintaro Orihara, Honda’s Chief Engineer, emphasized that the challenge will also be deciding how to spread the electric power over the zones to be tackled at full throttle: “On a long straight, if we deliver power at the start, then we lose a lot of speed at the end. We have to carefully evaluate where to do it.”
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Watch out for the brakes
The unusual energy management strategies developed for Belgium raise some concerns also for the braking system. Using the entire second sector to recharge the battery means that the electric motor will work mainly as a generator, providing significant braking contribution. Therefore, the rear brake discs will remain unused for a long time, with the cars arriving at the Bus Stop with the rear system decidedly cold. After Montreal and Monaco, Spa will therefore be an important test regarding the behavior of materials at low temperatures, which could become a central variable in the weekend’s outcome.
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