The alarm ahead of the Belgian GP at Spa
The Belgian GP is now known to be considered one of the “black mark” weekends regarding the management of the battery of Formula 1 cars and the risk of seeing a massive superclipping effect at the end of the Kemmel straight. It will be even more so than expected for Fernando Alonso and not only because the power units’ hunger for energy will be massive, so much so that for the second time this year – and the first, in Melbourne, things did not go particularly well between Formula yo-yo and comparisons with Mario Kart – there will be five so-called “Straightline Mode” zones, where drivers can fully open the movable wings on the straight.
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The Spanish driver of Aston Martin, in fact, has returned to beat on the old favorite topic of the comparison between Formula 1 and Formula 2 to make clear how high the risk is of seeing a not very exciting race with cars going too slow to save energy. It’s not new, since already after Silverstone the two-time world champion had said how depressing the British GP was, with drivers overtaking “only by pressing a button on the straight” and “without any talent“. A concept now reiterated and perhaps even further aggravated by the severity of the characteristics of the legendary Spa track.
Fernando Alonso’s opinion
“If I had to use the battery energy from the first corner, La Source – explains Fernando Alonso – up to turn 5 to attack at Les Combes or defend myself from an opponent, then I would be finished for the rest of the lap. I would have no more energy for more than a minute in the second sector. And without any deployment (that is the delivery of electric power from the battery, ed) we must not forget that this year we have much less power than last year and less power even than a Formula 2 car”.
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Is there really a risk that F2s are faster?
It is true, in fact, that considering only the thermal engine without the electric (which however generates almost 50% of the power of the power unit) then an F1 car has less horsepower than a Formula 2 car. However, it must also be said that the top series cars rarely run out of energy precisely because each team manages and optimizes deployment through special software designed never to run the battery completely flat. Last season Alex Dunne took pole position in Formula 2 qualifying with a time of 1:57.151, while Lando Norris set the best time in Q3 in 1:40.562, almost 17 seconds faster. It is therefore difficult to think that F2s can compete with Fernando Alonso, even imagining that F1s lose 5 seconds in qualifying compared to 2025. And that the Aston Martin is about 5 seconds slower than the pole…
