Ahead of the second day of the Belgian Grand Prix, the FIA have confirmed that they will cancel Saturday’s sprint shootout or perhaps even the sprint race itself, if the weather conditions are deemed too dangerous.
Thursday and Friday were both incredibly wet at Spa-Francorchamps, with Free Practice 1 on Friday morning having taken place in the pouring rain.
Qualifying was surprisingly dry; however, a rain shower ahead of the session meant the circuit was wet.
A dry line was present by the time Q3 took place though, meaning the Soft tyres did make an appearance.
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Due to how dangerous certain parts of the historic circuit are in the wet, several drivers have called for the governing body to not hesitate should the weather become too dangerous, with that often being the difference between whether a huge crash occurs or not.
The FIA have seemingly listened to the drivers, with the governing body having announced after FP1 that the weekend format could be altered should the weather become undriveable.
Whilst qualifying was able to take place, the governing body also revealed ahead of the session that the results from FP1 wouldn’t be used to determine the grid if qualifying couldn’t happen.
“We can confirm that the teams have been informed that Free Practice will not be used to set the grid for either the Sprint or the Grand Prix this weekend,” said the FIA.
“This has been done to ensure the teams do not treat the first session of the weekend as a competitive session.
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“While the situation regarding the weather is constantly evolving, the priority will be to run a qualifying session for the Grand Prix. Other sessions may be cancelled or rescheduled to facilitate this, and if it is impossible to run a qualifying then the grid will be set by championship order.”
Further heavy rain is expected on Saturday, meaning the sprint shootout and the sprint race are at risk of being cancelled.
Sunday is predicted to be better though, with only a few showers forecast for race day, presumably to the delight of the fans.