Belgian GP set for three-and-a-half-year twist 'uncertainty'

The Belgian Grand Prix will host an event not witnessed for the past three and a half years in F1 courtesy of tyre supplier Pirelli.

The Italian manufacturer has opted to skip a compound for the sprint weekend at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. It is the first time it has happened since the 2022 Australian Grand Prix.

The three compounds available will be the C1, the hardest tyre in Pirelli's range, but then there is a jump to the medium [C3], with the soft being C4.

At Melbourne's Albert Park in 2022, the hard and medium were the C2 and C3, skipping on to the C5 for the soft.

According to Pirelli's simulations, the trio of tyres for this weekend "should make a two-stop strategy even more competitive" for the grand prix, "while adding a greater degree of uncertainty to tyre management" in general throughout the weekend.

That is primarily because there is only one practice session and a different dry tyre allocation.

With the sprint format, the regulations stipulate one fewer set of tyres than on a normal weekend are used, with each driver allocated 12 sets - six soft, four medium and two hard.

Additionally, the medium is the only tyre permitted for the first two parts of sprint qualifying, which takes place on Friday evening, and the soft must be used in the top-10 shootout.

With the track nestling in the forest of the Ardennes hills, there is the added variable of the capricious nature of the weather, even from one part of the track to another, and in the height of summer.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that both types of wet weather tyre, the intermediate and extreme, are used at some stage.

Contentious end to 2024 GP

Last year, the race proved to be highly contentious.

The vast majority of drivers lined up on the grid on the medium. The exceptions were Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Zhou Guanyu, then with Sauber, who opted for the hard, whilst RB's Daniel Ricciardo started on the softs.

The two-stop proved to be the preferred choice, with the hard compound working best in terms of degradation and performance.

Of the 19 drivers who finished the race, with Zhou the only retirement, just five - Mercedes' George Russell, Aston Martin duo Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen for Haas, and RB's Yuki Tsunoda - pitted only once, switching from medium to hard.

The strategy appeared to pay dividends for Russell, in particular, who won the race, only to later be disqualified for his car being under the minimum regulation weight following post-race FIA scrutineering.

That allowed team-mate Lewis Hamilton to claim his record-extending 105th grand prix victory after adopting a medium-hard-hard strategy.