Ferrari's Charles Leclerc has suggested three key areas for safety improvement at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, after a spate of serious accidents at the track's Eau Rouge-Raidillon complex in recent years. MP Motorsport driver Dilano van 't Hoff passed away earlier this month in a Formula Regional race at Spa after being collected by Adam Fitzgerald at the exit of Raidillon. The incident was eerily similar to that which claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert in the 2019 F2 round at the same corner and also left Juan Manuel Correa seriously injured - though he has since made a comeback to racing. In recent years, the Eau Rouge-Raidillon complex has also seen big accidents in several other categories, and van 't Hoff's death prompted several F1 drivers, such as Max Verstappen, Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly and Zhou Guanyu, to call for changes to the track layout. Leclerc stopped short of suggesting that Spa’s layout be changed, but he did insist that the track could be made safer with a few alterations. "I think there are some changes that could make a difference," Leclerc told media, including RacingNews365.com . "First of all, the walls in the straights after Eau Rouge should have a bit more space on the left and right. "If you lose control of the car at the moment, you are bouncing on the walls, and you have very high chances of finding yourself in the way again. "I think this is probably a change that we should consider in the future, [rather] than to change the layout of Eau Rouge, by example. "You can always change the layout, but I don't think it's fair to say that this is what should be done.
Leclerc: We don't see anything in the rain!
Van 't Hoff's fatal crash happened in wet conditions, and with Lando Norris also crashing heavily at Raidillon in wet Qualifying for the 2021, Leclerc said visibility was a big issue in what is a blind corner. "The two biggest problems after that is visibility," said Leclerc. "It's really difficult to put into words what we are seeing, apart from saying that we are seeing nothing – but we are not exaggerating when we say we don't see anything, we really don't see anything when it's raining, and this is a really big problem for Formula 1, for motorsport in general, any single seaters. "Now, we have quite a bit of downforce, there's quite a lot of spray, and then this causes quite a lot of incidents just because we cannot react to what there is in front. "Easy to say that, much more difficult to find a solution for that, but I know that the FIA is on it, and is obviously trying to do the best on that."
Too dangerous to race in the rain?
With rain set to fall over the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Leclerc added that the FIA ought to carefully consider the point at which it would be too dangerous to start the race. Such a situation would evoke memories of the 2021 race at Spa, which ran for just two laps behind the Safety Car as conditions were deemed too dangerous to race in. "The last thing is when is it safe to start a race [in wet conditions]? This is another topic for the FIA to look at closely, especially on a weekend like this, where it seems we will have quite a lot of rain throughout the whole weekend," said Leclerc. "To not feel the pressure of starting a race just because we didn't have any running, which we could be in that situation this weekend. "But at the end, obvious to say but safety comes first, and this needs to be the priority, and people. "First of all, as drivers, we shouldn't complain if we don't have any laps, because it is not safe to do so with everything that has happened."
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