Spa FP1 report: Ferrari looking for answers on SF-24 bouncing | 2024 F1 Belgian GP

07/26/2024 08:43 AM

F1 Spa, the FP1 standings

Max Verstappen immediately makes it clear: Spa-Francorchamps is his home, and beating him will be difficult, even with a ten-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix. The Dutchman sets a time of 1:43.372, already half a second faster than all the competition: the first of the “humans” – Oscar Piastri – is 531 thousandths behind the three-time world champion. Max Verstappen’s race pace remains to be seen, as it does not appear as dominant as his single lap time (in fact, Lando Norris on the same red compound set some solid times).

Third place goes to the surprising Williams of Alex Albon (+0.727), ahead of the Mercedes cars of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari starts with Charles Leclerc in sixth place, nearly a second behind Max Verstappen (+0.934), while Carlos Sainz is ninth at +1.202. It is a very important day for the Maranello team, which brought both floor specifications to Belgium: the plan is to use the specification from the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, (the Montmeló version with some adjustments) unless the drivers find the porpoising problems insurmountable, as they did at in the preparations for the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit.

Also in the top 10 are Sergio Perez (7th), a Lando Norris who is significantly better on race pace than on a single lap (eighth at +1.043), and Lance Stroll (still ahead of Fernando Alonso). Hydraulic problems, however, affected Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, leaving him in last place in the first practice session, with only one lap completed.

In today’s free practice sessions for the Belgian Grand Prix, Mercedes, Scuderia Ferrari, and McLaren have equipped their cars with a special 4K video camera mounted on the front nose to monitor any flexing of the front wing. Earlier this year, Red Bull expressed dissatisfaction with some of their competitors over the use of flexible parts, which is prohibited in Formula 1. The results of this monitoring will be revealed after the second practice session at the 7.004-kilometre Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

Here are the results from F1 practice for the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix: 

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