Race Notes | 2026 Belgian Grand Prix | 189 | What Dick Didn't Get to Say About Spa

Dick didn't get everything out during the Belgian Grand Prix Race Review, so he's back with the thoughts he kept turning over afterward. Kimi Antonelli's win, he says plainly, was never really in question. George Russell's race ended in the gravel after an electrical glitch caught out Lewis Hamilton too, and the championship gap is back to where it was weeks ago. Dick also breaks down Isack Hadjar's pit-lane-to-points drive and previews what Aston Martin and Williams's weight problems mean for their upcoming B-spec upgrades.

Transcript

Speaker: 0:02

2026 Belgian Grand Prix Race Notes. Dick's Race Notes. Well hey everybody and welcome Sabrina Joe and I recorded our conversation about the Belgian Grand Prix earlier today, but I wanted to throw in some of my unfiltered thoughts about the race and share them with you just because I'm not sure that I necessarily had full time really to gather my thoughts and see exactly what I felt were some highlights about the race. We had a very good discussion, but I've been noodling on it ever since. And I just feel like there's a few things that I now want to say. So, um, here's my attempt at it. And so first of all, um, the Charles Leclerc at the end of inherited the lead by dint of a. safety car for Charles. Not so perfectly timed for And it was very interesting because I saw that and I saw how Kimmy was closing down the gap, uh, once the track went green again. And while the announcers were kind of hyping it up, I was sort of like, yeah, this race is going to be no contest unless something happens to Kimmy's car. Uh, Kimmy is going to win this And really, I had been thinking He looked so strong in practice, single lap qualifying pace. I was just like, unless he hits some sort of mechanical misfortune or he trips up over a backmarker, I just don't see Kimmy losing this race and it really kind of played out to be that way. Uh, he drove a very good race, was very dominating, um, and was certainly a very well deserved victor of this race, in my opinion. Um. Now, on the other hand, his another miserable race. It seems like that George's car gets hit with the cartoon anvil and what I call the cartoon anvil. It's like watching a Looney sudden, you know, Wile E coyote the roadrunner and an anvil of a sudden no one knows where And that's what's happening to Um, yes, Kimmy's gotten it once there's new ways that the And, you know, sometimes drivers But you know what happened to And there was nothing he could There was a an electrical glitch He suddenly lost a whole bunch wasn't expecting to lose power. And I think it caught out Lewis And boom, off into the gravel couldn't get out. And that was the end of George's Uh, so now the gap is back to think, between Kimi and George. So they're back basically where And of course, the difference now is there's fewer races for George to claw that that difference back. So I don't know. I I'm, I'm kind of thinking that while the curtain is not shut on George's aspirations for a world championship in twenty twenty six. Man oh man. It with the kind of bad luck I just don't know that he's going to be able to pull this one off. And Kimi seems to have the measure of him anyway, so I don't know. We'll see. Um, I also want to have a big Um, you know, he started on pit change and came through, uh, to Um, He finished, I believe after some penalties, but the know, he's got the probably the Um, and so he lived up to the Um, no question about that. But the other part was he uh, because of the penalty of And so he still had to drive. Well, his team still had to Um, and, and they had to call And, um, and so George came through, George Isaac came through and, um, and picked up some valuable points for the team in the constructors championship. So, um, yeah, I thought it was a that young man. Um, and you know, of course, fault of his own. Uh, it was just that the engine So, um, I also thought that Um, they've been a, what I would They have consistently been at the top or near the top of the midfield throughout the year now. And um, you know, and, and every weekend it's either, you know, Liam Lawson or Arvid Lombard who's um, who's performing really well. But the other driver is, is So um, really felt like they did And then last but not least, a the b-spec car that is being weekend in Hungary. And of course, Williams has a sometime after the summer break. And I wanted to talk a little bit about weight because both cars showed up at the beginning of the season seriously overweight. Um, and that does all sorts of makes the car harder to to slow down. Um, the extra weight makes it And the other part is, is, is that most of these teams want to have a car that is significantly underweight. So that then when it comes time they put the ballast in, uh, to minimum weight so that they know the handling characteristics a very cleverly placing the weight for a particular circuit. And so this is a, another huge Martin and Williams. And I don't know if either of significantly underweight where if they're just going to be at Uh, so it'll be really that translates to be. But in the case of Aston Martin, weight on the car that if they will gain a second lap. So, you know, to put that in perspective, if they have a narrow gain of about a second, which is probably about right, they're going to gain two seconds, which is going to put them about twelfth or fourteenth in the race, in other words, challenging Williams. But if Williams then gains a second or maybe even a little bit more than a second a lap, once again, Aston Martin is losing touch with with Williams as Williams goes further up the midfield. And I would expect that, you point two seconds for Williams where they're challenging Toro Yeah racing Bulls want to call them Toro Rosso today for some reason. But anyway that's their old Anyway um I think it's going to I, you know, I don't have super Martin B-spec car. I think it's going to take them okay, what worked in real life tunnel, what worked in CFD, what Um, and then they're going to But that plus a more powerful Um, what I have is that Honda's down about one hundred that will show up at Zandvoort So they're clawing some back, the back foot. And so, um, I think right now showing progress is about the best that we can hope for from Aston Martin. So anyway, those are my race Hope you enjoyed these. Hope that it brought you a what's going on. And we'll be talking to you Thanks for listening.