Wet start expected to Belgian Grand Prix weekend

2012 Belgian Grand Prix weather forecast

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Rain and Spa go together like frites and mayonnaise.

But although a spell of wet weather does feature in the forecast for this weekend, at the moment it is not expected to affect the race.

Friday’s two practice sessions are the most likely to see wet running. After that the rain is expected to clear up with a good chance of a dry qualifying session and race.

But this region is notorious for its rapidly-changing weather conditions and there may be changes in the forecast between now and Sunday.

Temperatures are likely to be on the cool side to begin with. Although the weekend will get warmer the maximum temperature is likely to be no higher than around 17C. Tomorrow will be a chilly 11C.

There will be regular updates on the track conditions during each session on F1 Fanatic Live and the F1 Fanatic Twitter account.

Location of Spa-Francorchamps

See the location of every race on the 2012 F1 calendar here:

Image © Force India F1 Team

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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29 comments on “Wet start expected to Belgian Grand Prix weekend”

  1. Weather radar available on http://www.buienradar.be/

    That said, weather forecasts are always tricky, but I guess it will be even harder to forecast what the podium will be! Lotus are in for a strong result, but they will have to battle Red Bull and Ferrari all the way, with McLaren close behind.

    And I hope (wish) Schumacher has a good race too!

    1. @uncleben Thanks for the link.

    2. Here’s another weather forcast, with some nice graphs: http://meteo1.standaard.be/weer/francorchamps

      Friday: 96% chance of heavy rain, 8-9°C (!)
      Saturday: mostly dry, but 15% chance of drizzle around qualifying, 13-14°C
      Sunday: dry, 16°C

  2. Depending on what upgrades they bring then, could rule Lotus out of this one. They’ve been stronger in warm conditions on medium or high downforce tracks (Catalunya, Bahrain and Hungary), and probably suits Alonso and Ferrari (sigh) more…

    1. @craig-o Plus, if it’s wet then DRS will be disabled and they won’t get to evaluate their fancy-pants new DDRS.

      Though I guess they will have factored this eventuality in. If you can guarantee rain anywhere it’s Malaysia and Spa.

      1. The Lotus DDRS is totally independent of DRS – I suspect their thinking is to get up the order on Saturday to give them a head-start on Sunday

        1. @jh1806 Ah yes, you make a good point. I need to check it all out on Scarbs and such :)

      2. I hope it rains during the race so DRS is disabled. Having said that I’d like Lotus to have a dry qualifying.

  3. The weather during belgian grand prix since 2004:
    2004: dry
    2005: wet
    2007: dry
    2008: wet
    2009: dry
    2010: wet
    2011: dry

    So now we know what to expect this weekend :-P

    1. yes, wet or dry

      1. very good :))

    2. LOL, time to break the chain then … or?

  4. If tomorrow during free practice it is in fact 8c wouldn’t it be the coldest free practice? Does FIA or anyone even collects such information about temperatures?

  5. I´m now in Aachen, which is around 60 km away from the circuit. The weather here is nice, around 20 C or even a bit more and there has been quite a lot of sun and no rain at all today. But, as the article says, it´s likely to change tomorrow and after that let´s just wait and see.

  6. it’s not all about weather the race or the qualifying will be dry or wet , the crucial thing in spa is making the right decision in the changeable conditions i remember Fernando Alonso having bad qualifying in the last couple of years because wrong calls from his box so the drivers & the teams must have psychological preparation to face the stress of the changeable conditions

    1. soorryyyyy its whether

  7. Rain and Spa go together like fries and mayonnaise

    I couldn’t disagree more with the fries and mayonnaise combo. Each to their own I guess.
    Also a slight typo in fries there.

    1. I’m pretty sure it’s a European thing, frites. I agree through, I read the first line as, “Rain is a rare sight at Spa-Francorchamps.” ;)

    2. “Frites” is French for fries.

    3. No like fries and ketchup. Now I’m hungry

    4. Well, we invented and perfected the thing and we eat it with mayonnaise; you’re just barbarians :P

      FYI the only reason Yanks call it French fries is because it was introduced to them by francophone Belgians and they were too ignorant to know that not every francophone is French.

    5. Also a slight typo in fries there.

      Nope, they’re called frites in Belgium. And delicious they are too.

      1. “You know what they put on French fries in Belgium instead of ketchup?”

        “What?”

        “Mayonnaise.”

        “Goddamn!”

        “I’ve seen ’em do it, man. Practically drown ’em in the stuff.”

  8. Our forecast for Spa-Francorchamps Circuit a very WET Fri with possible thunderstorms but a BRIGHT and SUNNY race weekend: http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/Belgium/Spa-Francorchamps-Circuit.aspx?sday=0&eday=7

    Check out our geeky track temperature charts for SPA circuit here:
    http://www.myweather2.com/activity/hourimage.aspx?tagid=20121451073008&id=42081

  9. I just hope the weather doesn’t lead to another Ferrari win: a Red Bull/Hamilton/Räikkönen win would keep the championship interesting at the front.

    1. rainy conditions doesn’t lead automatically to a Ferrari win it’s true that Fernando comes alive in the rain but the Red Bull’s were not so catastrophic in rainy conditions they were 2nd in both qualifying sessions in Germany & in Silverstone as for your Championship concern i can ensure you that a win for Ferrari (current 4th fastest car) will just make the championship more interesting

  10. Michael Brown (@)
    31st August 2012, 1:45

    Mercedes has the weather and the tires on their side. Hopefully their car will be reliable enough to finish.

    1. More cars between Raikkonen and Alonso, the better!!! :)

  11. I know this could be difficult to judge but is this the wettest F1 season ever? Wet weather seems to have featured in the majority of F1 race weekends this year.
    A lot of the time, this has effectively made practice session(s) reduntant because the forecast for the rest of the weekend was to be dry or the teams wanted to save their tyres for the remaining wet running required (qualy & race).
    I love wet weather running but I’m getting to the stage where I’m disappointed to see wet weather forecast because it basically means reduced running time which impacts teams’ development of their cars.
    The unforeseen shower/monsoon (or Bernie’s sprinklers) is what’s needed in my opinion.

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