© VCARB Social AdminOur Weekend In BelgiumThe Ardennes delivered...again. Our Belgian Grand Prix weekend had it all.
NothingbetterthanaSpaweekend,isthere?
Hot tub, sauna, steam room–... Wait, not that kind of spa, Isack… Ah, that’s awkward…
Anyway, my point still stands. We all love one Spa or another. We four-wheeled fanatics typically lean towards Spa-Francorchamps and the FORMULA 1 MOËT & CHANDON BELGIAN GRAND PRIX 2025, though. And this particular Spa was full of ups and downs, and I’m not just talking about the Eau Rouge/Raidillon section of track.
But before we get into the details of the races (yep, plural, this was a Sprint weekend), let’s run through what Isack, Liam and our new Team Principal, Alan Permane, have been up to this weekend.
First of all, shoutout @sophiealmond.art for this amazing Grand Prix poster, courtesy of the VCARB Creator Platform.
Naturally, we had to whip this classic video out in celebration of our new Team Principal…
Being a Sprint Weekend, we only had one practice session to get up to speed. P10 for Isack and P15 for Liam - consider us practised. Pretty soon, it was time for Sprint Qualifying to get underway. Isack made it through to SQ3, and Liam was soooooooo close – less than a tenth of a second was the difference between P11 and a top 10 shootout for our resident Kiwi. Cue this sweet debrief.
In the Sprint, Isack and Liam both jumped a position due to Gasly failing to start. Isack was in a close battle with Bearman and finished P8, securing one point for the Cchampionship. Liam crossed the line in 10th, less than a second behind Bortoleto, but showed he had great pace for the main race on Sunday.
We had a double Q3 finish! Saturday at Spa treated us well. Isack and Liam qualified P8 and P9, respectively, for the feature race, both less than eight-tenths shy of Norris’ pole time. Everybody liked this, including familiar face Laurent. We liked it so much, Liam and Isack got each other a gift.
Oh naur, not the rain!
For the feature race, it was WET WET WET. We had an 80-minute delay to allow the worst of the weather cell to pass across the Ardennes Forest. We finally got underway in a rolling start and maintained our starting positions until the track became dry enough to switch over to slick tyres. Liam pitted first, opting for medium tyres on lap 13. Isack followed a lap later for the same yellow-banded rubber.
Liam held P8 until the end of the race, securing four valuable points for the World Championship. Isack unfortunately had an issue with the car that the Team will look into, resulting in a P20 finish. Here’s what our drivers had to say about the race:
“Feeling very happy,” Liam said in his post-race debrief, “The team have done a very good job all weekend and the car’s been very strong. Good call on the pit strategy and strong until the end. Let’s keep it up with one more race to go before the summer break.”
Next up: A 1,200 km blast east of Belgium, through Germany and Austria and into Hungary for Round 14 of the Formula One World Championship: FORMULA 1 LENOVO HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX 2025. Join Liam, Isack and the VCARB gang in a week’s time from 1-3 August.
See you then!
