Lando Norris’ strong accident in Eau Rouge reopens the Spa-Francorchamps safety debate

The spectacularity of the circuit Spa-Francorchamps is due, to a large extent, to mythical areas such as the rise to the Eau Rouge, culminating in the Raidillon. A real carousel that tests the bravery of the pilots and the control of the situation, something that is minimized in the rain.

The classification of the Belgian GP from Formula 1 it was marked by water. For a good part of the session the track was wet, but in Q3 he began to juggle with force. That caused Lando norris, who had been the fastest in Q1 and Q2, had a very strong accident. The pilot of Mclaren he lost control of his car and went straight into the protections, crashing violently and then circling himself several times until he stopped.

The pilot got out on his own foot and reasonably unscathed, but in pain. He was evacuated to the medical center for a checkup.

The brutal multiple accident at the WSeries in Spa from which the pilots were miraculously unharmed

One of the first to arrive in the area was Sebastian Vettel. The German driver had said moments before that it was raining too much for Q3 to be safe and called for a red flag, and as soon as he was sure that Norris was okay, he exploded on the radio.

“What had I told you? Red flag!”he lamented over the radio. Norris’s accident proved him right, especially when it is not the first time (far from it) that a tragedy occurs at this point. This same Saturday, in the classification of the WSeries, six drivers were involved in a multiple crash on a very wet track, although less than in this crash.

A very similar accident cost the life of Antoine hubert, pilot of the F2, in 2019. The French rider crashed in the Raidillon, a blind zone, and the Ecuadorian Juan Manuel Correa he lunged at him helplessly. The Frenchman died moments later and Correa himself broke both his legs and was almost paralyzed.

Very serious blows have also been seen in other categories. In the 2018 Spa 6 Hours classification, which was the first victory for Fernando Alonso in the WEC, Pietro Fittipaldi crashed in Eau Rouge and he was also seriously injured.

Both these incidents and this weekend’s have reopened the security debate on this point. The strong floods that flooded this circuit at the end of April forced a small remodeling of the asphalt that has been widely criticized, among others, for Lewis hamilton. Nevertheless, Michael Masi, F1 race director, assured that “from the point of view of the FIA” it continues to be a place with all the guarantees of safety.