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.

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
2026 Belgian Grand Prix Race Notes. Dick's Race Notes. Well hey everybody and welcomeSabrina Joe and I recorded our conversation about the Belgian
Grand Prix earlier today, but Iwanted to throw in some of my unfiltered thoughts about the race

(00:23):
and share them with you just because I'm notsure that I necessarily had full time really to
gather my thoughts and see exactlywhat I felt were some highlights about the race.
We had a very good discussion,but I've been noodling on it

(00:43):
ever since.
And I just feel like there's afew things that I now want to
say.
So, um, here's my attempt at it.
And so first of all, um, theCharles Leclerc at the end of
inherited the lead by dint of a.

(01:04):
safety car for Charles.
Not so perfectly timed forAnd it was very interesting
because I saw that and I saw howKimmy was closing down the gap,
uh, once the track went greenagain.
And while the announcers werekind of hyping it up, I was sort
of like, yeah, this race isgoing to be no contest unless

(01:25):
something happens to Kimmy'scar.
Uh, Kimmy is going to win thisAnd really, I had been thinking
He looked so strong in practice,single lap qualifying pace.
I was just like, unless he hitssome sort of mechanical
misfortune or he trips up over abackmarker, I just don't see

(01:45):
Kimmy losing this race and itreally 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 deservedvictor of this race, in my
opinion.
Um. Now, on the other hand, hisanother miserable race.

(02:07):
It seems like that George's cargets hit with the cartoon anvil
and what I call the cartoonanvil.
It's like watching a Looneysudden, you know, Wile E coyote
the roadrunner and an anvilof a sudden no one knows where
And that's what's happening toUm, yes, Kimmy's gotten it once

(02:34):
there's new ways that theAnd, you know, sometimes drivers
But you know what happened toAnd there was nothing he could
There was a an electrical glitchHe suddenly lost a whole bunch
wasn't expecting to lose power.
And I think it caught out LewisAnd boom, off into the gravel

(02:59):
couldn't get out.
And that was the end of George'sUh, so now the gap is back to
think, between Kimi and George.
So they're back basically whereAnd of course, the difference
now is there's fewer races forGeorge to claw that that
difference back.
So I don't know.

(03:19):
I I'm, I'm kind of thinking thatwhile the curtain is not shut on
George's aspirations for a worldchampionship in twenty twenty
six.
Man oh man.
It with the kind of bad luckI just don't know that he's
going to be able to pull thisone off.
And Kimi seems to have themeasure of him anyway, so I

(03:42):
don't know.
We'll see.
Um, I also want to have a bigUm, you know, he started on pit
change and came through, uh, toUm, He finished, I believe

(04:02):
after some penalties, but theknow, he's got the probably the
Um, and so he lived up to theUm, no question about that.
But the other part was heuh, because of the penalty of

(04:23):
And so he still had to drive.
Well, his team still had toUm, and, and they had to call
And, um, and so George camethrough, George Isaac came
through and, um, and picked upsome valuable points for the
team in the constructorschampionship.

(04:44):
So, um, yeah, I thought it was athat young man.
Um, and you know, of course,fault of his own.
Uh, it was just that the engineSo, um, I also thought that
Um, they've been a, what I wouldThey have consistently been at

(05:10):
the top or near the top of themidfield throughout the year
now.
And um, you know, and, and everyweekend it's either, you know,
Liam Lawson or Arvid Lombardwho's um, who's performing
really well.
But the other driver is, isSo um, really felt like they did

(05:31):
And then last but not least, athe b-spec car that is being
weekend in Hungary.
And of course, Williams has asometime after the summer break.
And I wanted to talk a littlebit about weight because both

(05:51):
cars showed up at the beginningof the season seriously
overweight.
Um, and that does all sorts ofmakes the car harder to
to slow down.
Um, the extra weight makes itAnd the other part is, is, is

(06:12):
that most of these teams want tohave a car that is significantly
underweight.
So that then when it comes timethey put the ballast in, uh, to
minimum weight so that they knowthe handling characteristics a

(06:35):
very cleverly placing the weightfor a particular circuit.
And so this is a, another hugeMartin and Williams.
And I don't know if either ofsignificantly underweight where

(06:55):
if they're just going to be atUh, 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 inperspective, if they have a

(07:15):
narrow gain of about a second,which is probably about right,
they're going to gain twoseconds, which is going to put
them about twelfth or fourteenthin the race, in other words,
challenging Williams.
But if Williams then gains asecond or maybe even a little
bit more than a second a lap,once again, Aston Martin is
losing touch with with Williamsas Williams goes further up the

(07:39):
midfield.
And I would expect that, youpoint two seconds for Williams
where they're challenging ToroYeah racing Bulls want to call
them Toro Rosso today for somereason.
But anyway that's their oldAnyway um I think it's going to
I, you know, I don't have superMartin B-spec car.

(08:03):
I think it's going to take themokay, what worked in real life
tunnel, what worked in CFD, whatUm, and then they're going to
But that plus a more powerfulUm, what I have is that

(08:27):
Honda's down about one hundredthat will show up at Zandvoort
So they're clawing some back,the back foot.
And so, um, I think right nowshowing progress is about the
best that we can hope for fromAston Martin.
So anyway, those are my raceHope you enjoyed these.

(08:49):
Hope that it brought you awhat's going on.
And we'll be talking to youThanks for listening.