2026 archive
Asymmetric degradation at Spa: the Kemmel stresses the compound, Pouhon rewards the floor
At Spa-Francorchamps tyre wear is not uniform: the combination of top speed on the Kemmel and lateral acceleration at Pouhon splits the teams between those who favour straight-line speed and those who protect the tyres in the middle sector.
Over the seven kilometres of Spa-Francorchamps the degradation of the medium compound shows up asymmetrically. In the first stint of 18 laps, Lando Norris holds an average pace of 1:47.120, with a lap-on-lap increase of just 0.042 s per lap. By contrast, Charles Leclerc's Ferrari starts on comparable times but suffers a drop-off of 0.085 s per lap from the ninth lap onwards.
The difference emerges in the very high lateral acceleration sequence of the second sector: between Bruxelles and Pouhon the McLaren generates 4.6 G of lateral load without triggering rear-end sliding, keeping tread temperature within the ideal window of 105 °C.
The telemetry highlights two opposite set-up choices: the Ferrari reaches 334 km/h at the end of the Kemmel straight (six more than the McLaren), exploiting a low-drag wing configuration. However, through the fast sweep of Pouhon (Turn 10) Leclerc has to lift to 272 km/h, against the 284 km/h Norris holds at full throttle.
This mid-corner load deficit forces the Monegasque driver into constant micro-oversteer corrections that overheat the rear tyres, accelerating the performance drop in the second half of the stint.
Analysis of the Belgian Grand Prix confirms that on complete circuits protecting the tyre through the flowing sector delivers a race pace advantage greater than the time gain available from low wing angles on the straight.