Ricciardo: Earlier start time on wet days would give 'bigger window'

Daniel Ricciardo suggests that an earlier start time on rainy race days would provide F1 with a "bigger window" to deal with adverse conditions.

Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix was washed out by the elements despite an over three-hour wait during which F1 hoped in vain to get the race underway.

Earlier in the day, rounds of the FIA Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup championships were able to be completed. But as the weather continued to intensify, prospects for F1's race became increasingly bleak.

"If we could predict weather like this I would look at bringing the race start earlier," suggested Ricciardo.

"It is like Japan in 2014 when we knew the typhoon was coming. [Sunday] was maybe less obvious.

"The problem with the 3 o’clock race start is that you only give yourself three or four hours of light and then it’s done.

"If you have an 11 am start you have a much bigger window to get some opportunities. That is not a criticism. It is just that after the fact if I could’ve wished for something that is what I would have wished for.

"The only time the track was okay was the laps to the grid. So it’s like 2:30. The track was okay then. But after that we lost the window.

"In those conditions for sure we could’ve made something, but from 3 o’clock it was too late."

Bringing an F1 race's start time forward would obviously require a contingency plan for Sunday's support races, but the rescheduling could also wreak havoc on various broadcasters TV programming.

Furthermore, at Spa, the severity of the weather conditions that prevailed over the course of the afternoon wasn't predicted according to F1 boss Stefano Domenicali.

Also, the Italian said that changing a race's start time is the responsibility of the FIA stewards, not F1.

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"I cannot control that," said Domenicali. "It’s the stewards that control that, if you want to change the time.

"As far as the information that we had, there was, let’s say, considered to be normal rain. There was no sign that the rain would have been so bad. Otherwise, a decision could have been taken by the stewards.

"You see what the stewards decided today is really to stop also the time in order to try and gain time to see if there was a possible slot to have the race.

"You could have said in these conditions, is it like to throw the balls in the air. It could have been pouring from 11am or whatever it is. It’s really something that you cannot predict."

Ricciardo said that he supported FIA race director Michael Masi's decision to delay proceedings over the afternoon.

"On the radar, asking the engineers and strategy people watching the radar, they were saying maybe in 10 minutes we would get a dry patch," said the McLaren driver.

"All we needed was maybe a 10-minute dry patch to create less aquaplaning. You get your hopes up and get excited and then the rain would come.

"I’m not being kind or diplomatic but I don’t think anything bad was done, or anything wrong. It was just working with what was in front of us and we are just a bit unlucky."

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