1979 Belgian Grand Prix

Zolder, May 13th

The little Zolder circuit, which is situated in the sandy scrublands of north east Belgium, not far from the Dutch border, is not the most attractive place even when the sun is shining. In the drizzling rain on Friday morning when testing and practice was due to start for the Belgian GP it was bleak. One point in favour of the Zolder track is that it does not have the air of an autodrome or racing stadium; as artificial and permanent circuits go it is quite good, like a very miniature Nurburgring. Just as our own OuIton Park is an artificial road-racing circuit, compared to Silverstone which is an airfield circuit, and Brands Hatch which is a stadium, Zolder can rate as a road-racing circuit.

There was not a great deal of enthusiasm for the hour-long test session on Friday morning in the drizzling rain and the Wolf and McLaren teams did not venture out, the former due to a possible shortage of wet-weather tyres and the latter because they were still finishing off their cars. The previous week both Goodyear and Michelin had held tyre-testing sessions at the circuit, during which Depailler, fresh from his Spanish GP victory, had had a slight accident in the Ligier and John Watson had had a major accident in the McLaren M28/1B and demolished it. The Colnbrook team salvaged what parts they could and built them on to the monocoque of M28/2, so that when it arrived at Zolder and was completed it became M28/2B. The third of the M28 cars was undergoing the same treatment at the factory so Tambay was having to make use of M26/7 “dragged out from under the bench.”