PRIXVIEW – Belgian Grand Prix

Round thirteen brings F1 across the English Channel to the Ardennes Forest in South West Belgium for another highlight and the hundredth anniversary Belgian Grand Prix. Spa is one of the drivers’ favourites as it’s a circuit which demands everything from drivers, cars and the teams as the longest circuit of the season, with varying weather and the nature of grass and gravel.

A high-speed following rollercoaster ride through the Arden Forrest has created many memorable races as well as tragedies. It’s a demanding circuit and often said the race is about driver v car v the Arden Forest, anything can happen, and this circuit punishes any mistake and rewards the brave.

It’s a circuit which requires skill and bravery, as well as strategy. Drivers who attack the circuit can be rewarded, but get it wrong, they can crash or lose position. Overtaking at Spa is easier with hard braking zones at the end of the straights. The cars also need to be good in a straight line as that can see them pass in the braking zones in the first sector.

The short run from the grid to La Source and up at Les Combes/Malmedy on the opening lap are common sites of accidents. As the cars bunch up through Turn One, crashes can happen, famously in 1998 when the race was stopped after an accident involving thirteen of the twenty-two runners at the first corner.

Murray Walker famously said, “This is the worst start to a Grand Prix I’ve ever seen in the whole of my life.” That race saw Jordan take their first win after Michael Schumacher crashed into the back of David Coulthard, citing the poor visibility and spray.

Les Combes is the scene of several retirements on the opening lap in 2009 and 2013, both involving Romain Grosjean, in different places. In 2009, Grosjean, after going into the back of Jenson Button, as Hamilton backed off Jaime Alguersuari ran into him; both crashed into the barrier and retired.

While in 2013, after going around La Source, the Frenchman squeezed himself between the wall and Hamilton, and when they touched, they both lost control. The chain reaction sent Hamilton into the back of Kami Kobayashi and Alonso, while Sergio Perez knocked Pastor Maldonado into a spin

Spa held its first Grand Prix, on the roughly double the length 14.982km or 9.310-mile original circuit in 1925. Its origins however date back to the end of WWI when the German forces were based in Spa before its unification in 1925 with Malmedy, a newspaper owner decided to have a race on the boarders between Spa, Malmedy and Stavelot.

the Belgians took pride in having a very fast circuit, and to improve average speeds, in 1939 the former Ancienne Douane slow uphill U-turn after the bottom of the Eau Rouge creek valley was cut short with a faster sweep straight up the hill, called the Raidillon. Though for modern cars this isn’t real corner as the first sector mainly flat out.

However, for modern F1 cars, the famous corner isn’t a real corner in modern F1 cars, creating a flat-out section from La Source to Le Combes, but the changes following Anthonie Hubert’s fatal crash could make the drivers more careful as the gravel has been reintroduced in recent years.

Spa was one of the circuits which featured in the first season of the championship, dominated by the Alfa Romeos of Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio and Italian Nino Farina. Their closest challenger, Alberto Ascari, ran into fuel problems and fell back. The race was won by Fangio, and Farina won the next year’s race in his works Alfa after Fangio dropped back with hub problems.

1960 race is one of the darkest weekends in the sports history, along with Imola in 1994, it is one of two occasions in which two driver fatalities have occurred at a Formula One race meeting, and the only one where both occurred during the race itself.

F1 left Spa following 1970 as the GPDA deemed the circuit as too dangerous, prompting a boycott by the British, French and Italians, prompting the race to moved to Zolder, originally alternating with Nielles, but after two races, the street circuit near Brussels became unviable.

The basis of the modern shorter Spa, which was roughly halved in length, made its debut in 1979 which remained popular with drivers and fans. The new section bypassed several towns by a new section between Les Combes and Blanchimont the first race at the new Spa being won by Alain Prost.

The 1986 race saw Nigel Mansell dominate the race, before the Englishman and Ayrton Senna took each other out. Senna won the next four Belgian Grands Prix, the first two being rain-soaked events.

1988 was the first Grand Prix to be held in late August/early September instead of May or June. The 1990 event had to be restarted twice after a multi-car accident at the La Source hairpin on the first start and then Paolo Barilla crashing at Eau Rouge on the second start.

1992 saw Michael Schumacher take his first win. The seven-time champion would go on to take five more wins and his final championship in 2004 at Spa. His 2001 win saw him pass Prost’s then record of fifty-one wins.

The 2008 race saw a dramatic conclusion as the rain started to fall, Sir Lewis Hamilton lost the Räikkönen with an early spin but fought back in the closing laps to re-take the lead with two laps to go. On a soaking track, Hamilton passed Räikkönen, lost the lead again with a spin, re-took it and then saw Räikkönen crash. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa took second leaving him eight points behind Hamilton.

Hamilton had been deemed to have passed Raikkonen by cutting the Bus Stop Chicane, demoting him to third following a twenty-five-second penalty. The following season saw another shunt at Les Combe caused by Romain Grosjean, after going into the back of Jenson Button, as Hamilton backed off, Jaime Alguersuari to run into him; both crashed into the barrier and retired

Mercedes, like many circuits in the hybrid era, would dominate at Spa, apart from when Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg were crashing into each other. The German team went on to win the next three races with Hamilton winning two and Rosberg winning in 2016.

Charles Leclerc took his first F1 victory at Spa in 2019, admit difficult circumstances following the death in the F2 race of friend Anthoine Hurbert. The Monegasque driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix, after holding off the Mercedes, was partly helped by a collision between Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen.

Hamilton continued his march towards his seventh title in 2020 with a dominant win which allowed him to set a record for number of miles lead. His only error being with seven laps to go when he locked up at the Bus Stop Chicane going straight on, but he rejoined maintaining his advantage.

2021 was one of the most controversial races in the sports history as the race saw no racing because of poor conditions, with two laps being completed behind the safety car and Max Verstappen being declared the winner having taken pole, ahead of George Russell, who scored his first podium thanks to the incredible qualifying effort yesterday. While Lewis Hamilton was third, with his lead narrowed to just three points between Verstappen and Hamilton

Verstappen won again in 2022 after coming through from fifteenth thanks to an engine change, the Red Bull cleared the midfield early on and Leclerc’s race once again unravelled by a mixture of bad luck and poor decisions, only compounded further by a five-second penalty.

Race & Circuit Guide

Fast facts

• The fearsome Eau Rouge/Raidillon corner, arguably the most famous on the current F1 calendar, features an elevation change of 35 meters from its lowest to highest point.
• Of current drivers, Lewis Hamilton has the best record at Spa with five victories – but he has also recorded three first-lap retirements at the track.
• At 7.004km long, Spa is the longest current F1 circuit. Despite this, it has one of the smaller spectator capacities on the current calendar (70,000 fans)
• Bruno Senna set the only fastest lap of his F1 career at the Belgian Grand Prix in 2012. Strangely, that’s something which his Uncle Ayrton never achieved, despite winning six Grands Prix at Spa.

Event timetable

What happened in 2024?

FP1 saw Max Verstappen fastest on 43.372 which put him over half a second faster than Oscar Piastri. Verstappen looked competitive in the first session of the weekend. Alex Albon put his Williams third fastest a quarter of a second behind the McLaren, with George Russell fourth after going just over half a second ahead of his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. But both Mercedes looked to struggle with “bouncing” during the race simulations

FP2 was topped by Lando Norris with a 42.260, going just over two tenths faster than his teammate Piastri. Verstappen was third just two thousandths behind the Australian, but wet weather was forecast for qualifying on Saturday. Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari fourth, the Monacan was three-tenths behind Verstappen and more than half a second behind Norris’s session-topping time.

FP3 was topped by Verstappen in wet conditions with a 02:01.565 on the intermediate tyre which put him nearly a second and a half faster than Piastri. Pierre Gasly put his Alpine third, spitting the two McLaren’s he was almost two-tenths behind Piastri and ahead of Norris by nearly two tenths.

Qualifying saw Verstappen fastest with a 53.199 going nearly six tenths faster than pole sitter Leclerc. Though Verstappen put in another strong qualifying, where he topped all three sessions, he started eleventh after taking a ten-place grid penalty for a power unit change. Leclerc put his Ferrari in between the two Red Bulls as the conditions improved at the end of Q3 to go a hundredth faster than Perez right at the end of the final part of the session.

Lewis Hamilton was declared the winner after his teammate George Russell was disqualified for being underweight. Russell had fended off an attack by the seven-time champion in the closing stages despite being on older tyres during the final stint after he ran a one-stop compared to the majority of the drivers running a two-stop strategy.

Piastri finished second six and a half tenths behind Hamilton, once again showing that McLaren has strong pace once again as the Australian was there to take advantage should Mercedes run into drama he was only six and a half tenths behind. Russell’s disqualification prompts Piastri to second, Leclerc to third, and Max Verstappen to fourth.

Championship Standings

What to watch for?

After the brief pause, we are into the final double header before the official summer break and it’s another sprint weekend with thirty-three points on the table. This as we always say on sprints, every session really matters, as there is only one hour of practice going into sprint qualifying, which means it’s going to be a busy session. The drivers are more restricted on laps given this is the longest lap of the season.

Spa is one of the more difficult races, a bit like Monaco, because you need to get everything right given the weather can change very quickly, the fast-flowing nature and the older grass and gravel run-off areas meaning you need to get the lap in early in the qualifying sessions. You can’t really afford late mistakes as you could lose about five minutes of track time by the time you reset. this is a fast and flowing circuit through the forest.

McLaren will be strong here again as its very similar in characteristics to Spielberg and Austria, Lando Norris has the chance to win his third home race this season, as he has a Belgian passport having won last time out and in Monaco where he lives.  A third win in a row could give him a bit more confidence going into the break in. August.

Norris however will be well aware that his teammate Oscar Piastri will continue to push him all the way there is only six points in the championship with thirty-three points on the table this weekend. But it might be tighter given we are mid-season, that strange to say given its been tight when McLaren has dropped the ball.

Ferrari has finally got their act together over the last two races and they are still in search of their first Grand Prix win of the season; Silverstone moved them into second in the constructors. Charles Leclerc took his first win here in 2019 and Lewis Hamilton is the most successful of the current drivers here, if they can get everything right and keep the speed and maximise results, they could become a real force in the second half of this season.

Red Bull have had a huge change over the break with the departure of Christian Horner, whether that ends the eighteen months of drama, it’s too early to say and there will be questions to answer, many questions the two biggest being why and what caused his departure and what this means for the team and Max Verstappen’s future? Red Bull are currently last of the top four and Verstappen looks to realistically accept that given McLaren’s strength he is out of the championship, but he will never give up. Anything can happen on sprint weekends and there still is a long way to go in this season

2023 vs 2024 Race Data

2024 Lap time comparison

Tyres