History of the Belgian Grand Prix

[renaultbel]

This year's race is the 48th Belgian GP to qualify as a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship, although there have been 57 Grands Prix in total.
The original triangular road course at Spa ran from Francorchamps to Malmedy via Stavelot and back to Francorchamps and was the brainchild of Jules de Their, who drew up the course over Belgium's country roads in 1924. Spa was not the first course to echo with the sound of engines, the Circuit des Ardennes staged 'closed circuit' racing in 1902.

The original 14.08 km Spa-Francorchamps road circuit snaked out past the crest of the Malmedy chicane and on through the houses that surrounded the notorious but not forgotten, Masta Kink. The road looped round to rejoin the current circuit at the exit to the Stavelot curve, blending in with the track as it sweeps through the long fast bend of Blanchimont.

In 1970 it was abandoned as being too fast and dangerous for formula1 after that year's winner, Pedro Rodriguez, averaged 241.31 kph (149.94 mph) in his BRM. This was the fastest race speed recorded by a Grand Prix winner up until then, until it was eventually beaten by Peter Gethin's 150.75 mph average for the 1971 Italian GP at Monza, also in a BRM.

With Spa-Francorchamps out of use, the race was staged on a flat and lifeless 3.72 km circuit at Nivelles, south of Brussels, in 1972 and again in 1974, after crossing into Flemish territory at Zolder in 1973. The race returned to Zolder on a slightly modified 4.26 km circuit in 1975, where it was staged for the last time in 1984.

Racing recommenced at Spa briefly in 1983 after extensive modernisation and the addition of a new section connecting the old course between Malmedy and Stavelot, drastically shortening the track to 6.96Km (4.329 miles) and since 1985, Spa has been the regular home to Formula1.

The Ardennes area is notorious for its fickle weather and as the clouds sweep through the valleys of these verdant hills, across the town of Spa to the north, the circuit can change to a lake in the time it takes to do a lap.

There are a number of points including of course, Eau Rouge, which bring out the aggression in most drivers. "Even at the Bus Stop Chicane, you cannot reduce your lap time unless you run with the tail sliding and accelerate hard," said one insider. "Drivers can show their ability in Spa since the circuit has a lot of (different) elements."

On this circuit the closest battle for pole position was in 1983, when Alain Prost's Renault was timed 0.011 s quicker than Patrick Tambay's Ferrari. 1995 provided the closest contest in recent years, when 0.239 seconds separated the Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi.

Spa-Francorchamps has been witness to a number of F1 'firsts.' The 1966 Belgian GP saw the debut of Dan Gurney's Eagle-Weslake and the 1967 race brought him his one and only GP victory with it. In 1968 Bruce McLaren himself claimed the first GP victory for a McLaren car.

In 1991 Spa was the scene of Michael Schumacher's first ever Grand Prix, when Eddie Jordan called him in desperation at his home in Karpen, Germany, only 75 miles to the South. Jordan's regular driver, Bertrand Gachot, had just been arrested for spraying mace into the face of a London cabbie that he had taken a dislike to. In 1992 he won his first Grand Prix for Benetton who had poached him immediately following the race the year before.

Only eight cars finished the 1998 race, a first corner pile up in the rain destroyed 9 cars. A second incident at the restart put out the pole-sitter Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher leading the race, ran into the back of David Coulthard's McLaren leaving the field clear for Damon Hill, who took an opportunist maiden win for the Jordan team - his only Grand Prix win for a team other than Williams. Ralf Schumacher came in second making it also a 1-2 for the team.

The record for the biggest victory margin in time terms in a World Championship GP is still held by Jim Clark, a four-times winner at Spa, whose Lotus-Climax finished 4m 54s ahead of Bruce McLaren's second-placed Cooper-Climax in the wet in 1963.

Belgium's must successful GP driver, Jacky Ickx, who took part in 116 races and scored 181 World Championship points, opened his score with third place in the 1968 GP, driving for Ferrari. Although he won eight GPs, this was his best result in his home Grand Prix.

Ricardo Rodriguez the youthful brother of Pedro, became the youngest driver ever to score Championship points when he took fourth place in the 1962 Belgian GP. He was 20 years and 113 days old on the day of the race, 117 days younger than current Formula1 baby, Jenson Button.

Ayrton Senna was the most successful driver in the Belgian GP, winning five times, including four in a row from 1988-91. Jim Clark's four victories were also consecutive (1962-65).

Schumacher is the most successful of the current drivers, having crossed the finishing line first on five occasions, although his 1994 'victory' was subsequently disallowed because of a technical infringement (undue wear on the 'plank' that all cars were forced to attach to the underside of the chassis to reduce 'ground effect'). But he has only once started from the front row (in 1994) and never from pole.

Since 1992 the Belgian Grand Prix has been won by four drivers, Schumacher ('92, '95, '96, '97), Damon Hill ('93, '94 default, '98), David Coulthard in '99 and Mika Hakkinen in 2000. Hakkinen also took his 3rd consecutive pole position for the 2000 race

Ferrari and McLaren share the number of Belgian race wins with 10 apiece, two more than Lotus and six more than Williams. Ferrari's most impressive win was in 1961, when their four cars (allowed in those golden days) qualified 1-2-3-5 on the grid (filling the three-car front row) and finished 1-2-3-4 in the race. Phil Hill won from pole position ahead of Wolfgang Von Trips, Richie Ginther and Olivier Gendebien - Ginther setting the fastest lap.

The 47 World Championship races have attracted 1027 starters, of which 550 have been classified as finishers.

[TimD]

Nice one, Renaultbel. It's when reading all of that packed into just one post that you realise what a great race the Spa event can be.

Definitely the one I look forward to most - especially now Monza has all those dratted chicanes.

Here's to another classic to add to the history books.

[economy_waffle]

nice one renalutbel

[Bononi]

Good one, RenaultBelt.

Spa is my fave.

[Roy2]

I used to read Bernard Cahier's race reports in Road & Track in the mid-fifties. He always said that Spa separated the men from the boys.

Stirling Moss will tell anyone that Fangio was the fastest and the best in an F1 grand prix car and I think Spa 1955 is where he learned this for certain. He used to follow in Fangio's nose to tail on the other circuits, but not at Spa. He finished 8 seconds behind and got that close only when Fangio eased up.

The old Spa was fast and deadly and the chances were that drivers could not drive it over their heads and live to tell about it. Similar to the old 'ring in that respect I guess, but faster.

[Sodemo]

Does anyone remember Spa 90'?
Didn't they have about 4 re-starts, after crashes at each start?

What about Spa 93' when Zanardi went into the barrier at Eau Rouge!
That was a big one!