I’m sure F1 fans would probably agree with this narrow view of the country’s global notoriety, however if you agree with the first two and wonder what the hell I’m talking about for the third, read on…
Belgium, particularly the Spa Francorchamps circuit buried deep in the woods between the towns of Francorchamps and Malmedy, plays host to what I consider to be the best Grand Prix event on the Formula One yearly calendar. Forget Monaco, it’s all hype; Spa retains the full attraction of what a racetrack should be, in an age where the modern circuits are starting to look like and take on the personality of (if tarmac can have a personality..) supermarket car parks. I’d like to thank Martin Brundle for that observation there.
Let me give you four great reasons why. Firstly, Spa has one of, if not the most revered corners in the world, namely Au Rouge. After the tight La Source hairpin after the start/ finish straight, the cars build up the speed and enter an uphill, blind corner at 190 miles per hour, before hitting the apex at the top of the hill and lightly correcting the car for the next straight. Words (unfortunately for a blog) cannot describe how blindingly fast the cars take this corner, so it’s probably worth watching this clip onboard with Raikkonen on a hotlap a few years ago:
If you fail to get goosebumps watching him hurtle through Au Rouge, not to mention the rest of the track, then I guess F1 isn’t for you.
But it’s not just the physicality of the track that makes it almost every driver’s dream and every fan’s hotly anticipated highlight of the season; it seems to have a certain magical ability to create legendary and mythical moments that you see repeated again and again in Formula One folklore.
I hate to have to tear you away once again from my blog, but I think it’s worth it. Widely regarded as pretty much the best overtaking manoeuvre of all F1 time, Hakkinen overtook Schumacher for the lead at the end of the Kemmel Straight into Les Combes whilst using a backmarker, almost cheekily, to his gain:
The next moment which would be pencilled near the top of any Formula One fan’s list of memorable Spa moments was when Schumacher ploughed his Ferrari into the back of Coulthard, losing a wheel, not the mention the race, in the process. And it wasn’t only the on-track action that produced remarkable scenes that day. Schumacher’s angry march down the pit lane once the two drivers had parked up, boiled over into him being held back by his own mechanics whilst shouting “You tried to f*cking kill me!!”:
And finally, the moment in Formula One history I remember the most (one more video to watch, children..); the largest pile-up of F1 cars ever to have happened. Trust me, this is worth watching. David Coulthard’s McLaren drifts off to his right, due to the severity of the weather, and smashes into the wall at the opposite side of the pits. He then slides back into the path of 12 or so other cars, before carbon fibre starts flying out of the mist created by the standing water being thrown into the air. Sadly, a trackside marshal died due to a high-flying tyre which was forced over the safety fencing due to the impact of one of the cars into the other:
I hope I’ve put up enough of a case for you to watch the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend (the race start is at 1pm on Sunday 29th). After seeing all that the track has offered spectators over the years, why would you not want to get in on the action?
