In 1966, Jackie Stewart crashed at Spa-Francorchamps during the Belgian Grand Prix. His BRM left the road at Masta Kink — a flat-out kink between two farmhouses on the old 14-kilometer circuit — rolled down an embankment, and ended up upside down in a farmhouse outbuilding. Stewart was trapped in the car for several minutes, soaked in fuel, with no medical crew nearby and no way for the emergency services to reach him quickly on the public road circuit. That afternoon, he and his fellow drivers decided they would not return to Spa until the circuit was made safe.
They did not return for more than a decade. But when Spa came back, it came back as the circuit that every driver on the grid still rates as their favourite. Understanding why requires understanding both what Spa was and what it chose to become.
The original circuit: 14 kilometers of public road
The original Spa-Francorchamps was laid out in 1921 as a triangular public road circuit connecting the villages of Spa, Francorchamps, Malmedy, and Stavelot. At 14.9 kilometers, it was one of the longest circuits in motorsport — and one of the most dangerous. The roads were narrow, the trees were close, and there was almost no margin for error.
The defining feature of the old circuit was Masta Kink: a high-speed left-right combination taken flat out, with two stone farmhouses sitting just metres from the track edge. Drivers had to place the car with absolute precision at speeds exceeding 250 km/h, knowing that any mistake would send them into the buildings or the trees. The kink was not a corner in the engineering sense — it was a test of whether a driver was willing to risk everything for a faster lap time.
By the mid-1960s, the drivers had had enough. The circuit offered almost no safety infrastructure: no marshals at many points, no medical facilities nearby, no way to stop a race quickly if something went wrong. After Stewart's crash and a series of other serious accidents, the Grand Prix Drivers' Association boycotted the 1969 race. Spa disappeared from the calendar.
The modern circuit: 1983 to present
Spa returned in 1983 with a dramatically different layout. The new circuit was just over 6.9 kilometers — still the longest on the modern calendar, but roughly half the length of the original. The dangerous public road sections were gone, replaced by a permanent circuit that retained the essential character of the Ardennes setting: fast, flowing, undulating, and exposed to the weather that sweeps across the hills.
The critical decision was to keep Eau Rouge and Raidillon. The uphill sweep from the valley floor to the top of the ridge remains the most famous corner sequence in motorsport. Drivers approach Eau Rouge at the bottom of a steep downhill, brake briefly for a left-hander, then immediately climb right and left through Raidillon at full throttle. The compression at the bottom pushes the car into the ground; the blind crest at the top requires absolute commitment. Even with modern safety features, Eau Rouge-Raidillon still demands the same courage that defined the old circuit — just in a shorter, more concentrated form.
The weather factor
Spa's location in the Ardennes hills creates a weather microclimate that is unlike any other circuit on the calendar. Rain can fall on one part of the track while another remains completely dry. The section from La Source to Eau Rouge might be wet, while the stretch from Pouhon to the Bus Stop chicane is bathed in sunshine. This means that tire strategy is never straightforward, and the team that reads the conditions best often gains an enormous advantage.
The 1998 race was a prime example. A massive crash at La Source on the first lap eliminated more than half the field in conditions that oscillated between drizzle and downpour. Damon Hill won in a Jordan — the team's first victory — after a race that was as much about survival as speed.
Michael Schumacher's first Formula 1 victory came at Spa in 1992, in changeable conditions that he read better than anyone else on the grid. His 1996 performance — winning by over 40 seconds in torrential rain — is still cited as one of the greatest wet-weather drives in the sport's history.
Championship deciders
Spa has hosted more championship-deciding moments than almost any other circuit. The 2008 race saw Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa fighting through changing conditions, with Hamilton penalized for an incident with Kimi Räikkönen in the pit lane exit. The 2020 race was declared after just two laps behind the safety car — the shortest race in F1 history — with half points awarded, after persistent rain made conditions impossible. The 2021 race produced another controversial weather decision when the race was suspended for hours before finally running to a conclusion.
These moments reflect Spa's unique position in the championship. As a late-season or mid-summer race in unpredictable conditions, it creates variance that can shift the competitive order. A driver who excels at Spa — in the wet, in traffic, on a circuit that punishes mistakes — is often the same driver who goes on to win titles.
Why Spa remains the drivers' favourite
Ask any current Formula 1 driver to name their favourite circuit, and the majority will say Spa. The reason is not just history or prestige. It is that Spa rewards the complete driver: bravery through Eau Rouge, precision through Pouhon, race craft in changing conditions, and strategic awareness when the weather creates pit-stop windows that appear and disappear within a few laps.
No other circuit on the modern calendar combines all of those demands in the same way. Spa is fast but not simple. It is technical but not slow. It is dangerous but not reckless. And it remains, after more than a century, the purest expression of what makes Formula 1 compelling.