Stavelot, Wallonia · BE
Widely regarded as the greatest racing circuit in the world. The 4.35-mile track through the Ardennes forest features the iconic Eau Rouge-Raidillon complex and unpredictable weather that can change from corner to corner.
Spa-Francorchamps runs through the Ardennes forest on a scale nothing else on the calendar matches — seven kilometres of circuit descended from public roads, climbing and falling around a hundred metres across a lap. Eau Rouge and Raidillon is the defining sequence: a compression at the bottom of the hill, then a blind uphill left-right-right that rises more than 40 metres at a 17 per cent gradient. Beyond it the Kemmel straight, the double-apex sweep of Pouhon and the near-flat Blanchimont keep average speeds among the highest anywhere in motorsport.
For spectators the sheer size is both the appeal and the problem. The infield is large, hilly and heavily wooded, and walking between grandstands takes real time, so pick your vantage points before you arrive. The Ardennes weather is the other constant: it is entirely normal for one sector to be soaked while another stays dry, which is exactly why Spa produces so many chaotic races. Bring waterproofs whatever the forecast says.
The circuit was mapped out in 1920 by Jules de Thier and Henri Langlois Van Ophem as a triangle of public roads linking Francorchamps, Malmedy and Stavelot, running close to 15 kilometres. A car race planned for 1921 was abandoned when only one entry arrived and a motorcycle race ran instead. Cars followed in 1922, the Spa 24 Hours began in 1924, and the circuit held its first Grand Prix in 1925.
For decades it was the fastest road circuit in Europe, with drivers averaging around 240 km/h in the final years of the old layout. Rising speeds brought a rising toll, and in 1979 the circuit was cut roughly in half, to about 6.9 km. That version kept Eau Rouge and the run down to Stavelot while abandoning the long public-road loop through Malmedy, and — modified several times since — is the circuit raced today.
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