Stavelot

Rain falls on the left side of the track. On the right side, it's dry. This is Spa-Francorchamps, where the circuit is long enough - 7.004 kilometres - that different weather systems can occupy different sections simultaneously. A driver exits the pit lane in sunshine. By Pouhon, four kilometres away, they're aquaplaning through standing water. Forecast here is useless. Experience is everything.

The circuit sits in a bowl in the Ardennes forest, outside the small commune of Stavelot in Belgium's French-speaking Wallonia. The trees close in on every side. The air smells of pine and petrol and - when it rains, which it often does - that particular freshness of a forest after water. Most drivers say it's their favourite circuit on the calendar. Ask them why and they'll all eventually arrive at the same answer: Eau Rouge.

The Feeling

The approach to Eau Rouge is down a straight. The car arrives fast, braking for the tight left-right at the bottom. Then full throttle uphill through the right-hander at Raidillon. The car is light on its wheels from the compression. The crest is blind. The track turns left but you can't see it yet. You're going faster than you can properly justify and you don't back off because backing off now costs you everything on the Kemmel Straight that follows. For decades this was taken flat-out in qualifying; the bravery required borders on the irrational. Standing trackside at Eau Rouge, even as a spectator, and watching F1 cars pass at full throttle, you understand what motorsport is for.

The Ardennes is not Monte Carlo. There are no superyachts, no paddock celebrities in sunglasses, no sense of the sport showing off to money. The Belgian crowd brings camping chairs and beer and rain gear and stays for the whole weekend. They know the cars by sound before they see them. They sit in the grandstands through the grey and they cheer for everyone and they would not swap this circuit for any other.

The Circuit

Eau Rouge / Raidillon - The defining corner. Down the hill, tight left-right at the bottom, then full-throttle uphill through the compression. The crest arrives blind. Formula 1 cars take it at over 300 km/h. Drivers learn its character the way musicians learn a difficult passage: through repetition, until the movement becomes unconscious.

Kemmel Straight - What follows Raidillon. Cars hit 340 km/h here with slipstreaming opportunities that produce some of the best overtaking on the calendar. The straight runs downhill, which adds to the speed.

Pouhon - A long, fast double-apex left-hander taken in lower gear but still fast, where lateral forces test tyre grip and driver nerve equally. In the wet, it becomes a different corner entirely.

Blanchimont - A near-flat right-hander before the Bus Stop chicane. High-speed, banking, unsettling in the wet.

Bus Stop Chicane - The complex at the end. It's been modified over the years. It ends the lap and deposits cars back onto the pit straight. Unspectacular by Spa's own standards, which is saying something.

Stavelot and the Ardennes

Stavelot itself is a quiet Walloon town of 7,000 people with a 7th-century abbey at its centre, now partially a museum. The town has one of the oldest carnival traditions in Belgium - the Laetare carnival in spring, with papier-mâché figures called Blancs-Moussis chasing people through the streets. On a non-race weekend, it is entirely peaceful.

The wider Ardennes offer forest walks, cycling routes, thermal baths in the town of Spa (12 km from the circuit - the word "spa" as in the concept of thermal bathing originated from this town), and Belgian farmhouse cooking. Boudin, frites, and Trappist beer appear at every table. The Trappist breweries of the region - Chimay, Rochefort, Orval - are within an hour's drive.

Formula 1

Every summer, the Belgian Grand Prix takes over the forest. The race has run at Spa - with interruptions - since 1950. It produces disproportionate drama: the weather variance creates different conditions for different cars; the long lap means strategy becomes complex; Eau Rouge punishes any setup compromise. Some of the most memorable F1 moments live here. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost collided at the start in 1990 from first and second on the grid. Michael Schumacher won here repeatedly, as did Michael Schumacher's Ferrari predecessor Gilles Villeneuve in an earlier era. The record for most Belgian GP wins belongs to Schumacher and Ayrton Senna - the two drivers most associated with the circuit's soul.

Circuit: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Length: 7.004 km · Corners: 20 · Laps: 44
Lap record: 1:46.286 (Max Verstappen, 2023)
Race: Belgian Grand Prix

When to Go

Before You Go

• Bring waterproofs. Every year someone arrives in linen trousers. Every year it rains. The Ardennes is not the Riviera.
• Stay in the forest, not just for the race. Stavelot and the surrounding villages reward slow walking and good beer. The circuit is only part of the reason to come.
• The thermal baths in Spa are 12 km away. The town of Spa - the origin of the English word - has thermal water facilities that have operated for centuries. Post-race recovery, essentially.
• Drive the circuit road before race weekend. The N62 and local roads follow sections of the track. You can drive them in a hire car and understand the elevation changes in a way no onboard camera shows.
• Trappist beer is not a tourist prop. Chimay (45 km south), Rochefort (60 km south), and Orval (90 km) produce some of the most complex beer on earth in monasteries still operating under silence rules. Drink it where it's brewed.

Start Planning

Travelese can help you find flights into Brussels or Liège and stays in Stavelot, Spa, or the surrounding Ardennes villages. Tell it whether you're coming for the race or for the forest - ideally both. The circuit is magnificent in July. The Ardennes in September, when the crowds have gone and the beeches are turning, is something else entirely.