Should Spa be saved? Changes needed by both F1 and circuit

And then Belgium’s spot as the first one back would more often than not result in a somewhat rejuvenated paddock, keen to get cars on track and the season back underway after such a pause.

I’m not sure there will be any complaints from Zandvoort after taking up that latter position this year and getting the boost of being the location for the return to racing, but that’s as a result of Spa’s move that will see it round off the first part of the season, where the paddock won’t be so fresh.

Could that play a part in the lens through which I’m looking at the iconic circuit ahead of the race weekend? Perhaps, but it would be remiss to not talk about its future after events earlier this month.

Dilano van ‘t Hoff’s death at the venue in a FRECA race at the start of July thrust the track into the limelight for the wrong reasons once again, four years on from the horrific scenes in Formula 2 that saw Anthoine Hubert lose his life and left Juan Manuel Correa fighting for his.

In the interim there have been multiple serious crashes across a variety of racing categories, with many of those occurring in or just after the Eau Rouge / Raidillon section. There are multiple factors at play that have played a role – visibility, weather conditions, the positioning of other cars – that could also lead to major incidents at other corners on other tracks too, but I’d invite anyone to show me stats of more serious accidents in such a specific area of one circuit over those past four years.

In the case of van ‘t Hoff, spray and a pack restart appeared to be significant factors as his incident occurred much further up the road on the Kemmel Straight than many of the others, but it served as a reminder of some of the emotions stirred up by Spa.

It used to be one of the standout highlights of the season, but the F1 calendar has developed so much that there are more and more races that can claim to have something a bit special. And now it feels like the sport arrives at the track with a mix of excitement as to its brilliance and trepidation relating to its danger.

My co-host on a SiriusXM F1 show – Jon Massengale – put it better than I would have myself when he stated this week that in the time since the 1970s, Formula 1 has proven itself to be a sport that is still as entertaining and thrilling and attractive as ever without the constant threat of serious injury or death.

That’s not to say that F1 is totally safe. We all know that is far from the truth, but there are so few venues that we now go to and actively worry about the risk level to the drivers behind the wheel. Of course we get reminders that it’s a false sense of security, but Spa is one of those places where you don’t need such a wake-up call.

Wet weather wiped out the race in 2021 and could well play a part in this weekend’s action, but this isn’t about rain. The weather should be a challenge at times, and the FIA is currently conducting research into how it can improve visibility in severely wet conditions to allow more racing to take place rather than having to red flag running due to spray when the grip level is acceptable.

That work had been ongoing long before van ‘t Hoff’s fatal crash, and the response to his death did not focus solely on the weather.

Lance Stroll’s comments after the 18-year-old Dutch driver was killed were full of emotion and didn’t address some of the nuance of the incident, but his specific points about both the section of track and the way motorsport responds to concerns were pointed.

“Seriously, we need to think about what to do with that corner as it’s never fun going through there, every time we go through there we put our lives on the line,” he said at the time, despite having raced through the updated version last year.

“We’ve discussed [changes] but then it blows over, it needs to be changed.

“We’re losing lives in that corner, it has to change. For me it’s not even a discussion.

“They need to do something. You know, playing with fire… in a couple of weeks time, again, and not just us. F2 kids, F3 kids, everyone goes through that corner.”

And it’s as much about the junior categories as it is F1. Pierre Gasly – a close friend of Hubert’s – steered clear of the more recent incident when giving his own perspective of parts of Spa.

“It does feel risky,” Gasly said at the start of the month. “It reminds me of situations I’ve been in in the younger categories in Spa in similar conditions, and being fully honest, there were times where I did feel in massive danger just with poor visibility. There were situations where it just feels pretty unsafe.”

And why don’t we hear such comments about other circuits? Big crashes happen elsewhere too, but not with the same regularity. It’s becoming ever-more-rare during an F1 driver’s career that they have to address a fatal crash on a track they race on, let alone more than once.

The circuit has invested in improvements through Eau Rouge and Raidillon in recent years, with extra run-off added, but that hasn’t appeased everyone. It was a massive task and did attempt to address the issues with bumps and cars bouncing back across the track, but retaining as close a layout to before as possible also means a blind crest in such a high-speed section remains.

I know that many of you will be shouting at your screens right now, referencing the character, the history and the test for drivers. But Spa has remained that through multiple iterations. It took a boycott from drivers to turn the former road layout into the modern classic it became, and every circuit has to evolve and improve.

It’s a stunning section of track but it needs further work. That doesn’t mean it needs watering down, but to achieve the holy grail of making it even better from a driving perspective and safer at the same time is likely to cost a lot of money.

And with the race often appearing to be on the brink of being dropped from the F1 calendar, such commitments are tough to make.

It’s on the 2024 schedule but that could end up being its farewell. If Spa-Francorchamps is to be saved as a grand prix venue then it requires concessions from both sides, with F1 giving it longer-term security as a host circuit and putting its faith in the future of the event in return for the investment in addressing it’s biggest issues.

Otherwise, for all the times Spa can provide some incredible moments or thrilling races, it could well be that the greatest success of the next few years will be the Belgian Grand Prix getting to the end of its time on the schedule without Stroll or Gasly feeling the need to repeat their fears.