![]() ![]() Michael Schumacher was known as the ‘Regen Meister’ for his masterful command of wet conditions in comparison to his rivals. It separates the good drivers from the great drivers and the history books are the proof of the pudding. Watch the highlights here.In motorsport, it is said that rain is the greatest leveller of them all. The 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, which began under very wet conditions, is best remembered for a massive first-lap crash involving thirteen cars with an estimated repair bill of $13 million USD.At one stage, it rained at the Belgian Grand Prix for twenty years in a row! The Ardennes region, where Spa-Francorchamps is located, experiences the highest annual rainfall of anywhere in Belgium.Though technically a series of corners including Raidillon, this iconic section of Spa-Francorchamps includes a downhill left-hand turn followed by a sharp uphill section and right-left combination with a blind summit that the best drivers take flat out. Spa-Francorchamps features on of the most famous corners in all of Formula 1®, Eau Rouge.The others are Monaco, Silverstone and Monza. Spa-Francorchamps is one of four current F1® tracks to have also featured on the inaugural 1950 World Championship calendar.Comprised of 9 left-hand corners and 10 right-hand corners, it also has the highest elevation change of any current circuit, with 102.2 metres between the lowest and highest points. At 7.004km, Spa-Francorchamps is the longest circuit on the current Formula 1® calendar.Belgium's most recent F1 driver was Stoffel Vandoorne, who competed for McLaren in 20, and is now a race winner in Formula E. Belgian’s only other race winner was Thierry Boutsen, a noted wet-weather specialist who won three races for Williams in 1989-1990. The most successful was Jacky Ickx, who won eight races in the late 1960s and early 1970s for Ferrari and Brabham. The Dutch superstar was born in Belgium to a Belgian mother! More than 20 Belgian drivers have completed in Formula 1® since the advent of the World Championship in 1950. There are no drivers from Belgium on the current Formula 1 grid, though Max Verstappen does have a strong local connection. One year later, Schumacher recorded his maiden Grand Prix win at the same circuit. The young German qualified in a sensational seventh place and was quickly snapped up by rival team Benetton. In 1991, Michael Schumacher was drafted into the Jordan team for the Belgian Grand Prix after regular driver Bertrand Gachot ended up in jail following an altercation with a London taxi driver. The most successful constructor is Ferrari, which has taken the chequered flag 18 times in Belgium. Sebastian Vettel has won three times at Spa-Francorchamps. On the current grid, Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton are the joint most successful drivers in Belgium with four wins, the same as Jim Clark. Ayrton Senna triumphed five times at Spa-Francorchamps, including four victories in succession with McLaren-Honda from 1988-1991. With six wins between 1992-2002, Michael Schumacher is the most successful driver in the Belgium Grand Prix. Formula 1® returned to the circuit in 1983, and Spa-Francorchamps has maintained a regular place on the calendar since. The Belgian Grand Prix found new homes at Nivelles and Zolder in the 1970s before a safer 7km layout of Spa-Francorchamps was introduced in 1979. A safety campaign launched by Jackie Stewart highlighted the safety shortcomings of the circuit, and the race was cancelled in 1969. The circuit remained on the calendar through the 1960s, a period dominated by Jim Clark, but the writing was already on the wall for the original high-speed layout. Juan Manuel Fangio won the first Belgian Grand Prix of the modern era at Spa-Francorchamps in 1950 and took two further wins in 1954-55. Using local public roads and featuring fast straights, sweeping corners and lots of elevation changes, the picturesque circuit was first used for Grand Prix racing in 1925. The legendary circuit has been hosting the Belgian Grand Prix since 1925.įast, frightening and often fatally dangerous, the original 15km Spa-Francorchamps layout was the ultimate test of a driver’s skills and nerve. ![]() Set in 300 acres of forest in the mountains of Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is one of Formula 1's most challenging and historic race tracks. ![]()
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