Spa-Francorchamps, the site of the Belgian Grand Prix, is an absolutely stunning circuit. The setting, the elevation changes, the energy in the crowd — it provides a lot of what a Formula 1 circuit should.
But for what it has in aura, it brings almost none of in racing. And unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon.
2025 Belgian Grand Prix falls flat
Talking about pure racing, this year’s edition of the Belgian Grand Prix was incredibly dull.
After Oscar Piastri got past Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton completed a handful of passes, the amount of overtaking fell off a cliff, and with it, the intrigue in the race.
As drivers tried to control the intermediates, little happened. The switch over to dry tires brought some interest, but it all shook out without major changes … and then once again, very little happened after that.
The points of interest were fights for position outside of the points, cars on much fresher tires making overtakes and then Norris’ botched chase down on Piastri.
Piastri remained in P1 all day post-Norris pass. Norris had a huge advantage over P3 Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen was in the neighborhood of the Ferrari, but never really threatened him late.
George Russell was on an island once he got past Alex Albon. Lewis Hamilton seemingly had a pace advantage over Albon, but was not able to get by the Williams. Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto jumped one spot from their grid slots as Yuki Tsunoda fell out of the top 10, with Pierre Gasly taking the final spot.
Spa’s sectors give issues for overtaking
Whereas Spa is a visually stunning, technical track, its layout in a way limits it.
Sectors one and three are mostly full throttle sections, while sector two includes all but two of the track’s big braking zones (those two being the first turn, and the final chicane).
This makes the track operate almost like a see-saw, where cars with low downforce setups can stretch their legs in sectors one and three, but completely fall off a cliff in the middle sector.
Vice versa, the high downforce cars make big gains in the middle sector, but there is not much of a chance to overtake there. Once they hit the straights, they either fall behind, or hope that they remain close enough in the DRS zones.
It’s not really anyone’s fault, but it is the truth.
Race control kills any chance of entertainment at Spa
Rain is a tough topic in F1 the past few years. The sport has had to find the balance of entertainment and safety in low visibility conditions — but did they err too careful on Sunday?
The official green flag start of the grand prix came about an hour and a half after its scheduled time. Cars took to the track at the regular time, but things were red flagged before they completed their formation lap.
But it seemed like the choice came because of rain that was coming in the future, not in the present tense. So instead of trying to race and then maybe stop if things got too severe, teams and fans just waited and waited.
Max Verstappen himself questioned the move to wait, saying in-car, “Well that’s a bit silly, I mean, you should just run a few laps, Jesus. They’re way too cautious.”
But the grid held station until blue skies even emerged. They then stayed behind the safety car for four laps, allowing dry lines to already start to show up. It got rid of the intrigue of the wet conditions.
“It just ruined a nice classic wet race as well. We either still try to push to go for a wet race or we just say you know what we stop racing in the wet and wait for it to be dry, but it’s not what you want,” Verstappen said post-race.
Spa struggles to deliver great racing aren’t new
With larger cars, more dirty air, more spray, the topic of what tracks “work” with the new generation of car is a consistent conversation.
But what people seem to forget is Spa has struggled to have amazing races consistently for a long, long time.
Rumors have said Spa might disappear from the schedule, it might become a track that only appears every other year, or it could stick around.
I don’t want it to go away, but the reality is this course is not one that delivers at the level of a Bahrain, Montreal, Silverstone, Baku, COTA or Interlagos.
Fans may need to realize that aura does not equal racing that F1 needs in the 2020s.
Results of the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix
|
Position |
Driver |
|---|---|
|
1 |
Oscar Piastri |
|
2 |
Lando Norris |
|
3 |
Charles Leclerc |
|
4 |
Max Verstappen |
|
5 |
George Russell |
|
6 |
Alex Albon |
|
7 |
Lewis Hamilton |
|
8 |
Liam Lawson |
|
9 |
Gabriel Bortoleto |
|
10 |
Pierre Gasly |
|
11 |
Ollie Bearman |
|
12 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
|
13 |
Yuki Tsunoda |
|
14 |
Lance Stroll |
|
15 |
Esteban Ocon |
|
16 |
Kimi Antonelli |
|
17 |
Fernando Alonso |
|
18 |
Carlos Sainz |
|
19 |
Franco Colapinto |
|
20 |
Isack Hadjar |
Spa-Francorchamps, the site of the Belgian Grand Prix, is an absolutely stunning circuit. The setting, the elevation changes, the energy in the crowd — it provides a lot of what a Formula 1 circuit should.
But for what it has in aura, it brings almost none of in racing. And unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon.
2025 Belgian Grand Prix falls flat
Talking about pure racing, this year’s edition of the Belgian Grand Prix was incredibly dull.
After Oscar Piastri got past Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton completed a handful of passes, the amount of overtaking fell off a cliff, and with it, the intrigue in the race.
As drivers tried to control the intermediates, little happened. The switch over to dry tires brought some interest, but it all shook out without major changes … and then once again, very little happened after that.
The points of interest were fights for position outside of the points, cars on much fresher tires making overtakes and then Norris’ botched chase down on Piastri.
Piastri remained in P1 all day post-Norris pass. Norris had a huge advantage over P3 Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen was in the neighborhood of the Ferrari, but never really threatened him late.
George Russell was on an island once he got past Alex Albon. Lewis Hamilton seemingly had a pace advantage over Albon, but was not able to get by the Williams. Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto jumped one spot from their grid slots as Yuki Tsunoda fell out of the top 10, with Pierre Gasly taking the final spot.
Spa’s sectors give issues for overtaking
Whereas Spa is a visually stunning, technical track, its layout in a way limits it.
Sectors one and three are mostly full throttle sections, while sector two includes all but two of the track’s big braking zones (those two being the first turn, and the final chicane).
This makes the track operate almost like a see-saw, where cars with low downforce setups can stretch their legs in sectors one and three, but completely fall off a cliff in the middle sector.
Vice versa, the high downforce cars make big gains in the middle sector, but there is not much of a chance to overtake there. Once they hit the straights, they either fall behind, or hope that they remain close enough in the DRS zones.
It’s not really anyone’s fault, but it is the truth.
Race control kills any chance of entertainment at Spa
Rain is a tough topic in F1 the past few years. The sport has had to find the balance of entertainment and safety in low visibility conditions — but did they err too careful on Sunday?
The official green flag start of the grand prix came about an hour and a half after its scheduled time. Cars took to the track at the regular time, but things were red flagged before they completed their formation lap.
But it seemed like the choice came because of rain that was coming in the future, not in the present tense. So instead of trying to race and then maybe stop if things got too severe, teams and fans just waited and waited.
Max Verstappen himself questioned the move to wait, saying in-car, “Well that’s a bit silly, I mean, you should just run a few laps, Jesus. They’re way too cautious.”
But the grid held station until blue skies even emerged. They then stayed behind the safety car for four laps, allowing dry lines to already start to show up. It got rid of the intrigue of the wet conditions.
“It just ruined a nice classic wet race as well. We either still try to push to go for a wet race or we just say you know what we stop racing in the wet and wait for it to be dry, but it’s not what you want,” Verstappen said post-race.
Spa struggles to deliver great racing aren’t new
With larger cars, more dirty air, more spray, the topic of what tracks “work” with the new generation of car is a consistent conversation.
But what people seem to forget is Spa has struggled to have amazing races consistently for a long, long time.
Rumors have said Spa might disappear from the schedule, it might become a track that only appears every other year, or it could stick around.
I don’t want it to go away, but the reality is this course is not one that delivers at the level of a Bahrain, Montreal, Silverstone, Baku, COTA or Interlagos.
Fans may need to realize that aura does not equal racing that F1 needs in the 2020s.
Results of the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix
|
Position |
Driver |
|---|---|
|
1 |
Oscar Piastri |
|
2 |
Lando Norris |
|
3 |
Charles Leclerc |
|
4 |
Max Verstappen |
|
5 |
George Russell |
|
6 |
Alex Albon |
|
7 |
Lewis Hamilton |
|
8 |
Liam Lawson |
|
9 |
Gabriel Bortoleto |
|
10 |
Pierre Gasly |
|
11 |
Ollie Bearman |
|
12 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
|
13 |
Yuki Tsunoda |
|
14 |
Lance Stroll |
|
15 |
Esteban Ocon |
|
16 |
Kimi Antonelli |
|
17 |
Fernando Alonso |
|
18 |
Carlos Sainz |
|
19 |
Franco Colapinto |
|
20 |
Isack Hadjar |
