All info you need to see before the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix starts

The 14th round of the 2024 Formula 1 season will send us into the summer break. First, we must see a closely-matched 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, which could continue the trend of good racing recently in Formula 1.

Can Red Bull still Bounce Back?

While McLaren is coming off its 59th 1-2 finish in Formula 1 history, Red Bull is looking to bounce back and end the current three-race winless streak.

Max Verstappen seems to be far from enjoying his 76-point gap over Lando Norris in the World Drivers' Championship, as races have become harder and harder for Red Bull, with teams like McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari fighting at the top and disrupting the Austrian's team rhythm.

Oscar Piastri won for McLaren in Hungary ahead of his teammate, but it might be time already for the squad to fully focus on Norris and his outside chance of truly fighting with Verstappen for the F1 World Drivers' Championship.

Mercedes (Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell) saw his two-race winning streak snapped in Hungary, but Hamilton salvaged a podium with solid race craft and good pace when the heat allowed it. Can Mercedes return to its form from Silverstone in cooler conditions and higher speeds at Spa? Tough to confirm, but the weekend could be, yet again, a thrilling one.

Ferrari (Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz) needs to step up as McLaren has overtaken the Italian team for second place in the World Constructors' Championship. Red Bull leads the WCC with Verstappen and the struggling Sergio Pérez at 389 points, but McLaren (338) is inching closer and the trend seems to be concerning for the Austrian outfit.

Among teams, Kick Sauber (Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas) remains the only scoreless team in the 2024 F1 season.

2024 Belgian GP Facts & Figures

The Belgian Grand Prix is an iconic round of the Formula 1 World Championship, which has been part of virtually every campaign of the pinnacle of motor racing in history.

The race on Sunday will be the 69th running of the Belgian Grand Prix as a part of the World Championship of Drivers. The first championship race in Belgium occurred in 1950, with the legendary five-time champion Juan Manuel Fangio winning for Alfa Romeo ahead of his teammate Luigi Fagioli.

Coincidentally, Alfa Romeo had won the first running of the Belgian Grand Prix in history in 1925 when Antonio Ascari (father of two-time F1 World Champion Alberto) dominated the Spa round of the World Manufacturers’ Championship.

The event took place on three different tracks, with Nivelles (1972 and 1974) and Zolder (10 events) hosting races in the 1970s and early 1980s. Zolder was the site of the crash that took the life of the legendary Gilles Villeneuve in 1982. The 1981 event saw the tragic death of an Osella mechanic, Giovanni Amadeo, who was hit by Carlos Reutemann's Williams, the eventual race-winner.

World Champions have won 52 editions of the Belgian round, with Michael Schumacher dominating the event six times, including his first-ever GP win in 1992.

Ayrton Senna (five), Jim Clark, Kimi Raikkonen, and Lewis Hamilton (four each) follow Schumacher in the list of drivers with the most wins in the Belgian Grand Prix. Senna and Clark had streaks of four consecutive wins at Spa each, which is a record at the iconic track.

Hamilton and Verstappen are the only active drivers to have multiple wins in Belgium. The Dutchman has won the last three editions, including the non-race at Spa in 2021. Ricciardo (2014) and Leclerc (2019) are the other active drivers who have won at Spa, with the Monegasque taking his maiden win at the venue.

Regarding team wins, Ferrari leads McLaren with 18 victories to 14. Lotus sits third with eight wins and Mercedes fourth with seven triumphs in three very different eras. They won twice in the European Championship, in 1935 and 1939 with Rudolf Caracciola and Hermann Lang, respectively. Then, Mercedes won an actual World Championship race in Belgium in 1955 with Fangio and added three more wins to their tally with Hamilton (2015, 2017, and 2020) and Nico Rosberg (2016) winning in the Hybrid Era.

Spa-Francorchamps Track Info

A legendary circuit, Spa was originally a 15-kilometer track and it was shortened to a 14-kilometer course which was faster than the first version, while both layouts included public roads.

The circuit proved highly dangerous, with the 1960 event being the only one in Formula 1 history where two drivers died during the same race (Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey suffered sad fatal accidents). Clark dominated the track during the 1960s, with four straight wins from 1962 to 1965, but the drivers were fully aware of the dangers of the circuit and ultimately wanted it to adapt to safety measures or simply they would not compete there.

The track was ultimately boycotted in 1969, and though it returned in 1970 with Pedro Rodríguez’s win for BRM, the safety concerns remained, and Spa was out of the calendar until 1983, a year after legendary Gilles Villeneuve lost his life in one of the other venues of the Belgian Grand Prix, Zolder.

The new 7-kilometer track was designed in 1979, and it has remained similar until recent years, though the last sector was changed in 2007, with The Bus Stop changed and the main straight extended.

Peter Collins (1956), Jim Clark (1962), Michael Schumacher (1992), and Charles Leclerc (2019) all took their maiden GP win at Spa-Francorchamps. Schumacher made his F1 debut in 1991 at Spa and sealed his seventh and final Formula 1 World Championship in 2004 in the Belgian circuit.

In the 2000 race, two-time champion Mika Hakkinen made one of Formula 1’s greatest overtakes, with a backmarker in the middle of the track. Schumacher overtook the backmarker, Ricardo Zonta, on the left side of the Kemmel Straight before Les Combes. In contrast, Hakkinen overtook them both after taking the inside line into Les Combes and went on to win the race.

In the Hybrid Era, Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari have won races at Spa.

This year’s race will be the 57th Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

The track seems to be a power-demanding one, but it has 20 corners and the middle sector creates a setup problem that prompts the need for the teams to produce a lot of downforce. It is not easy to have the right setup for Spa, but balance is key to performing an overall great lap. However, a car without high top speed will suffer a bit in the Kemmel Straight on Sunday, especially if that car starts in Pole Position and has no car in front to take advantage of the slipstream. Still, a fast car in the middle sector can have a proper shot at great results.

The current layout is 7.004-km long and the track records are held by Lewis Hamilton, with an outright Fastest Lap of 1:41.253 min in 2020, and Valtteri Bottas, with the Fastest Lap during a race of 1:46.286 min at an average speed of 237.231 km/h in 2018.

2024 Belgian Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix will be the C2 as P Zero White hard, C3 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C4 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli's press release explained the choice for the weekend: "The last Grand Prix before the summer break takes place at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the most awe-inspiring race tracks in the world, that has witnessed some of the greatest moments in the history of the sport.

Seven spectacular kilometres that wend their way on roads that climb and drop through the forests of the Ardennes, making the location even more magical, but ready to catch out the drivers at every turn. Eau Rouge, Raidillon, La Source, Kemmel, Stavelot and Malmedy are just some of the names that have made the venue for the Belgian Grand Prix famous around the world.

There’s been racing in the Ardennes for over a century with the first race, for motorcycles, taking place in 1921. The first Belgian Grand Prix was held the following year on a road circuit making use of three sides of a triangle which joined the towns of Spa-Francorchamps, Malmedy and Stavelot. This year, the track has had a makeover, with much of it having been resurfaced, which will be an important factor for the teams to take into account when preparing for the event.

Pirelli has already been able to assess the new asphalt, a month ago during the 24 Hours of Spa, the classic GTWC race for which the Italian company is the sole tyre supplier. During last June’s race, the GT3 cars lapped three seconds quicker than the previous year, with the same compounds.

Of course the performance level of the GT cars cannot be compared to that of a Formula 1 car, not even using the current, highly advanced simulation tools. But it is highly likely that the new surface will lead to a significant reduction in lap times and a considerable increase in the grip level on the resurfaced sections.

For this, the 14th round of the season, Pirelli has chosen the same trio of compounds as used for the last two years, namely C2 as P Zero White hard, the C3 as P Zero Yellow medium and the C4 as P Zero Red soft. In terms of stress on the tyres, it is one of the tracks with the highest average levels, even if it does not reach the peaks seen at Silverstone and Suzuka.

The track features all corner types, linked by very fast sections, which makes it difficult for the teams to identify the ideal aerodynamic compromise. In fact, it is not unusual to see cars that are very strong in the fastest first and third sectors, struggling in the second slower one, or vice versa.

Some combinations of corners, for example, Eau Rouge-Raidillon are very demanding and have unique characteristics, in this specific case a strong compression which puts a lot of stress on both the driver and the car. Usually, degradation at this track is mainly thermal, but the new surface could be a decisive factor in this area, given the extra grip afforded to the tyres.

Finally, how can one discuss a race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps without taking the weather into consideration? If there is a single venue on the motor racing calendar, not just F1, where variable weather can play a role, it is this one. Not only can conditions change from one day to the next, but also grip levels can be dramatically different at various points on the track at the same time.

Furthermore, because it is such a long lap, the slightest little mistake in judging the right moment to switch from dry to wet tyres or vice versa can carry a severe penalty in the race and even more so in qualifying. Last year there was no rain during the race, but it had put in an appearance in the days leading up to it on what was a Sprint weekend. On Sunday afternoon, all the drivers ran slicks, the vast majority (13) favouring the Medium compound against seven going for the Soft.

Only Norris used a set of Hard tyres for a dozen or so laps. Of those drivers who completed the race, most made two stops, the exceptions being Russell, Stroll and Gasly who split the 44 laps almost into equal parts: the Mercedes driver did a 22 lap first stint on the Medium before switching to Softs, while Stroll did 20 on the C3 followed by 24 with the C4, and the Alpine driver did his opening 23 lap on the Softs before switching to the Medium compound.

The Englishman and the Canadian managed to finish in the points, in sixth and ninth places respectively.

...While the Belgian Grand Prix is the last race before the summer break, Pirelli’s work continues as it is staying on for two more days of testing at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Supporting the programme aimed at development of constructions and compounds for 2025 will be Aston Martin and Alpine, each running one car over both days."

The minimum starting pressures will be 26.0 psi (front) and 24.5 psi (rear).

2024 Belgian Grand Prix Weather Forecast

Friday, July 26th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Mostly cloudy with a shower in spots
Max. temperature: 19°C
Chance of rain: 44%

Saturday, July 27th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Cloudy with a shower
Max. temperature: 18°C
Chance of rain: 55%

Sunday, July 28th - Race
Conditions: Mostly sunny
Max. temperature: 20°C
Chance of rain:1%

Who will be on the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix Podium?

Race winner Max Verstappen and Third placed Charles Leclerc 2023 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Max Verstappen is looking to become the third driver in Formula 1 history to win the Belgian Grand Prix four consecutive times. Coming off dominant wins in 2022 and 2023, this year might be a little more challenging for the Dutchman, with McLaren coming off a solid 1-2 and showing that its car can work well on several different layouts and conditions.

F1 champions Jim Clark and Ayrton Senna are the other two racers to win four consecutive races in Spa, and Verstappen is looking to join that group. Oddsmakers are currently expecting a close fight with Verstappen's Red Bull and Lando Norris' McLaren, as both have the same odds right now.

Verstappen is enjoying a solid gap in the World Drivers' Championship ahead of Norris, but is currently on a three-race slump without dominant pace and even with driving errors while racing wheel to wheel.

The prediction for the top three of the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Lando Norris, 3. George Russell.

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