There are circuits. And then there’s Spa.
The longest, wildest, and most unforgiving stretch of tarmac on the calendar returns wrapped in fog, myth and that Ardennes echo that seems to whisper names from motorsport’s deepest memory.
This weekend, Spa-Francorchamps hosts Formula 1, Formula 2, and Formula 3 – a three-act drama staged at 7 kilometres of consequence. From La Source to Blanchimont, speed is only half the story.
Belgium GP 2025 Weekend Breakdown
As the summer break looms, the Belgium GP 2025 arrives with rising stakes. Some drivers are chasing legacy. Others are just trying to stay relevant. Spa, as always, doesn’t care for either. It just exposes the difference.
It’s set to be a busy one at Spa-Francorchamps, as all three categories are treating us to Sprint Races this weekend.
Check out the full timetable below so you don’t miss a moment of the action.
7 Kilometres of Pure Racing Heritage
Nestled deep in the Ardennes forest, Spa-Francorchamps is Formula 1’s longest and arguably most demanding circuit. Stretching 7.004 kilometres, it combines high-speed straights, sudden elevation changes and legendary corners like Eau Rouge, Raidillon and Blanchimont — turns that have shaped more than just lap times; they’ve shaped legacies.
Originally a 14-kilometre ribbon of public roads launched in 1921, Spa was fast, brutal, and breathtaking in equal measure. Modern safety measures shortened its layout, but never diluted its essence. Now, 75 years after hosting its first Formula 1 Grand Prix, it remains fourth on the list of most frequently visited tracks in World Championship history.
Each of its three sectors tells a different story: the first is flat-out and iconic, the second technical and twisting, the third fluid with a subtle but telling incline. Setting up a car to master all three is often an act of compromise — be quick in one, cautious in another.
A resurfacing project ahead of the 2024 race reduced bumps and increased grip, cutting lap times and subtly shifting how teams approach setup and tyre wear. But Spa hasn’t lost its edge. It still punishes hesitation, rewards bravery, and remains the kind of circuit where every corner counts.
Lap records by each series:
- F1 – 1:44.701 – Sergio Pérez (Red Bull Racing RB20) – 2024
- F2 – 1:56.054 – Nyck de Vries (Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing) – 2018
- F3 – 2:05.770 – Callum Voisin (Rodin Motorsport) – 2024
Photo Credit: Alpine F1 Team (race track (local) time table)
Forecast: Spa Being… Spa
Friday – 25 July
Mist in the morning, showers in the afternoon. Temperatures will hover between 17–22°C, with a 40–60% chance of rain. Fog and patchy drizzle could make Free Practice and Sprint Qualifying especially tricky, particularly if the damp conditions don’t settle uniformly across Spa’s 7 km layout. Sector-by-sector weather remains a real variable.
Saturday – 26 July
Partly cloudy skies with a 30–50% chance of scattered, hit-or-miss showers. Ambient temperatures range between 20–25°C with a mild breeze from the northwest. Conditions might seem stable, but a rogue patch of rain — even just 0–5 mm — could easily shake up Sprint and Qualifying results. Precision and tyre timing will be critical.
Sunday – 27 July
It starts dry… but don’t be fooled. While the morning looks sunny, rain could creep back in by F1 mid-race. Temperatures between 17–25°C and a 20–40% chance of precipitation — seemingly mild, but in Spa terms, that’s more than enough for strategy chaos. Expect unpredictability, and maybe a surprise podium.
Rubber & Risk: Tyres at Spa
Rubber Roulette: F1 Tyres at Spa
Pirelli has nominated the C1 (Hard), C3 (Medium), and C4 (Soft) compounds for the Belgian Grand Prix — an unconventional, non-consecutive trio that hasn’t been seen since Australia 2022. The C1 is new for 2025 and represents the hardest rubber in the range, while the C3 and C4 carry over from last year. This jump in compound gaps is designed to encourage strategic variety, particularly over longer stints.
Being a Sprint weekend, tyre management is under sharper scrutiny. With just one hour of practice, reduced tyre sets (12 per driver), and mandatory compound rules in Sprint Qualifying — Mediums for Q1 and Q2, Softs for Q3 — teams will be pressed to gather usable data quickly. Simulations suggest that two-stop strategies may be more competitive, especially given the sharper delta between the new Hard and the rest of the range.
And with Spa’s weather as predictable as a wet Eau Rouge, don’t discount the need for Intermediates or Full Wets at some point.
Photo Credit: Alpine F1 Team
Tyre Talk: F2’s Spa Selection
F2 sticks with the familiar combo for Spa — Soft and Medium, just like last year. The Soft is quick but fragile over a race distance, while the Medium offers greater durability, especially in cooler conditions. Expect mixed strategies in the Feature, much like 2024, when the grid split 50/50.
Grip and Guesswork: F3 Tyres at Spa
F3 drivers will run the Medium compound at Spa — a solid all-rounder, but one that can suffer graining on the freshly resurfaced asphalt. Managing that early phase could unlock serious pace, especially through Spa’s high-speed sweepers. If not, the focus shifts to thermal degradation, which is less severe thanks to long straights that cool the tyres.
Battles Within Battles – The Storylines to Follow in F1, F2 and F3
F1: Control, Fractures and a Field in Flux
After twelve races, Oscar Piastri leads the championship with 234 points, followed closely by Lando Norris on 226. The McLaren duo have shared the spotlight, the podiums, and even light contact in Canada. One unresolved rivalry.
Photo Credit: McLaren
In the Constructors’ standings, McLaren sits far ahead with 460 points, more than double Ferrari’s 222. But behind them, the picture breaks apart.
Red Bull, once a certainty, has slipped to fourth (172 points), suffering from internal reshuffles, a mid-season team principal change, and the visible absence of Adrian Newey. Max Verstappen has the only two wins to their name. The rest? Turbulence.
Ferrari holds second, just ahead of Mercedes – Leclerc (119 pts) is the most consistent piece of the puzzle, while Hamilton (103 pts) continues to adjust to red over silver. Mercedes has highs, like Russell’s win in Canada, but struggles with rhythm.
Williams are fifth with 59 points, driven mostly by Alex Albon’s 46. His consistency contrasts with Carlos Sainz’s frustrating string of non-scores, despite solid pace. Still, Williams has outperformed expectations – for now.
At the back, Sauber found a breakthrough at Silverstone, with Nico Hülkenberg’s first-ever podium. Racing Bulls and Haas battle week to week, while Alpine tries to rebuild around Pierre Gasly, with rookie Franco Colapinto now in the spotlight after a turbulent mid-season shake-up.
Spa marks Round 13 of 24. The second half of the season begins here – not with certainty, but with fracture lines showing everywhere. And when they break, they tend to do so fast.
What happened in 2024
Max Verstappen topped qualifying but started P11 due to a grid penalty, handing pole to Charles Leclerc. George Russell crossed the line first but was later disqualified for a car under the minimum weight. The win was awarded to Lewis Hamilton – his second of the season and final for Mercedes – ahead of Oscar Piastri and Leclerc.
F2: Standings, Stakes and Shifting Momentum
The 2025 Formula 2 season enters Spa with more than just points on the line, it’s arriving with pressure across the grid like rain on Kemmel. Five drivers within 24 points. Four above 100. Eight different winners. Even the numbers are nervous. Spa marks the eighth of fourteen rounds — the chance to strike 2 weeks before summer silence.
Richard Verschoor leads the standings on 122, but leadership here is a temporary arrangement. Jak Crawford (116) is fresh off a Silverstone Feature win and stood on this podium last year. Alexander Dunne (108) has won when it matters. Leonardo Fornaroli (104) can go quiet, then bite. And Luke Browning (98), fifth, has been the most consistent of them all.
It’s the closest top five at this stage of the season in F2 history — tighter even than 2020’s lockdown calendar. The margins have never mattered more.
Campos lead the Teams’ table again, as they did in 2024, but the gap to Invicta is just 20 points. With six different teams having won races and ten out of eleven appearing on the podium, there’s no hiding. Mistakes are no longer costly — they’re fatal.
Behind the main fight, a second battle brews. Arvid Lindblad, Sebastián Montoya, Josep María Martí, Victor Martins and Dino Beganovic — sixth to tenth — have all shown top-tier pace but lack consistency. Lindblad and Martí each have two wins. Montoya’s been on the podium three of the last four. Martins qualifies like a title contender; Beganovic’s speed is never in doubt. But Spa could be their last chance to close the door before it shuts.
What happened in 2024
Last year, it was Zak O’Sullivan in the Sprint and now-F1 driver Isack Hadjar in the Feature — both using Spa as a springboard. This weekend, expect another name to rise or fall in the forest.
F3: Highs, Hits and the Hunt for Câmara
Formula 3 lands in the Ardennes for Round 8 of 10. The championship is still open, but no longer calm.
Rafael Câmara still leads — as he has since Round 1 — and with 120 points, he holds the high ground. Four poles. Three feature wins. But momentum has been leaking since Monaco: a DNF in Monte Carlo, contact in Spain, and tyre fade in Austria. His rivals smell vulnerability.
Closest is Tim Tramnitz (93 pts), who has finished ahead of Câmara in three of the last four Feature Races, never flashy but always calculating. Behind him, Nikola Tsolov (third overall) carries sharper peaks — three poles, two wins — but his campaign still bears the scar of a costly DSQ in Spielberg.
Then there’s the quietest storm: Mari Boya. The Spaniard has been climbing under the radar all season, but no longer. A podium in Barcelona, another in Austria, and then victory in the wet at Silverstone. In the last four weekends, no one has scored more. At 85 points, he’s just eight behind Tramnitz, and charging.
So far, seven different drivers have won races. Every name in the top five has both stepped on the podium and left a circuit empty-handed. That volatility has defined 2025.
Campos leads the team standings by just 2 points over Trident — a knife’s edge. No team has run away. Every pit wall has tasted chaos.
And now, Spa. A track that can lift or erase a title bid in seconds. One gust at Eau Rouge, one snap through Campus, one mistimed stop and the standings crack open again.
What happened in 2024
In 2024, Dino Beganović lost the lead in the Sprint Race to teammate Minì at the start, took it back after a Safety Car, and never gave it up again. On Sunday, Callum Voisin converted pole into his maiden win in a crash-heavy Feature — a reminder that order here is always temporary.
History says Spa reshuffles everything. Câmara will try to resist that. But the grid behind him is growing louder.
Feature Image Credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team