The Belgian Grand Prix is usually one of the highlights on the Formula One calendar as one of the races with the most tradition. Spa-Francorchamps is synonymous with F1, which is setting up shop there this weekend, and much of this stems from its early years using the classic layout on public roads - which was much faster and more dangerous than today's version. The final time it was used in F1 was in 1970 - and that race was a bit of a weird outlier compared to the ones before.
Races at Spa were and still are rarely uneventful, and this usually meant the potential for disastrous accidents in the years of the circuit's classic layout. Over 14 kilometers of public roads winding through the Ardennes countryside were spectacular, but also inherently deadly, having infamously claimed the lives Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey minutes apart in unrelated incidents during the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix.
Six years later, Jackie Stewart found himself trapped in his BRM after crashing into a telephone pole and ending up in a farm building. Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant saved the fuel-soaked Scotsman from a potentially disastrous situation, which famously sparked Stewart's crusade for safety precautions in Formula One. While looked down upon initially, this gained some traction in the following years and even led to the cancellation of the 1969 Belgian Grand Prix.
The classic layout of Spa-Francorchamps featuring the somewhat out-of-place chicane at Malmedy - its addition is a bit of a head-scratcher in retrospect. Image credit: racingcircuits.info
Cornering speeds had started to increase due to the appearance of wings on the cars that year, so the drivers vowed to boycot the 1969 race if no improvements were made to the track. As the circuit owners deemed them to be too expensive, the race was canceled.
It did return for the 1970 season, however, as guardrails had been built in key sections to keep the cars from hitting the myriad of obstacles lining the track. Possibly the least effective chicane in F1 history was installed at Malmedy in order to slow the cars down for the Masta Straight and subsequent Masta Kink - which did not really work as about 2 kilometers separated Malmedy and Masta, which meant plenty of time to reach top speed even in 1970. The Malmedy chicane was certainly a weird decision.
Instead of continuing through Malmedy at high speed (left), F1 drivers had to negotiate a chicane at Malmedy (right) that did little to slow them down into the Masta Kink.
This left an entry list of just 18 cars, and even less would take the start as Àlex Soler-Roig failed to qualify his Lotus. Remarkably, considering all the big crashes and difficult weather conditions of the past, the race was rather uneventful. Having started on pole position, Stewart would drop out after 14 laps due to engine failure, and Pedro Rodríguez immediately started moving through the field from sixth on the grid, snatching the lead on lap 4 and never relinquishing it, despite having a hard-charging Jack Brabham behind him for most of the race. The Australian eventually retired due to clutch issues.
The 1970 Belgian Grand Prix marked the final time Formula One cars would fly through the fearsome Masta Kink.
Rodríguez took the win ahead of Chris Amon's March and Jean-Pierre Beltoise (Matra) - it would prove the final F1 victory for the Mexican, who lost his life just a year later at the Norisring. Interestingly, the final points scorer of the day did not even see the checkered flag: Henri Pescarolo had to park his Matra with electrical issues on the penultimate lap, but was still classified.
Despite the long list of retirements, no crashes caused drivers to drop out of the race, which was a rarity at Spa. All retirements were caused by mechanical issues.
Formula One had dodged a bullet, it seemed, especially considering two drivers would go on to lose their lives during the remainder of the season: At the very next race at Zandvoort, Piers Courage lost his life at Tunnel Oost, and Jochen Rindt did not survive a crash in practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, making him the only posthumous Formula One World Champion in history.
Versions of the track are available in rFactor 2 (in its 1966 guise), Project CARS 2, and most recently in Automobilista 2 using the 1970 Belgian GP as its scenario, although the track is available without the Malmedy Chicane in AMS2, too. Additionally, mods for other platforms also exist. Meanwhile, most of the original track is still in place and used as public roads today, so if you ever visit the track, make sure to take in at least parts of the old layout - and try to imagine that over 50 years ago, there were Grand Prix cars flying through there, inches away from catastrophe.
Races at Spa were and still are rarely uneventful, and this usually meant the potential for disastrous accidents in the years of the circuit's classic layout. Over 14 kilometers of public roads winding through the Ardennes countryside were spectacular, but also inherently deadly, having infamously claimed the lives Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey minutes apart in unrelated incidents during the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix.
Six years later, Jackie Stewart found himself trapped in his BRM after crashing into a telephone pole and ending up in a farm building. Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant saved the fuel-soaked Scotsman from a potentially disastrous situation, which famously sparked Stewart's crusade for safety precautions in Formula One. While looked down upon initially, this gained some traction in the following years and even led to the cancellation of the 1969 Belgian Grand Prix.
Danger at Every Corner (and Straight)
At the time, the circuit's only safety measures, if they could even be called that, were straw bales on the outside of some of the corners - that was it. Drivers could strike telephone poles, ditches, barbed-wire fences, houses, earth banks and more if things went wrong - and they did for Brian Redman in 1968, who luckily escaped his blazing Cooper with just minor burns and a broken arm.The classic layout of Spa-Francorchamps featuring the somewhat out-of-place chicane at Malmedy - its addition is a bit of a head-scratcher in retrospect. Image credit: racingcircuits.info
Cornering speeds had started to increase due to the appearance of wings on the cars that year, so the drivers vowed to boycot the 1969 race if no improvements were made to the track. As the circuit owners deemed them to be too expensive, the race was canceled.
It did return for the 1970 season, however, as guardrails had been built in key sections to keep the cars from hitting the myriad of obstacles lining the track. Possibly the least effective chicane in F1 history was installed at Malmedy in order to slow the cars down for the Masta Straight and subsequent Masta Kink - which did not really work as about 2 kilometers separated Malmedy and Masta, which meant plenty of time to reach top speed even in 1970. The Malmedy chicane was certainly a weird decision.
Instead of continuing through Malmedy at high speed (left), F1 drivers had to negotiate a chicane at Malmedy (right) that did little to slow them down into the Masta Kink.
Tragedy at McLaren
Adding to the unusual feeling leading into the race was the absence of the McLaren team. Just five days before the Grand Prix, Bruce McLaren had tested a CanAm car at Goodwood where he suffered a fatal crash in his McLaren M8D after some of the car's bodywork had come loose. Peter Gethin would have driven a second McLaren at Spa as Denny Hulme had been injured in testing for the Indy 500, but the team decided not to enter the race as a result of its founder's death.This left an entry list of just 18 cars, and even less would take the start as Àlex Soler-Roig failed to qualify his Lotus. Remarkably, considering all the big crashes and difficult weather conditions of the past, the race was rather uneventful. Having started on pole position, Stewart would drop out after 14 laps due to engine failure, and Pedro Rodríguez immediately started moving through the field from sixth on the grid, snatching the lead on lap 4 and never relinquishing it, despite having a hard-charging Jack Brabham behind him for most of the race. The Australian eventually retired due to clutch issues.
The 1970 Belgian Grand Prix marked the final time Formula One cars would fly through the fearsome Masta Kink.
Rodríguez took the win ahead of Chris Amon's March and Jean-Pierre Beltoise (Matra) - it would prove the final F1 victory for the Mexican, who lost his life just a year later at the Norisring. Interestingly, the final points scorer of the day did not even see the checkered flag: Henri Pescarolo had to park his Matra with electrical issues on the penultimate lap, but was still classified.
Despite the long list of retirements, no crashes caused drivers to drop out of the race, which was a rarity at Spa. All retirements were caused by mechanical issues.
Formula One had dodged a bullet, it seemed, especially considering two drivers would go on to lose their lives during the remainder of the season: At the very next race at Zandvoort, Piers Courage lost his life at Tunnel Oost, and Jochen Rindt did not survive a crash in practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, making him the only posthumous Formula One World Champion in history.
As Spa was not up to the newly-installed FIA safety specifications for 1971, the race was off the calendar again, and F1 would not return to Spa until 1983. The vintage layout was still used for other events until 1978, after which redevelopment of the track started and gave it its current shape for the most part, with alterations having been made to the new layout over the years since.Old Spa Lives on in Sim Racing
While the classic layout was feared by many drivers in their day, we as sim racers are lucky to have it conserved in multiple titles to get at least somewhat of an approximation of what racing at Spa must have been like - a thrill ride at 300 kph even in the 1960s, with a single mistake bearing the potential for enormous crashes.Versions of the track are available in rFactor 2 (in its 1966 guise), Project CARS 2, and most recently in Automobilista 2 using the 1970 Belgian GP as its scenario, although the track is available without the Malmedy Chicane in AMS2, too. Additionally, mods for other platforms also exist. Meanwhile, most of the original track is still in place and used as public roads today, so if you ever visit the track, make sure to take in at least parts of the old layout - and try to imagine that over 50 years ago, there were Grand Prix cars flying through there, inches away from catastrophe.
