Required fields are marked *. I had always just assumed that there had once been an actual bus stop at that chicane, since Spa runs (ran?) 2005 and 2006 F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso explained:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}. A bit further ahead you’d come to the Alsa-Masta – an awesome left and right sequence in almost full throtle at the end of a kilometer long straight. As the second lap began, Trident driver Giuliano Alesi lost control of his car as he climbed the Raidillon curve due to a puncture he had received earlier, causing his car to spin and hit the left wall of the circuit, tearing off his rear wing and spreading debris onto the track. The Bus Stop chicane was moved back towards Blanchimont and the La Source hairpin moved forward. Its the same at Pouhon, yes have ‘some’ tarmac, but not acres of it! [7] During one of his pit stops at night, Hans-Joachim Stuck shouted to his co-driver Jochen Mass over the noise from the cars that he should "look out for body parts at the Masta Kink". The corner was tighter and narrower before 1970, allowing drivers to take the corner faster. Formula One faced a major threat regarding races in its historical European heartland. Online includes: Next Departures stop predictions. Unicron (@unicron2002) 20th August 2015, 19:27. No matter what tricks you employ, however you polish a turd it will still be a turd, It’s more exciting because it is, they have more speed built before the start finish and its curved, giving you the illusion of so much more speed, that is what kimi meant when he said its much faster = “I think it was a nicer corner. Several famous racing drivers have crashed while driving through Eau Rouge/Radillon, including Stefan Bellof in a Porsche sportscar, Guy Renard during the 1990 24h of Spa-Francorchamps in a Toyota Corolla GT, and Alex Zanardi in a season-ending crash during a practice session of the 1993 Belgian Grand Prix in a Lotus. Since its inception, the place has been famous for its unpredictable weather, where drivers are confronted with one part of the course being clear and bright while another stretch is rainy and slippery. In 2017, the circuit was used as part of the third stage, starting in Verviers, Belgium and ending in Longwy, France.[42]. Going into the Bus Stop, the driver will be at over 320 km/h but will need to brake down to 75 km/h for the entry to the corner. Team Van der Slik Racing. The Wallonia government stepped in and provided the necessary funds, but too late for the 2006 race to take place. Due to these political and legislative circumstances, the Grand Prix at Spa was left out of the 2003 calendaras a response to the internal tobacco legislation in Belgium. Additional he’s ‘pre-Merc’ rarely had the best car in a straight. The organiser of the event went bankrupt in late 2005, and therefore the planned improvements to the race track and paddock had not yet been made. The Masta Kink "was by far the most difficult corner in the world", according to Jackie Stewart,[5] requiring skill and bravery in equal measure to get it right. Learn how and when to remove this template message, 2012 Spa Formula Renault 3.5 Series round, 2015 Spa Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 round, 2017 TCR International Series Spa-Francorchamps round, 2006 Spa Formula Renault 3.5 Series round, 2004 Spa Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup round, List of Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps fatalities, https://www.racingcircuits.info/europe/belgium/spa-francorchamps.html#.Xkzr3ihKiUk, "Deutsche Topographische Karte "5501 Bürnenville", Ausgabe 1893", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISOEXQG5vOo, 2004 Belgium Grand Prix – Selected driver quotes, "F1 performance map at Spa-Francorchamps", "This Is What Happened When Two F1 Drivers Made A Dare At Spa", "Spa-Francorchamps réserve une surprise à Jacky Ickx - France Racing", "Television Without Frontiers Directive 1989", "Motor racing, tobacco company sponsorship, barcodes and alibi marketing", Renovation of Francorchamps-circuit starts in November, "Fatal F2 crash: detailed new analysis on how it happened, is action needed? Like its predecessor, the new layout is still a fast and hilly route through the Ardennes where speeds in excess of 330 km/h (205 mph) can be reached. And if a fan favorite is not his favorite it’s not his problem. # 10 Bus-Stop chicane (Spa-Francorchamps): Admittedly, it is still a good place to overtake, but the famous Bus-Stop chicane no longer exudes the same flair as it used to be after several renovations. You’d enter the circuit at La Source and could drive up to Les Combes (amazing how steep the Eau Rouge climb is from inside a car). This is largely due to the Eau Rouge and Blanchimont corners, both which need to be taken flat out to achieve a fast run onto the straights after them, which aids a driver in both a fast lap and in overtaking. The old Spa circuit was unique in that speeds were consistently high with hardly any let-up at all for three to four minutes. Got that wrong and you ended up on someone’s leaving room (the houses were, and still are, located about 5 meters from the road). They renovated that part of the track around 2006/07 and installed the current chicane, which, whilst not a bus stop chicane in terms of layout, has informally maintained the name. The incident resulted in unofficial discussions about the safety of Raidillon and whether modifications should be made to the run-off area surrounding the turn. ", "F1 drivers support return of gravel to Spa-Francorchamps", "Spa unveils €80million renovation project ahead of bike racing return", "2019 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Final Classification", "2012 Formula Renault 3.5 Spa Session Facts", "2019 ELMS 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Final Classification", "2015 Formula Renault 2.0 Euro Spa Session Facts", "2006 Formula Renault 3.5 Spa Session Facts", "2004 Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup Spa Session Facts", "World Sports Prototype Championship Spa 1990", "GRAND PRIX REDUX: The Italian Stallion Does Maranello", "Klimaatstatistieken van de Belgische gemeenten", Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps history and statistics, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on Google Maps (current Formula 1 tracks), Historic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on Google Maps (1922), Spectator testimonial of visiting Spa-Francorchamps, Italian Formula 3000 / Euro Formula 3000 / Auto GP, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Circuit_de_Spa-Francorchamps&oldid=1017012063, Pre-World Championship Grand Prix circuits, Articles with dead external links from August 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Wikipedia articles with style issues from April 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2015, All articles with vague or ambiguous time, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2010, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from April 2020, Articles with dead external links from October 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2017, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 10 April 2021, at 08:45. This factor was a commonality on long circuits, but the unpredictable weather at Spa, combined with the fact that it was a track with all but one corner being high-speed, made it one of the most dangerous race tracks in the world (if not the most). It was exhilarating for me even on the PS2. [citation needed] At the time, the Belgians took pride in having a very fast circuit, and to improve average speeds, in 1939 the former slow uphill U-turn at the bottom of the Eau Rouge creek valley, called the Ancienne Douane (until 1920, there was a German Empire customs office here[3]), was cut short with a faster sweep straight up the hill, called the Raidillon. Much else has changed really, a much tighter Eau Rouge was since 1981 on... Entry instead of grass makes my blood boil!!!!!!!!... Remind me of how it handled back in Gran Turismo 4 antifia ) 21st August 2015, 15:1320th 2015! A photo of me standing there – happy as a child but it ‘ feels fast ’ that section... 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