F1 returns to Spa-Francorchamps - What you must know about the calendar's longest circuit

When the Formula 1 championship kicked off in 1950, the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium was one of seven tracks that formed part of the inaugural season. However, the track's inception took place in 1921. 101 years ago, the original track was 14.9km long, running on public roads between the towns of Francorchamps, Malmedy, and Stavelot, as well as the forest and hills of the Ardennes region.

This was the vision of designers Jules de Thier and Henri Langlois van Ophem.

In 1979, the track underwent a major redevelopment, cutting the circuit's length in half. Today, at 7.004km, the circuit is still the longest on the F1 calendar.

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Unique nature

The track's layout is such that the elevation is the most of any circuit on the calendar, with the start-finish line sitting between the highest and lowest points. After Turn 1, the track dips before climbing up the legendary Eau Rouge corner (Turns 2 and 3), and the elevation increases to 467.8m above sea level at Turn 7.

From there, it's downhill to Turn 15 (365.6m above sea level), the lowest part of the track, before increasing again. That's an elevation change of 102.2m! To put it in perspective, that's more than the height of London's Big Ben (96m).

Just a reminder... Eau Rouge is steep! ?? Let's go racing. ?? pic.twitter.com/MyxfgYPlk6

Spa-Francorchamps consists of 19 corners and two DRS zones. The first DRS detection zone is midway through Le Raidillon and Eau Rouge (between Turns 1 and 2), with DRS activation occurring at the Kemmel straight (between Turns 4 and 5). Kemmel is also the fastest part of the track, with the speed trap found at its end. In 2020, Ferrari's Charles