“Spa-Francorchamps is an old-fashioned racetrack which makes it pretty cool. It has everything you want: hills, fast corners and long straights.
“It is always nice to go there, although the weather can be really unpredictable. In the space of 10 minutes bright sunshine can turn into heavy rain, which makes racing at Spa a little bit more nerve-racking and difficult.
“The lap is incredibly long and on the whole very fast. There is only a short run down to the first corner, La Source, and the exit is the only thing that matters here because you carry your speed all the way up the hill to Les Combes.
“Eau Rouge is flat-out in the V8-engined cars, but you have to be intelligent in the way you do this: if you steer too much, you’ll kill your speed through too much friction on the tyres.
“On the run down to the Rivage hairpin, turn eight, we reach fifth gear before slowing down to second gear for the corner. It’s super slippery through here and there’s a monster bump under braking, which makes it difficult to slow the car.
“Whatever you do with the set-up, you’ll have understeer through here. The exit is slightly off-camber, and without traction control you will see the drivers fighting the rear of the car the whole time.
“Another short straight follows before you arrive at turn 14, which is a slippery corner and it’s very important to have a good exit because you’re flat-out all the way back to the Bus Stop. It’s a third-gear corner and you use every inch of kerbing on the exit.
“You go flat through the left-hander at Blanchimont and arrive at the Bus Stop chicane, which was re-done in 2006 and is now much slower. You go for a late apex on the right-hander and you’re then battling poor traction at the exit.”
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