Pre-race Statistics of the Belgian GP

F1 is back! After a long summer break the Belgian GP is here. This weekend will be the 46^th F1 race at Spa-Francorchamps and the 58^th Belgian GP. The race has been held at three circuits, Spa-Francorchamps, Nivelles-Baulers and Circuit Zolder.

Spa-Francorchamps is the longest circuit on the calendar at 7.004km long (longest track stats available here) with a total of 20 corners. The race is 44 laps and 308.176km long, which only makes it the eighth longest race this season. 16 of the 46 races at Spa have been won from pole position and another 11 from second. In total 24 drivers have won at Spa, Michael Schumacher has the most wins with 6 and Ferrari the most constructor wins with 12.

The lap record at the current Spa layout is 1:47.263, set by Sebastian Vettel in 2009 with an average speed of 235kph or 146mph. The lap record at the previous and only slightly different Spa layout was a 1:45.108 set by Kimi Raikkonen in 2004.

Di Resta, Hulkenberg, Maldonado and Perez will all enter their 50^th GP this weekend, but only di Resta and Maldonado can get their 50^th race start. Sebastian Vettel could achieve his 40^th pole position and Red Bull’s 50^th. Fernando Alonso may pass 1,500 points by finishing any higher than ninth. Mercedes-Benz engines may also reach 100 wins or 100 fastest laps.

The Silly Stats

Liège Waffles! You would need 45,777 of them laid end to end to lap once around Spa and a massive 6,072,562 of them to completely cover the track surface.

David Croft is in the film Planes as Lofty Crofty, a news blimp. Blimps have a cruising speed of around 35mph, meaning that Lofty Crofty could do a lap of Spa in 7:38.444.

For some more stats on the Belgian GP see my mini-stat page