2015 Belgian GP Pre-Race Stats

The long break is over, at last F1 is back with the Belgian GP, and we no longer need to spend every Sunday making our own engine noises.

The race this weekend will be the 60^th Belgian GP and the 48^th at Spa-Francorchamps. Nivelles-Baulers held the Belgian GP twice, in 1972 and 1974, and Zolder had ten races between 1973 and 1984. Spa is the longest track on the calendar at 7.004km long, meaning there are just 44 laps in the race, giving a total race distance of 308.176km.

Spa has a relatively low win from pole percentage, just 16 races have been won from pole giving a percentage of 34.04%, the fourth lowest of all races in 2015. 25 different drivers have won at the track, the first being Juan Manuel Fangio and most recently Daniel Ricciardo. Ferrari and Michael Schumacher are most successful at the track, Ferrari with 12 wins and Schumacher with six.

23 Belgian drivers have entered an F1 Grand Prix but only two have won a race, Jacky Ickx and Thierry Boutsen. Johnny Claes was another Belgian F1 driver, he entered just 25 races in the early 50s and scored no points but he was also a successful jazz trumpeter and bandleader.

Sebastian Vettel will be celebrating his 150^th F1 race this weekend, Lewis Hamilton may take his 80^th F1 podium and Nico Hulkenberg will be making his 50^th race with Force India.

The Prediction

Pole – Hamilton

1^st – Rosberg

2^nd – Hamilton

3^rd – Bottas

10^th – Button

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.

If the Spa-Francorchamps track was 5cm deep in water there would be more water than in two Olympic sized swimming pools.