Tyre preview: A brand new track surface will keep drivers and engineer busy at Spa-Francorchamps

The Spa-Francorchamps track will welcome the F1 field with a resurfaced layout this weekend which is expected to keep drivers and engineers busy when fine-tuning the cars.

The last Grand Prix before the summer break takes place at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the most awe-inspiring race tracks in the world,

Seven spectacular kilometres that wend their way on roads that climb and drop through the forests of the Ardennes, making the location even more magical, but ready to catch out the drivers at every turn. Eau Rouge, Raidillon, La Source, Kemmel, Stavelot and Malmedy are just some of the names that have made the venue for the Belgian Grand Prix famous around the world.

New surface
Although teams and drivers know the daunting, challenging track of Spa, they are set to face a big task to solve on the opening day. The track has had a makeover, with much of it having been resurfaced, which will be an important factor for the teams to take into account when preparing for the event.

Pirelli has already been able to assess the new asphalt, a month ago during the 24 Hours of Spa, the classic GTWC race for which the Italian company is the sole tyre supplier. During last June’s race, the GT3 cars lapped three seconds quicker than the previous year, with the same compounds.

Pirellis noted that while "the performance level of the GT cars cannot be compared to that of a Formula 1 car, not even using the current, highly advanced simulation tools. But it is highly likely that the new surface will lead to a significant reduction in lap times and a considerable increase in the grip level on the resurfaced sections."

For this, the 14th round of the season, Pirelli has chosen the same trio of compounds as used for the last two years, namely C2 as P Zero White hard, the C3 as P Zero Yellow medium and the C4 as P Zero Red soft.

In terms of stress on the tyres, it is one of the tracks with the highest average levels, even if it does not reach the peaks seen at Silverstone and Suzuka.

The track features all corner types, linked by very fast sections, which makes it difficult for the teams to identify the ideal aerodynamic compromise. In fact, it is not unusual to see cars that are very strong in the fastest first and third sectors, struggling in the second slower one, or vice versa.

Some combinations of corners, for example, Eau Rouge-Raidillon are very demanding and have unique characteristics, in this specific case a strong compression which puts a lot of stress on both the driver and the car.

Usually, degradation at this track is mainly thermal, but the new surface could be a decisive factor in this area, given the extra grip afforded to the tyres.

As for the strategies, most of the drivers completed last year's Belgian Grand Prix with two stops, but there were several racers to opt for a single-stop strategy.

The vast majority (13) favoured the Medium compound against seven going for the Soft in 2023. Only Norris used a set of Hard tyres for a dozen or so laps.

Of those drivers who completed the race, most made two stops, the exceptions being Russell, Stroll and Gasly who split the 44 laps almost into equal parts: the Mercedes driver did a 22 lap first stint on the Medium before switching to Softs, while Stroll did 20 on the C3 followed by 24 with the C4, and the Alpine driver did his opening 23 lap on the Softs before switching to the Medium compound. The Englishman and the Canadian managed to finish in the points, in sixth and ninth places respectively.