2025 Belgian Grand Prix Preview: Must-Know Info Before Race Day

2025The actual second half of the 2025 Formula 1 championship starts this weekend. Just like the last race, F1 will visit one of its most important venues: Spa-Francorchamps.

The 2025 Belgian Grand Prix looks like an interesting prospect for what we will see in the remainder of the season. Can Red Bull or Ferrari catch up to McLaren and create a championship fight? It's unlikely, but reports suggest that Ferrari could be set to run its car in a more ideal window due to a new rear suspension.

NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - JULY 04: Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (4) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 04, 2025 in Northampton, England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Either way, the track will provide us with answers, although a Sprint weekend would limit the post-practice analysis somewhat.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri enters the weekend leading the World Drivers' Championship with 234 points. Lando Norris is second in the other McLaren with 226 points and two consecutive wins, in Austria and Silverstone.

Piastri still leads in terms of wins, with five against Norris' four. However, the Australian has won one of the last six Grands Prix, while Norris has won three of the last five.

In third is Red Bull's Max Verstappen with 165 points and a couple of wins. Fourth is the only other race-winner this year: George Russell for Mercedes with 147 points.

The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc (119 points) and Lewis Hamilton (103) is fifth and sixth in the WDC but might be hopeful to truly improve their results in the second half.

In the World Constructors' Championship, McLaren seems unbeatable, with 460 points, exceeding the combined tally of Ferrari (P2 with 222 points) and Mercedes (P3 - 210 points).

2025 Belgian GP Facts & Figures

The Belgian Grand Prix is an iconic round of the Formula 1 World Championship, which has been part of virtually every campaign of the pinnacle of motor racing in history.

The race on Sunday will be the 70th running of the Belgian Grand Prix as part of the World Championship of Drivers. The first championship race in Belgium occurred in 1950, with the legendary five-time champion Juan Manuel Fangio winning for Alfa Romeo ahead of his teammate Luigi Fagioli.

Coincidentally, Alfa Romeo had won the first running of the Belgian Grand Prix in history in 1925 when Antonio Ascari (father of two-time F1 World Champion Alberto) dominated the Spa round of the World Manufacturers’ Championship.

The event took place on three different tracks, with Nivelles (1972 and 1974) and Zolder (10 events) hosting races in the 1970s and early 1980s. Zolder was the site of the crash that took the life of the legendary Gilles Villeneuve in 1982. The 1981 event saw the tragic death of an Osella mechanic, Giovanni Amadeo, who was hit by Carlos Reutemann's Williams, the eventual race-winner.

55 SAINZ Carlos (spa), Scuderia Ferrari SF-24, action during the Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix 2024, 14th round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship from July 26 to 28, 2024 on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, in Stavelot, Belgium - Photo Joao Filipe / DPPI

World Champions have won 53 editions of the Belgian round, with Michael Schumacher dominating the event six times, including his first win in 1992.

Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton (five), Jim Clark and Kimi Raikkonen (four each) follow Schumacher in the list of drivers with the most wins in the Belgian Grand Prix. Senna and Clark had streaks of four consecutive wins at Spa each, which is a record at the iconic track.

Hamilton and Verstappen are the only active drivers to have multiple wins in Belgium. The Dutchman won three consecutive editions, including the non-race at Spa in 2021. Charles Leclerc (2019) is the other active driver who has won at Spa, with the Monegasque taking his maiden win at the venue.

Regarding team wins, Ferrari leads McLaren with 18 victories to 14. Lotus and Mercedes sit third with eight wins each, including races before the championship began.

Mercedes won in three very different eras. They won twice in the European Championship, in 1935 and 1939 with Rudolf Caracciola and Hermann Lang, respectively. Then, Mercedes won an actual World Championship race in Belgium in 1955 with Fangio and added more wins to their tally with Hamilton (2015, 2017, 2020 and 2024) and Nico Rosberg (2016) winning in the Hybrid Era.

Hamilton's win in 2024, after his teammate George Russell was disqualified, was his 84th and last triumph for Mercedes, a record for most wins with a single team.

Spa-Francorchamps

A legendary circuit, Spa was originally a 15-kilometer track, and it was shortened to a 14-kilometer course, which was faster than the first version, while both layouts included public roads.

The circuit proved highly dangerous, with the 1960 event being the only one in Formula 1 history where two drivers died during the same race (Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey suffered sad fatal accidents). Clark dominated the track during the 1960s, with four straight wins from 1962 to 1965, but the drivers were fully aware of the dangers of the circuit and ultimately wanted it to adapt to safety measures, or simply they would not compete there.

The track was ultimately boycotted in 1969, and though it returned in 1970 with Pedro Rodríguez’s win for BRM, the safety concerns remained, and Spa was out of the calendar until 1983, a year after legendary Gilles Villeneuve lost his life in one of the other venues of the Belgian Grand Prix, Zolder.

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM - AUGUST 28: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W11 EQ Performance during the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday August 28, 2020 in Spa, Belgium. (Photo by Charles Coates / LAT Images)

The new 7-kilometer track was designed in 1979, and it has remained similar until recent years, though the last sector was changed in 2007, with The Bus Stop changed and the main straight extended.

Peter Collins (1956), Jim Clark (1962), Michael Schumacher (1992), and Charles Leclerc (2019) all took their maiden GP win at Spa-Francorchamps. Schumacher made his F1 debut in 1991 at Spa and sealed his seventh and final Formula 1 World Championship in 2004 in the Belgian circuit.

In the 2000 race, two-time champion Mika Hakkinen made one of Formula 1’s greatest overtakes, with a backmarker in the middle of the track. Schumacher overtook the backmarker, Ricardo Zonta, on the left side of the Kemmel Straight before Les Combes. In contrast, Hakkinen overtook them both after taking the inside line into Les Combes and went on to win the race.

In the Hybrid Era, Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari have won races at Spa.

This year’s race will be the 58th Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

The track seems to be a power-demanding one, but it has 20 corners and the middle sector creates a setup problem that prompts the need for the teams to produce a lot of downforce. It is not easy to have the right setup for Spa, but balance is key to performing an overall great lap. However, a car without high top speed will suffer a bit in the Kemmel Straight on Sunday, especially if that car starts in Pole Position and has no car in front to take advantage of the slipstream. Still, a fast car in the middle sector can have a proper shot at great results.

The current layout is 7.004 km long, and the track records are held by Lewis Hamilton, with an outright Fastest Lap of 1:41.253 min in 2020, and Sergio Perez, with the Fastest Lap during a race of 1:44.701 min last year.

2025 Belgian Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix will be the C1 as P Zero White hard, C3 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C4 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli's press release explained the choice for the weekend, with a jump in compounds: "For this event, Pirelli has chosen three dry weather compounds that are not consecutive: the Hard is the hardest in the 2025 range, the C1, but then there’s a jump to the Medium (C3) and the Soft (C4).

That has not happened since the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, when the trio consisted of the C2 as Hard, the C3 as Medium and the C5 as Soft.

The new compound here is the Hard, as the Medium (C3) and Soft (C4) are the same as last year. According to the simulations, this trio should make a two-stop strategy even more competitive in Sunday’s race, while adding a greater degree of uncertainty to tyre management over the course of the weekend, especially as it is a Sprint event, with just one hour of free practice and a different dry tyre allocation.

With this format, the regulations stipulate one fewer set of tyres than on a normal weekend: each driver has 12 sets, six of Soft, four of Medium and two of Hard. Furthermore, the Medium is the only tyre permitted for the first two parts of Sprint Qualifying and the Soft must be used in the third.

The circuit nestles in the forest of the Ardennes hills and is famous for its changeable weather, even from one part of the track to another and even in the height of summer. Therefore, it’s not out of the question that both types of wet weather tyre, the Intermediate and Extreme Wet, could come into play over the weekend.

In 2024

The vast majority of drivers lined up on the grid on the Medium. The exceptions were Carlos Sainz and Zhou Guanyu, who went for the Hard, and Daniel Ricciardo, who opted for the Soft.

The two-stop proved to be the preferred choice with the Hard compound working best in terms of degradation and performance. Of the 19 drivers who finished the race, Zhou being the only retirement, just five of them, Russell, Alonso, Stroll, Magnussen and Tsunoda, who took the chequered flag in that order, pitted only once to switch from Medium to Hard. Russell won and Alonso finished ninth, the only two of this group to score points.

However, following post-race FIA scrutineering, Russell was disqualified as his car was under the minimum regulation weight, which handed the win to team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who had gone for a Medium-Hard-Hard strategy.

The minimum starting pressures will be 26.5 psi (front) and 24.5 psi (rear).

2025 Belgian Grand Prix Weather Forecast

Friday, July 25th - Practice & Sprint Qualifying
Conditions: Times of sun and clouds with a shower in the area
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain: 49%

Saturday, July 26th - Sprint & Qualifying
Conditions: A morning shower in the area; otherwise, periods of clouds and sunshine
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain: 55%

CIRCUIT DE SPA FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM - JULY 28: Sir Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team, 2nd position, holds the trophy aloft during the Belgian GP at Circuit de Spa Francorchamps on Sunday July 28, 2024 in Spa, Belgium. (Photo by Zak Mauger / LAT Images)

Sunday, July 27th - Race
Conditions: Rain and drizzle in the morning; otherwise, considerable cloudiness
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain:66%

Who will be on the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix Podium?

McLaren are definitely the favorite for the race at Spa-Francorchamps. Sprint weekends could bring some uncertainty, and the weather could play a part, too. However, McLaren has won the Grands Prix in the previous two Sprint weekends and also won wet races at Australia and Melbourne.

It will take big improvements from Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari to beat McLaren in such a demanding track. Ferrari looked like the second force at Austria, while Red Bull was in that spot in the British GP, with Verstappen on pole.

Meanwhile, Mercedes desperately needs some improvement after consecutive tough weekends in Austria and Silverstone.

The prediction for the top three of the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix is 1. Lando Norris, 2. Max Verstappen, 3. George Russell.

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