What to know before going to the Belgian Grand Prix

Last year I had the chance to go to the Belgian Grand Prix with my dad. This is now the second time my dad has taken me to a Formula 1 Grand Prix, we previously went to the British Grand Prix in 2024 and discovered that we were very unprepared to say the least. I wrote in this blog just a few days after the trip what I would recommend to anyone else that planned to go and after some positive response I feel I am obliged to do another because as you’ll soon see we were still very unprepared the second time.

Transport wise, we decided to stay in a city named Liege which is about 50km away from the Spa-Francorchamps track and get a bus every morning. We crossed paths with many other Brits who were very friendly and helpful, but unsurprising not helpful with the language which quickly became a recurring problem. If you ever have the chance, I would really recommend Liege, it’s a beautiful city with a stunning canal and lots of old architecture. There were also quite a few options for food, and even a Burger King if you’re picky like me.

My one and only grievance with the trip is there was no time at all to really see the city - we arrived Thursday evening and left Monday morning. To my shock the buses were very well organised. I don’t think it was made exactly clear where the buses would pick us up from, but it wasn’t hard to follow the crowds of people dressed in Formula 1 merch at 7 am. We were put into a queue that only

lasted about 5-10 mins despite it’s length, they checked our tickets and we were off. I found this system to work very well, and we never had any problems with the way it was organised (unlike the British Grand Prix). I should tell you although this system works well, the buses do leave at 8 am and I’d completely understand if that was too early for others (like my dad).

The bus takes about 50 mins and is quite loud but very clean on the way there (I can’t say the same for the way back). The track was very quiet on the Friday only about 60% full but even then, there were so few seats in the Fanzone to eat Breakfast we were forced to eat on the floor.

At the British Grand Prix all the fan events were spread around the track which made it quite the struggle to see any, but here the stage, which features drivers and team principals playing games and answering fan questions, was right at the entrance gate and only had a very small crowd.

While at the Belgian Grand Prix I was on a mission to find a Williams Racing Shirt as a proud local to the great land of Grove. Therefore, early in the morning I set out on the mission to find my bounty, I searched the shelves and checked behind every Alpine (where Williams can usually be found during the race) but there was no sign of it. If you are a Mclaren, Hamilton or Verstappen fan believe me you will be in luck, but any other team or driver you might struggle like I did.

Not only were the buses better organised than the British Grand Prix, but the whole track was. All the paths were concrete whereas the British Grand Prix was mud which created quite the mess when it started raining. If you are wondering what my dad’s favourite part of the trip was, it was definitely discovering the concrete paths which gives you a hint at how muddy I got at the British Grand Prix.

Another part of the trip my dad loved and probably the only person to have not complained about it was the hills, the endless hills. If you would like a high octane quad workout I recommend the Belgian Grand Prix, if you would like to do irreparable damage to your knees I recommend the Belgian Grand Prix and if you would like a 10 minute walk that will make you never want to walk again I recommend the Belgian Grand Prix. To make this walk harder there were very few signs pointing us in the right direction - what I’m saying is without my dad I definitely would’ve got lost and given up halfway up the hills.

We booked tickets for grandstand 9, which gave us seats at the very end of the main straight, we could just about see the last corner and the podium and turn 1 was just to the left. We could see into the garages, and I don’t think I could ever get bored watching the engineers and mechanics working away all day. I hope I don’t sound ungrateful when I say this because I loved our seats but the next grandstand to the left of us probably had the best view of the whole track. They could see all the way down the main straight, they were positioned at turn 1 and could see all the way up Eau Rouge (the big mountainy bit).

Every morning when we arrived the track was very cold and foggy, on Friday practice for F3 was

even cancelled due to the fog but this was obviously not made very clear to the people that sat and watched nothing for 40 minutes (me). The food was very nice but there was very little choice, at the British Grand Prix it seemed like there were hundreds of caterers and therefore hundreds of options, but at Spa there was only 1 catering businesses providing alone, within the business there are lots of choices but I would still recommend bringing your own food if you can. The buses on the way back that night were, to put it politely not as clean as they were that morning; it was very sweaty and smelly, and a some were a bit drunk, and everyone was very sleepy.

Saturday morning started off better than I could’ve even imagined (sarcasm), before even getting on the bus in Liege a bird had already pooped on my head. Now that sounds awful but as a Verstappen and a football fan, I put full faith in the fact that this was a sign of good luck, and I can now take proud responsibility for Verstappen’s win in the sprint race later that day and the Lionesses winning the Euros the next day.

It was also Saturday morning that I finally realised the whole track was supplied with free sun cream dispenser, but sadly, the damage had already been done. These sun cream dispensers became my holy grail as an Irish ginger especially with the weather being as weird as it was. Speaking of, I have never experienced weather like this place, I was warned before I went that the weather is very weird there, but nothing could’ve prepared me for it. It could be freezing cold and pouring with rain and less than 5 minutes later burning hot sun, so I would recommend lots of thin layers for the everchanging weather.

In between F1 sessions the communal areas around (who could’ve guessed) the bars and food stands were very busy, it was almost impossible to move through, the crowds did slowly disperse so I would strongly advise against leaving your seats immediately after a session has finished.

The sprint race was better than I could’ve even imagined, we could see all the teams practicing their pit stops and watched all the drivers warming up and a few were even waving and hyping up the crowd before the race.

The only problem we faced with the organisation of the Belgian Grand Prix itself was when trying to leave on Saturday night. I’m still to this day not quite sure what caused the security problems but there was confusion over something. We were stood still in a massive crowd that couldn’t move for over an hour. People were climbing up the hills and clinging on to fences, there were a handful of people shouting what I can only assume were swear words in French and Dutch and there were a few people standing in the VIP area who took it upon themselves to start throwing their rubbish at us, but somehow overall the vibe wasn’t too aggressive, people were still helping each other out with water bottles and sun cream and chatting.

Eventually we got moving and we went to have dinner. By the time we got back to the Fanzone all the seats had been taken, and I had to seat on the floor and eat my dinner, which I’m not even going to complain about this time because I sat right in the middle of the Fanzone in the beautiful sunset and watched people running on Eau Rouge.

Now to the rain delay, both Grand Prix's I have been to have had heavy showers, which is starting to make me feel like I am cursed. At least this time we knew to get seats that had a cover, but this didn’t stop the race from being delayed for over an hour. Verstappen and Leclerc’s cars were parked right in front of us in the pitlane and we got to watch them talk to their engineers which was very interesting to watch. After they went back into their garages there wasn’t really much entertainment.

The drivers occasionally did interviews and came out the garages to wave at the fans but other than that all we had was the DJ to keep the vibes up, and while he might not have been able to keep our spirits up, his trashy Euro-pop certainly worked for others. A moment I will never forget is him playing an EDM remix of ‘Sweet Caroline’ 5 times and begging the crowd to do the Mexican wave with him, which to his dismay did not work at all, not 1 person joined in.

Meanwhile, the Dutch fans in Max Verstappen’s grandstand were loving it: blackout drunk, shirtless in the rain with no covers over their heads, swinging chairs around their heads and singing and dancing loud enough to make up for our misery. It was quite a sight, but it did nevertheless keep us in high spirits. Lots of people left the grandstand for food and drinks, but it was still surprisingly quiet in the communal areas, so if this ever happens to you, I’d recommend getting a nice big bag of warm Belgian fries which kept us going till the race finally started.

The commentary for the race was done in French, German, Flemish and English which made it somewhat difficult to follow, because the situation would only be described to you by the commentator about 5 mins after it happened. There were lots of cheering for every overtake especially Hamilton who started the race 16th and finished 7th. Verstappen got the loudest cheers by far, but was the only driver to be booed the whole time.

After the race we had hoped to go on the track since you are allowed to walk around the whole track after the race, but we sadly couldn’t because we had to get our bus. We were worried that because of the rain delay we would miss our bus home. We were luckier than some though who had to leave halfway through the race to get their train or bus home.

Overall, despite the sweat and the hills and the rain, I had the time of my life and I’m forever grateful to my dad for taking me all the way to Belgium for this. If I ever have the chance to go again, I would make sure to have:

· A packed lunch since there are not many food options

· Shoes that you can walk endless hills in

· Clothes suited for any and all weather

· Travel that will leave the track late to allow for any delays