14 July 2026 17:20 (UTC)
"The Belgian Grand Prix is going to be incredibly challenging from an energy management perspective"
Set in Belgium’s stunning, rural Ardennes region, the Belgian Grand Prix is raced to a backdrop of rolling hills, woodlands and rivers, surrounded by charming small local villages, and more than 40km from the nearest city.
For those of you who love the great outdoors, and dislike the hustle and bustle of city life, there are few better locations on the calendar. It’s also an awesome race track: a properly old-school, high-speed, full-throttle thrill ride, steeped in history.
To get you ready for all of the action, we’ve spoken to Neil Houldey, Technical Director, Applied Engineering, and delved into some of the key parts of the circuit. We’ve also looked back at an iconic race from our past here and put another quickfire question to Lando and Oscar.
“Our preparation has been thorough, using extensive simulation work to get ahead of what we know will be a very demanding weekend for energy management. We're arriving at Spa with a new rear wing assembly, an upgrade we've had in the pipeline as part of the car’s development pathway. We're confident that this update will add a bit of performance to our car, but we are fully aware that after a difficult British Grand Prix, mainly in terms of pure performance, even this round won’t be that easy, so we won’t be expecting any big change in terms of competitiveness.
"The Belgian Grand Prix is going to be incredibly challenging from an energy management perspective. It's one of the most energy-starved tracks on the calendar. We anticipate seeing a significant amount of super clip, which will test both the car and the drivers. Furthermore, the forecast looks unpredictable. While wet weather presents its own difficulties, we see it as a valuable opportunity to finally potentially run this car in the wet and understand its behaviour in low-grip conditions, which could provide crucial data for the rest of the season.”
For similar reasons to Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps is one of those circuits drivers and engineers draw a big circle around on their calendars ahead of a season. It’s a venue that really pushes cars to their limits while also being a track where a driver can make a real difference. These factors should combine to make this a fascinating test of the new 2026 F1 cars.
Spa is mostly made up of fast, flowing sections, blending high-speed corners, long straights, and elevation changes, where drivers can really put their foot down. This includes the famous Eau Rouge/Raidillon sequence, which takes cars downhill and then back up towards the Kemmel Straight and Les Combes, another famous corner and a great overtaking opportunity. There is also the high-speed Blanchimont turn, taken flat out at around 310kph, ahead of another overtaking opportunity at the Bus Stop chicane.
It isn’t all fast and flowing, though. There is a tight, technical section in the middle of the lap, which poses an interesting test for engineers, given the car will likely be set up in a lower-downforce configuration to maximise the high-speed, sweeping sections that dominate most of the lap.
We added 20 points to our tally in the last round at Silverstone, which included a podium for Lando in the Sprint. The home hero also managed to move up two positions in the Grand Prix on Sunday to earn a strong fourth place. On the other side of the garage, Oscar was unfortunate to narrowly miss out on the points with 11th after getting caught up in opening-lap contact that required him to pit for a new front wing.
We are currently third in the Constructors’ Championship with 179 points, 76 points off second.
17 - 19 JULY
Ayrton Senna’s 25th F1 victory was his fourth at Spa-Francorchamps, and the third year in a row he had won from Pole at the Ardennes circuit. He was never seriously challenged and, having got away well, led from lights to flag. Gary Wheeler, who was Ayrton’s No.2 Mechanic at the time, recalls: “We locked out the grid with Ayrton and Gerhard Berger. Prost was in the second row in the Ferrari.”
What drama there was came from the race having to be started three times. At the first, Nigel Mansell’s Ferrari was shunted into the barriers at La Source, before Satoru Nakajima and Stefano Modena collided at the top of the hill.
The second attempt to get the 1990 Belgian Grand Prix under way saw a much more serious crash for Minardi’s Paolo Barilla, at Eau Rouge. The Italian walked away, but the M190 was in pieces: the gearbox was separated from chassis, oil was leaking onto the track, and serious damage had done to the barriers.
At the third start, Ayrton kept his cool, as he had the first two.
“That was one of Ayrton’s favourite circuits,” remembers Gary Wheeler. “He loved winning in Spa, and he won there quite a lot.”
Championship rival Alain Prost had started third for Ferrari, but by Lap 14 had passed the second McLaren of Gerhard Berger and set about chasing down Senna. He had the gap down to under three seconds when the pair both pitted at half-distance. Crucially, McLaren executed a better pit stop than Ferrari, and Senna was able to get back on track ahead of Alessandro Nannini’s Benetton. It gave Senna a cushion. He opened the gap up to 12s, before cruising to a comfortable victory, eventually crossing the line 3.5s ahead of Prost.
Each race week, we’ll be putting the same question to Lando and Oscar to find out just how similar (or different) they really are. The question could be anything: from their favourite corner on the F1 calendar, to their ultimate pre-race anthem, or even the one food they absolutely refuse to eat on race week.
This week, we asked them how long it takes to unpack their suitcases after a race weekend.
Lando: I unpack my suitcase pretty much straightaway, although that doesn’t mean I put it somewhere else… I will unpack it, separate the clean stuff from the dirty stuff, then take it to the washing machine, put it in, and press start. I sometimes put it in the washing machine and forget to press start until around three days later, so that’s my biggest flaw with this process.
Oscar: That depends on how organised I am feeling, but I would say that I normally leave it for a little while. The process tends to be: open the suitcase, put the dirty clothes into the washing machine, dry them, hang them up, put them back in the suitcase and go away again.
Follow all of the action this weekend via the McLaren Racing App, available to download on Android and iOS.
