As Formula One heads to the mighty Spa-Francorchamps, the greatest circuit on the calendar in my view, I take a look at six drivers who stood out above the rest compared to their rivals at the great circuit. Spa is renowned for being a true driver’s circuit, being the longest circuit on the calendar and having a reputation for having highly unpredictable weather, the majority of the great drivers have won here at some point in their career, but there are six Formula One Greats who won on more than three occasions.
Michael Schumacher – Six wins
Michael Schumacher absolutely loved Spa-Francorchamps. It is a circuit very close to his heart for many reasons. In 1991, he made his memorable debut there, qualifying in seventh in the unfancied Jordan 191, but his race was over on the first lap. One year later, now driving for the Benetton team, he took a memorable first win in a season dominated by Williams after a well-timed change to slick tyres after running wide and letting team mate Martin Brundle through and noticing blisters on his tyres. He finished second a year later but was controversially disqualified in 1994 after a battle with Williams’ Damon Hill, having taken the chequered flag. He bounced back a year later with an epic drive from 15th on the grid after another battle with Hill, though his tactics in the race were borderline too aggressive. A win in the unfancied Ferrari came in 1996 along with another one a year later, but following that, he had a three-year drought at the circuit, as he crashed into David Coulthard in the deluge that was the 1998 event, missed the 1999 race due to injury, and was passed by Mika Hakkinen in 2000 with three laps to go with a memorable move whilst lapping Ricardo Zonta. He won the 2001 and 2002 events, but the race was not run in 2003 or in 2006. He clinched his seventh world championship there in 2004, finishing second to Kimi Raikkonen but was taken out of the 2005 race by Takuma Sato. His ‘second career’ saw some of Schumacher’s better drives happen at Spa, finishing seventh from 21st in 2010, fifth from dead last in 2011 and seventh from 13th in 2012, beating Nico Rosberg in each race bar 2010, although Rosberg started far higher up the grid, Schumacher was just one spot behind.
Ayrton Senna – Five wins
Ayrton Senna didn’t race at Spa in his debut year for the Toleman team, as the race was held at Zolder. He finished sixth in that race. His first race at Spa was in 1985, by that time he was a race winner with the Lotus in a season dominated by McLaren and Ferrari. He was less than a tenth behind soon-to-be arch rival Alain Prost’s McLaren on the grid and as the cars lined up, the rain fell. Senna with his supreme skill in the wet took the lead at the start and dominated. A second place in 1986 and a collision with Nigel Mansell in 1987 followed before returning to winning ways in 1988 to take the lead of the world championship. This was the first of four consecutive victories at the circuit for the Brazilian – only the second driver to achieve such a feat, before taking a fifth place and a fourth place the two following years in his unfancied McLaren. The first three of those four wins were made all the sweeter as he beat his now-arch rival Prost on each of those occasions, who had to settle for second. Perhaps Senna’s best of these victories came in 1988 where he finished half a minute ahead of the Frenchman.
Kimi Raikkonen – Four wins
The only active driver on this list is the Iceman, Kimi Raikkonen. He has an exceptional record at Spa, either winning the race or retiring, except for one race. Technical problems during his first two visits meant that he took zero points out of a possible 20. The race was not run in 2003, but what happened in 2004 was nothing short of brilliant. 2004 was a season absolutely dominated by Michael Schumacher, and the McLaren, driven by Raikkonen was absolutely useless. A revised version came a few rounds before Spa but it was yet to deliver results. A poor qualifying saw Raikkonen just tenth. While a few safety cars helped, Raikkonen also made bold moves on Schumacher and on his team mate Coulthard. Raikkonen won, whilst Schumacher took his seventh title. In 2005, he was out-qualified by new team mate Juan Pablo Montoya but in a wet and dry race, Raikkonen absolutely dominated, winning by nearly half a minute. The race wasn’t held in 2006 but he took a massively dominant win in 2007 en route to winning the championship. He crashed out from second place whilst duelling with Lewis Hamilton in damp conditions in 2008 but took Ferrari’s only win in 2009 after holding off the Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella. He left in 2010 but came back with Lotus in 2012 and took a strong third place before having his first mechanical issue since his comeback in the 2013 race. He desperately needs a good result in 2014 to kick-start his season.
Jim Clark – Four wins
Jim Clark hated Spa. He couldn’t stand the place. He won four races in a row there, and not on the modern-day watered-down version of Spa, this was on the 14 kilometre circuit which claimed life after life. In 1960, only his second race, he was shown straight away how dangerous Formula One was in that period, with team mates Stirling Moss and Mike Taylor suffering severe injuries and Alan Stacey being killed. Another driver, Chris Bristow was killed in the same race during a separate incident. He finished fifth, not like that meant much to him. He finished six laps down a year later, but took the first victory for the beautiful Lotus 25 a year later in the first of many duels with fellow Brit Graham Hill. The 1963 race saw one of the greatest drives in Formula One’s history, with Clark passing all seven cars in front of him early in the race in wet conditions and winning the race by almost five minutes ahead of Bruce McLaren, a truly exceptional performance. He inherited a win in 1964 after Dan Gurney ran out of fuel late in the race, and beat McLaren again but by the slightly smaller margin of 3.4 seconds. He won again in the rain in 1965, in the Lotus 33, this time beating fellow Scot Jackie Stewart, in his rookie year. Clark never won again at Spa, as he suffered an engine problem in the 1966 race which saw Stewart’s near fatal accident and had a lengthy stop in 1967.
Damon Hill – Three wins
Spa was the event that event that Damon Hill won more than any other event. He didn’t even turn up to the 1992 event as the Brabham team left the sport prior to the race. He inherited his first race win there in 1993 after a miscommunication cost team mate Prost in the pit stops, but the win gave Williams the Constructors’ Championship. The 1994 race saw him inherit another win, this time from Schumacher after he was disqualified after they done battle on track. He was beaten on the day by a charging Schumacher but had to settle for fifth after being halted by marshals in the 1996 race, but fought his way up to that position from 13th. He suffered a wheel nut problem in the 1997 race but his chance came in 1998 and he took it. The revised Jordan had picked up two fourths in the previous two races, and Hill placed it third on the grid. The race was remembered for being very, very wet. Hill messed up the start, but the race was called off following a colossal pile-up at the sportscar start line. Hill absolutely aced the restart, taking the lead. Schumacher passed him eventually but he later crashed into Coulthard and Hill retook the lead. The two Jordans of Hill and Ralf Schumacher were one and two and team boss Eddie Jordan chose to impose team orders and they finished in that order. Hill took his final point in Formula One at the 1999 race, just for the cherry on top.
Juan Manuel Fangio – Three wins
The last driver on this list is another true great of Formula One, who had a record similar to that of Kimi Raikkonen at Spa, but like Jim Clark, all of his races there took place on the full 14 kilometre version. Fangio’s first visit to Spa didn’t go too well, in 1949, he suffered an engine failure on the second lap. He bounced back a year later though to take his second win of the season by 14 seconds ahead of team mate Luigi Fagioli. A pitstop of 14 minutes cost Fangio any chance in 1951, handing the win to team mate Giuseppe Farina. He missed the 1952 race due to injury, and missed out in 1953 despite driving two cars in the race (this was allowed back then) but he dominated the race in 1954 for Maserati before switching to Mercedes mid-season. The two Mercedes simply decimated the field in the 1955 event, with Fangio eight seconds ahead of Stirling Moss. His final race at the circuit was in 1956, and he got a poor start in his Ferrari and eventually dropped out of the race with transmission problems. The race wasn’t run in 1957 and he didn’t turn up to the 1958 race before retiring.
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