And with it is Eau Rouge! I missed it last year. I think it was really disappointing to drop Spa-Francorchamps from the F1 calendar last year. I guess F1 officials were also quick to realize this blunder. There is something special about this circuit which lies in the hilly region surrounded by the towns of Francorchamps, Malmedy and Stavelot in Belgium. It is the longest circuit in the current calendar, but that’s not its USP. Monaco has its Grand Hotel hairpin (formerly known as Loew’s Hairpin) and the Tunnel, Monza has its the Curva Parabolica, and the Variante Ascari. But Spa-Francorchamps, it’s special because of Eau Rouge, one of the most thrilling corners in the whole of F1. Building up speed after exiting the La Source hairpin the drivers launch steeply uphill into a sweeping left-right-left collection of corners with a blind summit. The TV pictures don’t really do justice in bringing to the audience the full spectacle that is the Eau Rouge complex. The change in the elevation at the start and at the end of the corner almost goes unnoticed. But once you have seen the pictures of the complex, and may be, tried playing a simulation on PS2, PC, can you maybe get a hint of how it must feel to take this corner in an accelerating F1 car with out taking your foot off the gas in real life.

On Spa-Francorchamps, drivers, race engineers and the spectators agree, that it’s one of the greatest track to race on. It’s fast and it can be dangerous. The weather always adds that little bit of uncertainty to the whole experience. BBC rates it a full 10 out of 10. And considering that Indianapolis, Monza, Monaco manage to get 6, 8, 9 respectively you can only imagine why I was utterly dismayed last year to miss out on this, the most perfect of race track.

Drivers in yesterdays qualifying touched 200 mph in the straight following the Eau Rouge, confirming that this is one of the fastest racing track. But being able to go fast is a double edge sword, as even the slightest of mistake and you are off the track and into the barricade at more that 180 mph. Jacques Villeneuve who is no stranger to driving on limits once famously remarked after his shunt, “My best-ever crash”!