Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps — Attraction in Stavelot

I went here for the f1 race in 2023, the track is beautiful but the organization is horrendous. On the friday we parked on the Yellow parking and the walk to the fanzone was very steep downhill and muddy, the walk itself was quite long aswell but manageable. When we wanted to go home we had to walk that steep hill back up and find our car somehow. When we got to the car and wanted to leave the parking the traffic was absolutely horrific. It took us one hour to get off the parking lot and it took us 2 hours before we got back at the house we rented which meant that we came home at 22:00 without dinner because food on the track is very expensive (10 euro's for a slice of pizza?!). Saturday was the worst day out of all and I'm trying my best not to get mad whilst writing this so bare with me. We wanted to park at the same parking lot where we first were but once we got there we got told that we needed to drive back and go to a different parking lot, this one was in neuville which meant we had to take the shuttlebus to the track, not a problem right? 30 minutes we had to wait for a stupid bus to stop and give us a ride, 2 busses drove past us and didn't let us in eventhough we weren't with that many people. The ride with the shuttlebus went alright but after a bit we stood still, no idea why and the doors weren't opening, after a few minutes we got told to step in a different bus and that one would take us to the track, this bus drove a damn circle and got stuck in traffic so we had to walk to the track. You would expect that a track that is so iconic and held so many grandprix's would atleast have normal working busses that don't get stuck in traffic? We ended up missing the entire f2 sprint race which I was quite sad about. Going back didn't go too easy aswell, every session got moved up a bit meaning we had to leave the track later than expected, by the time we got at the bus pickup point it was 15:30, there were around 70 people waiting, the busses weren't driving and the busses would stop driving after 16:00 (this later got extended for obvious reasons), we decided to just walk back entirely to the parking place which took us 45 minutes.

Sunday, race day We decided to leave the house VERY early because the Saturday's events and to take the shuttlebus again, this time we could step in the bus immediately and got brought to the drop off place in 1 go instead of having to go in a different bus. When we got off the track the bus pick up point was busy but there were multiple busses there ready to bring people to the parking lot so the wait wasn't long, why couldn't they do this on Saturday?

About the on-track stuff: You are allowed to bring food and PLEASE take advantage of this!! The food on the track is like I said earlier, really expensive and the quality isn't even good. We had Silver tickets meaning that we were on the grandstands with without seats. If you have silver seats, please please please bring an umbrella/poncho/jacket, the camera doesn't do justice as to how hard it kept raining and this kept happening every hour or so. I can also heavily advise buying a waterproof pillow/yoga mat or a foamblock to sit on, the concrete bricks really hurt your behind when you have to sit on there the entire day. If you go on the track via the la source entrance you might be able to get foamblocks there, we got ours there on the Sunday for €3 each (if I remember correctly), if you go to the fanzone and go to the f1 merch stand they also have f1 pillow thingys but be quick! They got sold out on Friday afternoon and didn't restock.

Thank you for reading...

Loved the track. It’s absolutely fantastic and magical but …

Getting around the track: It’s very difficult to walk around this track and get to your seats cause they sell lots of tickets in general areas (no seats) so many people bring their lawn chairs and take over the walking path. This is especially visible in high visibility areas where the lawn chairs make us 4-5 rows on a walking path that is 5-feet wide. So the people coming in and out of the circuit now have to walk off the ciment path and into the rocks ditch and the forest. Which is dangerous and impossible for anybody with mobility issues.

In addition to all these rogue chairs in the pathways, there are merchandise stalls, food stalls and bathrooms right next to the pathways which adds to the mess when you have chairs taking over the walking path and queues forming for food or bathrooms. Navigating all this is quite and experience. Ohhh and by the way, if you are seating in Silver (double gauche) the pathways are steep! Challenging to go down without falling and much harder to climb when you are leaving.

There is also a serious lack of security personnel. We did not see anybody outside of the gates and the seat check. There is nobody around to do crowd control or to make sure there is a safe walking path available.

Getting out by car: What a nightmare getting out of this place after a formula 1 event !!!! Literally took is 2.5 hours on Friday, 3.5 hours on Saturday and almost 4-hours on Sunday (race day). We were stuck in queues everywhere. From parking to taking a 16km detour doing less than 10 km/hr to get to the highway.

I get it; there’s too many people on a race weekend for this area but figure something else out like parking areas out of town and busses that bring you to and from the track. More busses from neighbouring villages that would encourage people to park a little further away.

Green parking area is a nightmare since you are literally parking in a farmers field and they don’t have enough exits for the amount of cars parked in their field (like 1 exit for 2,000 cars) but … even if they did have 12 exits, the police control the traffic flow in and out of the towns so you can’t go anywhere cause there’s only 1-road in and out of Francorchamps and neighbouring towns.

You are literally in the middle of the forrest with 400,000 other visitors on a Grand-Prix weekend so bring a bucket of patience with you and realize that this is all part of the experience.

In retrospect, I would have booked a hotel room in town and simply walked back to our hotel had we booked a little earlier for this event.

Another option is to stay in the track longer and have a few beers before heading to your car.

But you see, with all these negatives I still rate this track a 5-star experience. It was a magical experience overall to experience an F1 race at one of the most iconic circuits in the world! We will not come back to this track but we loved it and the Belgian people...

SILVER 3 TICKET FIRST TIME PERSPECTIVE / 2023 F1

City Shuttle: We stayed in Maastricht which was an hour-ish from the track. Affordable accommodation, beautiful city. Shuttle was €50 per person per day. We were lucky with our drivers as they knew where the track was. Other coaches weren’t as lucky and their drivers has zero clue where they were going and ended up in the wrong towns. QUEUE EARLY! Buses leave as soon as they fill! Earlier leaving = less queuing at the track!

Silver 3 Tickets: Great view of track. Super turns. It’s at the other side of the track from the entrance and takes around 10/15 mins hiking through the forest. Lots of food outlets (low quality) and toilets. This stand has no cover.. and if I were to do spa ever again. I’d pay more for a roof even if it was a location with a bad view. The weather was absolutely chronic. Ended up sick for two weeks. PAY FOR A COVERED STAND! Lol if the weather was any bit normal this weekend, it would have been perfect.

Facilities: Plenty of food outlets. Found the best of the bad bunch food was actually over by Gold 2. Everything is way too expensive there. Very very low quality food. I would advise bringing your own. Toilets were actually surprisingly clean but there was never any toilet paper so stock your pockets at the foot outlets with tissues….

Tips: Walk around the track! Bring a chair one of the days. Some of the best views are actually with the Bronze tickets!!

Bring wets, ponchos, trousers, coats, hats, an umbrella even sunscreen. The weather is extremely changeable. Even if the sun is shining on arrival, bring something to protect you properly if it rains.

Wear good shoes! Wellies, hiking boots.. would not advise wearing anything less.

Download the app! The fan zone schedule for interview will be there. Worth hanging around there each morning to see the drivers!

Pay a little bit more of a...