2024 Belgian Grand Prix: Everything You Need to Know Before Attending

2023 Belgian Grand Prix: Everything You Need to Know Before Attending

Spa-Francorchamps hosts the final round of the F1 season before the summer break. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of attending the upcoming 2024 Belgian Grand Prix weekend on July 26-28, 2024!

  • The 2024 Belgian Grand Prix is set to take place on July 26-28
  • This post will be fully updated for 2024 6-8 weeks before the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix weekend. Information below relates to the 2023 event and should be used for reference only
  • This post contains affiliate links. We may receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links

As one of the few remaining tracks which appeared on the F1 calendar in its inaugural season, Spa Francorchamps has become something of a Mecca for motorsport fans. The 2023 Belgian Grand Prix will be the 79th Belgian Grand Prix to be held since the first event back in 1925, and the 56th Formula 1 race at the Spa circuit.

There were fears that this would be Spa-Francorchamps’ last appearance on the F1 calendar, with the track having signed a single-year contract extension for 2023. However, with plans for a South African Grand Prix reportedly failing to materialise for a second year in succession, the Belgian Grand Prix will appear on the 2024 Formula 1 calendar.

Located in the Ardennes forest in the east of Belgium, fans visiting the track have a wealth of accommodation options with towns and cities such as Verviers, Liege, Aachen and Maastricht all within a good distance of Spa. We’ve rounded up the best places to visit on your Belgian Grand Prix trip in Off-Track Activities. If you’re interested in motorsport history, there’s a Spa Francorchamps museum just 10km from the circuit!

Spa’s weather is notoriously unpredictable. Weather conditions came to the fore at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, with no F1 racing action taking place on Sunday due to heavy rain. Given Spa’s unpredictable climate, we recommend being prepared and packing for all weather conditions!

Getting to Spa Francorchamps for the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix

While camping is a popular option for fans attending the Belgian Grand Prix, the circuit is served by a number of public transport links – though the easiest way to get to Spa is to drive yourself there. Parking passes for the main car parks at the circuit are still available. You can find all the details of public transport services – including shuttle buses from a number of nearby cities – here, plus parking tips here.

Heading to Spa for the first time? All the essential travel information you need is in Travel Basics.

Big crowds expected at the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix

The 2021 wash out did not deter fans from attending the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix. Sunday sold out, with a record 360,000 fans passing through the circuit gates over the race weekend. The event was the fifth best attended of the 2022 Formula 1 season. A similar level of attendance is expected for the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix, especially given that the event was expected to be F1’s final visit to Spa. A limited number of grandstand tickets for the race weekend remain available in our ticket shop.

Fan attendance at the Belgian Grand Prix has surged in recent years, mostly thanks to Max Verstappen’s presence on the grid. Spa’s grandstands have been filled with fans dressed in orange in recent years – and that’s likely to be the case again in 2023, despite the Red Bull driver’s home race following just after the summer break!

How much will a visit to the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix cost?

The Belgian Grand Prix ranks as the 12th most expensive race to attend of the 23 planned races in the 2023 Formula 1 season. On average, grandstand seats are the ninth most expensive of the year, while General Admission access is the tenth most expensive of the season.

We estimate that the average fan will spend around €1,135 on a trip to the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix. That includes 3-day grandstand tickets, a 3-night stay in a hotel, plus daily spending money. Check out our Budget Planner for the lowdown on what you can expect to spend on a trip to the Belgian Grand Prix.

Support races and trackside entertainment

The 2023 Belgian Grand Prix will be Formula 1’s third Sprint weekend of the season. That means there’s a change to the usual weekend schedule, with Grand Prix qualifying taking place on Friday evening. Saturday will be dedicated to the Sprint, with Sprint Shootout taking place on Saturday morning and the Sprint race itself following in the afternoon. The Grand Prix takes place as usual on Sunday afternoon.

The Formula 1 action is supplemented by feeder series Formula 2 and Formula 3, which will each race twice over the weekend. In addition, Porsche Supercup will race on Sunday morning and there will be further on-track entertainment provided by historic racing cars.

Unfortunately, there will be no public pit lane walk at the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix. The circuit is reserved for a charity event on Thursday, the day on which the pit lane walk has taken place in previous years. You can find all the vital information about watching the race, including session times, on our updated Trackside page.

Got a question about attending the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix? Leave a comment below!

10 thoughts on “2024 Belgian Grand Prix: Everything You Need to Know Before Attending”

  1. Charlotte Stacey

    We are going to be staying in Aachen and are thinking of getting a taxi/car plus driver to take 4 of us to and from the circuit – do you have any recommendations

  2. Hi, I am going to an f1 race for the first time this weekend in spa. I wanted to know whether it is possible to run around the track at some point throughout the weekend?

    Kind regards

    1. Sorry James, I was working at the track and didn’t get the chance to respond. Sorry, but there was no opportunity to run the track – only after the race. But I’m not sure if you were able to walk around the whole track.

  3. This was a horrible experience. PLEASE DO NOT GO TO THE BELGIAN GP AND LET AS MANY PEOPLE KNOW AS POSSIBLE.
    Seats to the front 4 rows and sides are abandoned as they were wet… why would you pay €700 to be under a stand and still get wet. You cannot pick your seat positions,
    Quarter butt seats for €700. … you can barely seat and if the people in front of you stand it is a nightmare…. as the tiers from one to the next are not planned to give a clear view. You can barely get one butt on the seat you you get butt cramp as you have to clench your but to seat… and, have to inhale and pull your shoulders in for most of the race…until someone goes for a piss or to get some refreshments and even then the whole line has to stand up to let anyone out.
    The distance from the drop off to the seating is approx 4-5 km and through slush and mud and loose gravel… the disable access is non existent…
    Walking through with quad bikes all over and through the mud…. and the quad bikes that service the catering outlets splash water and mud all across pedestrians.
    All that mud and rubble under the stand that you have to walk through to get the €700seat…. this is under the scaffolding supporting the seating.
    And the toilets dire – open urinals so that all the women can see the men effectively peeing against a wall… and occasionally a sewerage truck comes in to clear the muck from the toilets … but this drives along the pedestrian paths…. further exacerbating access.

    Not sure why SKY TV does not have a programme to show the crap the spectators go through and have to pay so much for this and I think good commentators like Paul, Natalie, Karun and Antony should look at this and call it out. They are complicit in this what feels like sort of Ponzi scheme to charge large amounts for tickets and give a horrible experience.
    So again… the traffic and internal coordination of the people entering was dire irrespective of the weather. So should Channel four – David Coulthard and the team. You do not see these as you have press passes, good seating and direct access to the track….instead you try to cheer us up with a macarena song in the rain… well at least you did try that.

    On Saturday we just got a bit of the qualifying. We walked out after the race and had to wait 1 hour for our pick up. Instead of taking our bus to the parking area we asked our pickup to come get us otherwise that would have been another nightmare- it took us 30 seconds to get in the car as it was already stationery in traffic. We left the area and it took us 1 hour to clear the 4 km out and we finally got home – Brussels at 10pm.
    To get out of the circuit you have to walk up a very steep hill from inside and again from La source approx 4-5 km in total.
    The police are basically directing traffic ( not solving the traffic problem) … there should be some use of strategy… allow cars to drop passengers and go – taxis or even private car drop offs that are not parking near the circuit. This will allow drop offs nearer La Source. Its possible to model the whole thing ahead of the next one as you have cameras everywhere. You don’t really need the Police buffoons… just people to coordinate traffic.

    On Sunday we left Brussels at 9am in the morning and after a stop 20 minute toilet stop …we were at 11am to 4km from the circuit and that took 3 hours to get to the circuit (that is 1.5 KM per hour). But had instead of going to the parking we got him to drop us off at Rue Emile Goedert… at the top of the hill and its sad that you do not allow cars or taxis to drop people off down the hill and leave as it does have police men who can allow cars to stand for 30seconds and leave and that would allow more parking for spectators. That would have cut our walk down by 1 hour and also reduced people taking the buses… to and from the parking areas and less buses causing congestion. A girl who had booked the yellow parking was turned away as she did not get a slot as they had overbooked and she had to take the bus to the new parking slot. She was really annoyed with F1.

    Would you know the distance from Rue Emile Goedert to the Gold 3 stand? About 3-4 Km… so by the time you get to your seat its exhausting as you are walking on slushy mid and gravel and through temporary scaffolding bridges over access to allow the Rich and famous to travel to the circuit in their cars.

    The police are really useless… they drive through the traffic to Spa lights flashing in a convoy and drive back from the race through the traffic lights flashing… if they arrived first and managed the traffic and left last they would be doing a good job… you don’t need police to organise traffic… just a few intelligence organisers and modellers. Our cab driver called them cowboys not because they are good with their guns … but he said “THEY SHOULD BE HEARDING CATTLE”…. because cows know when to go and all the cowboys do is ride behind them.
    There is a restaurant at Rue Goedert on the main street near the round about who has put scaffolding to allow more capacity on the sidewalks and this creates congestions for spectators passing through and walking down the hill.

    We then had to walk down the hill and for some stupid reason around the roundabout at La source as it just had gaping police men there to allow the VIPs in… which is really sad as they are not worth the trouble.
    We then slushed down the hill and there were some red bull umbrellas that helped with the respite from the rain.
    The path is loose gravel and mud all the way down. YOU could just have a road as seen in the parking alongside to allow people to walk down the hill instead of all that mud and loose stone.

    The stewards should be in two lines fonts one to ask people to have their doc s/tickets ready…. and its easier to have signs saying walk to the left to allow movement in both directions.

    We got to our seats at 2.45 pm and obviously missed out on the driver’s parade.

    The extra stadium seating that was put near that dire fighter plane was unnecessary and not even 20% capacity.

    That should have been the drop off point.

    And then you had a two-way pedestrian bridge that some village idiot thought was a great idea just to allow access for service and other VIP cars. A person was injured that yesterday evening and an ambulance had to be called probably further exacerbating the traffic.

    The toilets are dire and every so often a truck needs to come in amongst the pedestrians to suck all the shit out not to mention those 4-wheel (quad) motorbikes that weave in and out of the crowd causing further disruption… and splashing and slushing mud all over the pedestrians and their shoes.

    They were actually closing down and instead of prioritising crowd safety and doing all this after they were trying to move around… and you should see the trouble disable bodied fans go through… it’s really sad.
    The seats are uncomfortable and so tightly fitting and a lot of the fans got wet. The stands need to have seats about 8 inches higher from row to row as we still could not get good view and the area under the stands are dire… like walking through mud and stone.

    You need to take the drivers through these areas for them to see the shit their fans ensure … more as a result of a first time visit and being ignorant to the experience. They do not race as one.
    Tell you what give me a page on the Belgian website on the F1 page and I can provide pictures and a true hand experience of what crap the experience really is? Up for it?
    Also, and if you want to discuss and make things better let me know and I will give you a more detailed view of all the crap we went through… The drivers don’t race as one…they need to see the difference in standards and the daylight robbery the fans get to what they pay for…. and if some idiot still wants to come along you may as well charge them double.

    If you get the opportunity/… walk around the circuit today and have a look.
    Hamilton was right … The Belgian GP was a farce … sad that none of you in the F1 team were brave enough to say that.

    Let me know what your thoughts are because if you thing you are being productive in your efforts ( and you are not) thing about how much more you could earn… use technology and be creative.
    The only saving fun was the fans who were so friendly… well amongst us… they had some unkind things to say about F1.

    We missed all the practice sessions as its a nightmare to get to the circuit and to your allocated seating. If it rains its even worse as you need a full change of footware. The catering is unhealthy and dire.

    So on Saturday we were in traffic 4 km from Franco champs….for 2.5 hours..so we missed practice 3…when we got to 500 meters from the drop off area (which is still 3 miles from our Eau Rouge seats we were waved to parking 4km away… even though we were being dropped off.

    We are now in a bus stationery for 30 minutes…and will probably miss the qualifying as it will take 1 hour to go through the gates and walk to Eau Rouge…check the time my ticket registers as checked in… and we have to go through the same shambles tomorrow and for that we pay you €1200 for the privilege…. not to forget flights hotels meals and PCR tests and loads of time wasted to get information and communicate with you Guys.

    We missed everything on Friday… but at least got here late Friday evening at 5pm and have reconnoitred the circuit.

    Walking all the way from La Source to Eau Rouge is a long walk on mushy unstable ground and a real mess.

    The New Fan area was where the old car park was near Eau Rouge and its sad that all the drop off and traffic has been chaotic.

    Taxi Drop off as close to the Eau rouge would have been nice.

    Its steep and downhill and not that accessible for most people I could see struggling. The disable access is non existent and even families… not something they have said that they would want to do again. Taxi Drivers need an address they can put in the sat nav to get to a point and that was evidently the sentiment of a few families we spoke to outside the circuit and even the caravan drivers looking for some green camping site.

    The seats basic and dirty and the toilets a night mare. The sound system too loud and constantly blaring… the circuit really not that visible in terms of visible area and no big screens to give information on live timing etc. We probably won’t know who qualified until we see it on social media
    A lot of money is made by the media and F1 tycoons and nothing is done to make the F1 experience a comfortable one… it’s probably going to be my last experience.
    I will be advising as much of my family and friends against going to any Grand prix really as it’s really stressful – tickets uncertainty, basic seats so uncomfortable and close and the accommodation unavailable to the circuits. We travel from Brussels every day as it the easiest.
    I tried to book a ticket for our driver and even though available… the website is a nightmare… it would be easier to talk to my 80 year old grandmother about the internet and Amazon Work Spaces and possibly quantum computing… than using the ticket system.

    You are likely to spend the money on the tickets, food , weather clothing cleaning up, expenses on food as you get ack really late. Not to mention to get no satisfaction or a good experience… all you are doing is paying those ty-goons in Formula1…. the management and Promoters… and the drivers should be ashamed to take a part of the prize money.

  4. Hi,

    I am attending the Belgium Gp & as it is our first GP I have a few questions!
    We have tickets for the Speed Corner Stand. On Friday & Saturday are u allowed enter other grand stands?
    We are getting a bus from Aachen each day.. is Speed Corner a far walk from the drop off??
    Will there be Q&A sessions or talks with the drivers over the weekend or is there any info on this available yet?
    We would love to see the podium presentation after the race.. I see the track opens up to allow fans to walk to the podium.. is this a possibility from where we are seated?

    Thank you!!!!

    1. Hi Ciara, you cannot sit in any other grandstands. It’s reserved seating in all grandstands on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
      Sorry, I’m not sure exactly where the bus from Aachen will drop you off, but it could be somewhere near the Ster gate behind the Fanzone. If it’s in this location, you have at least 30 minutes walk to Speed Corner – walk via tunnel under Eau Rouge to Pouchon.
      Yes, there should be driver interviews on the main stage in the Fanzone on Friday/Saturday. Times are not normally confirmed until a few days before race weekend.
      Yes, anyone at the track can go to the podium after the race. If you want a good view, better to walk around to near the final chicane before the end of the race, then you are closer when they open up the track.

  5. Claire Jeffries

    Hi Andrew, do you know if the public can walk the Spa track on Friday or Saturday after all racing finishes or do they only open the track after the race on Sunday?

  6. went to spa saturday from the channel tunnel, 2 miles from the track the organisation and traffic was a farce. missed pretty much all racing except for the sprint. we were bronze which basically is the worst experience, could barely see the track for 230 euros for 2 days. due to all the time it took to get in and out we didnt bother going race day, just went home, formula 1 is shocking value for the consumer, 4.2 coins for a beer x 1.7 euro conversion, all those left euros on f1 cards……… in the back pocket of the chiefs. overall a very poor experience and certainly will not bother with f1 again. will be visiting superbikes for a more inclusive experience. you certainly get what you pay for and its not value for money

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