Max Verstappen has praised the return of gravel traps at multiple corners around "old-school" Spa-Francorchamps.
Over the winter, the historic Belgian Grand Prix circuit underwent a major revamp, with the main purpose being to accommodate the return of bike racing.
To do this, many corners that previously had tarmac run-offs now have gravel, including La Source, Les Combes, Blanchimont and the Bus Stop.
Shortly after the renovation was completed, the reigning Formula 1 champion got a first taste of the circuit back in April as he drove a Red Bull RB7 for a promotional video.
A new look Spa-Francorchamps 🇧🇪 Time for a test drive 🔎 #F1 pic.twitter.com/PioaD2r9Ds
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) August 22, 2022
And ahead of this weekend's race, he gave his view on the changes.
"The upgrades to the track have made it a little more old school with the gravel traps which I think is a good idea," he said.
“It’s my favourite track so I’m looking forward to racing there this weekend.
“It looks like there might be rain around which will make it more tricky, but luckily as a team, we like a challenge.”
Included in the renovation were changes to the famed Eau Rouge/Raidillon corners with more run-off at the top of the hill and a huge new grandstand overlooking the track.
“The target was to modernise and improve the safety of Eau Rouge,” Dromo Circuit Design boss Jarno Zaffelli explained.
“We were engaged after the floods that did a lot of damage. We determined how to restore the area and improve the racing show, reducing the bumps, allowing for rainfall disbursement, and overall, [make it] safer.
"This whilst ensuring the most iconic corner in motorsport retained its unique character.”
The corner itself is unchanged, much to the relief of fans, but the process of redesigning the run-off area wasn't easy.
“We had like 20+ iterations of Eau Rouge," Zaffelli revealed.
"We spent several days with professional drivers in our in-house simulators to get their feedback. We then spent two full days with professional drivers in the Vi-Grade sim center, supervised by [former F1 racers turned FIA race stewards] Thierry Boutsen and Emanuele Pirro.
What. A. View.@circuitspa #Spa24h @24HoursofSpa @GTWorldChEu pic.twitter.com/kOKpVhp0Sx
— Tom Verstichel 🇧🇪 (@TomVerstichel) July 30, 2022
“Between October and November 2021, the work was fine-tuned in the simulators for F1 and GT cars with Marco Bonanomi, to get their feedback. This work helped us a lot to choose the final design that was then submitted to the FIA Circuit Commission prior to the works that were carried out in the first months of the 2022 season.
“In addition, we had our internal analysis of the circuit, a LIDAR scan of the area, and then a complete analysis to finalise all the details.”
The changes come after a spate of big accidents in recent years at Raidillon caused by cars hitting the outside barrier and bouncing back onto the track into the path of oncoming drivers, most notably in F2 in 2019 in a crash that killed Anthoine Hubert.
