Spa in sight: Looking ahead to the Belgian Grand Prix

Read Alex’s assessment of racing at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Published

18 JUL 2025

Est. reading time

3 min

Alex’s upcoming trip to Spa is fast approaching — and he’ll be chomping at the bit to get out on track in Belgium.

Our Thai racer is coming off the back of an impressive P8 finish at the British GP, leading nicely into a visit to one of his favourite locations.

“Spa is one of the best circuits we go to,” he said, when discussing the venue back in 2023.

“It has a really good flow, the undulations, the cambers on the track, even the curbs that they use are really good for Formula 1 [and] for racing in general.

“And the racing is great as well. If you're quick, you can race, you can battle side by side. I would say it's definitely one of the favourites.”

That doesn’t mean that the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is without its challenges, though, as Alex explained:

“It [Spa] is a different kind of race, because you end up not always necessarily just doing the quickest race, but you make sure that you're quick in the right places.

“So, for example, saving your tyres in areas where they can't overtake you, to make sure that in the corners — where you need the grip and you need to make a little gap — you've got a bit of margin in the tyres to do that.

“Little things like that make a big difference, and just keeping a cool head, obviously. You've got a big, big train in your mirrors, which is not always that fun to have a look at.

“And it's just that feeling, like you can't make a mistake — and sometimes that can make you make mistakes, if that makes sense?

“So you've just got to put that behind you and really just focus in front of you.”

Albono can draw inspiration from a previous trip to Spa when he heads there for Round 13 of the season, having recorded a P10 finish in the Ardennes forest back in 2022.

“We had a great Qualifying, I think we were a tenth behind the Mercedes at the time, [so it was] definitely a circuit that suited us,” he said, recalling that memorable performance.

“It was a nice one [because] I remember a lot of pressure on that race.

“It felt like a great race because — like any other race in that kind of situation, you can make a mistake — but Spa is normally a track that you can overtake at.

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“We were really good at Turn 1, but I knew that if I had one little slight mistake at Turn 1 or if it was slightly not optimal, I would never have had the chance to keep the position.

“It meant that everything had to just be super clean — driving really clean, not making mistakes and keeping the tyres alive, which wasn't that easy around that circuit.

“So the stakes were high, and that’s why it felt like such a good race for me.”

AA23 will be hoping for a similarly successful stint in Spa when the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix gets under way from Friday 25th - Sunday 27th July.