Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps#Eau Rouge
As Eau Rouge or actually Raidillon de l' Eau Rouge curve a combination of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit is called. The name (French for " red water " ) comes from clifftop small river Eau Rouge, which is fed by water containing iron near sources.
On the route sketch not flashy, the difficulty of this curve lies in the type of embedding in the area. The steep road leading into the valley of the Eau Rouge, and there forms since 1939, only a slight left-hand bend. This is followed by a long right-hander with a large slope of nearly 18 percent directly up the mountain, the 1939 built abbreviation Raidillon de l' Eau Rouge. This was incorporated to increase the average speed of the course. At the top, a left turn, followed by a long straight uphill runs follows.
Normal sports cars drive through the curve combined with 160 km / h The difficulty lies primarily in the fact the car align in the Valley so that on the top of the left-hander can be optimally go through to achieve a high output speed for the long uphill straight " Kemmel ". Due to the limited overview this is not easy, also formerly obstructed the guardrail directly to the inside of the view. The compression in the sink reinforces the grip, where the spring elements do not penetrate. In contrast, the car is lifted on the crest of the springs, traction is reduced, which is the real difficulty.
Formula cars reach due to their aerodynamic downforce there lateral accelerations of four to five grams, which allows them driving through at twice the speed, thus about 300 km / h For modern Formula 1 cars, there is not a big problem to go through the series of turns at full throttle.
By 1939, turned in the Valley Eau Rouge the original route sharp left, only to result in a hairpin right uphill. This curve was named because there until 1920 were the Belgian-German border installations Virage de l' Ancienne douane ( " curve at the old customs station ").
The traditional pit area including start and finish is on the downhill section. Starts from there were therefore particularly risky. In the 1000 -kilometer race in 1970 the rival Gulf - Porsche team-mate Jo Siffert and Pedro Rodriguez Eau Rouge drove through side by side " shoulder to shoulder ". In 1985 here was killed the German driver Stefan Bellof in a sports car race after a collision fatal to a concrete pillar. Today, the curve with rails, stacks of tires and asphalt run-off areas is relatively well protected. The Formula 1 driver Alex Zanardi ( 1993), Mika Salo ( 1998) survived here violent accidents without injuries, as well as 1999, the two - driver Jacques Villeneuve BAR and Ricardo Zonta.
1999, guard rail was located on the inner side, and was filled in the interior
2001, the exit of traditional downhill pit lane was extended through the interior, the exterior was now an asphalt run-off area
2005 in review; by eliminating the old road and excavation on a slope the run-out zone could be broadened particularly at the upper end