It seems to churlish to say but by and large on race weekends in mid-season you look around the paddock and all you see are weary faces. Sure we’re in the world’s most glamorous sport but with 11 races down, the strain of the past six months, is beginning to take its toll, especially as this is the first back-to-back we’ve had in a while and with the prospect of another to come in Singapore and Japan. But take a look around the Spa paddock and frowns are few and far between.

There’s something about coming here that refreshes parts other races simply can’t – and we’re not just talking about the very fine qualities of the multifarious Belgian beers. It’s simply down to coming a race track that’s been built for racing, that has a tangible history. Walk from the car park to the paddock and the first thing you see if the broad, almost vertical, right-handed sweep of the hill running up from Eau Rouge to Radillon.

Swipe into the paddock and climb the stairs to the garages and you can look out on the run from Radillon down the long, long Kemel straight to the tight right-hand turn of Les Combes, all of it surrounded by pine trees, hills, a landscape that immediately puts you in mind of John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix. Nothing against the modern palaces of glass and steel in Bahrain and the upcoming Abu Fhabi but Spa’s different. It’s a proper track.

And if there was any doubt in your mind you only have listen to the feedback of the ones at the sharp end of the action – the drivers. To a man, all clamber out of the car with a grin as wide as the La Source hairpin.
 
“I love this circuit,” said Seb Vettel this afternoon. “It has excellent corners and it’s a lot of fun”. Sister team-mate Sebastién Buemi was similarly effusive, simply describing Spa as “beautiful”.

He’s not wrong. This morning Spa did what it does best. Warm and sunny on the ride in, the circuit threw down mist and rain through first practice, leaving the drivers to struggle thorough a largely pointless morning session. Pointless that is in light of the rest of the weekend forecast, which indicates broken sunshine and dry running.

But this is Spa, and like the old Gerry Anderson kid’s show ‘Stingray’ used to trumpet on its intro, “anything can happen in the next half hour”.

That’s what makes this race an anomaly. On the eve of the 12th race of the year, the frowns should be deeper than the run-off area at Blanchimont, but instead the unpredictability of this awesome venue, its ability to constantly thrill and surprise is keeping everyone’s spirits up. Just when you start to question why we all slog from flight to flight, hotel to hotel, shuttle bus to shuttle bus, Spa reminds you what Formula One can be about. It’s great.

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