Circuito Spa Francorchamps – This last weekend of August, the Spa Francorchamps circuit hosts the most emotional race of the season for Juan Manuel. Next August 31sth, Tuesday, it will be two years since the tragic accident in which Juan Manuel was involved and in which his friend Anthoine Hubert passed away. Juan Manuel pays tribute to his friend this year with a logo on the helmet he has been wearing since the first official F3 tests in Austria before the start of the Championship.
Last year, Juan Manuel was in Spa and went to the Radillon climb when he was still using his wheelchair. This year, Juan Manuel will go again from “Eau rouge” to the top of the Radillon, but it will be at the wheel of his F3 of the ART Team, thus completing, in a way, one of the most impressive physical and mental recoveries of modern motorsport history.
Before facing this weekend, Juan Manuel spent some days working at the ART Team headquarters, and dedicating most of his time to drive the seven kilometres of the Spa track in the simulator.
“Apart from the accident, the Spa-Francorchamps is a track that I’ve always liked. I enjoyed driving there since 2017, which was my first GP3 race and making a debut at Spa is never easy.”
Juan Manuel has been working hard to get the best performance out of his car at each circuit, gathering the best partial times in a single lap, something that is key at this Spa circuit with its 7,004m, the second longest in the world championship.
“It’s a fast, long track, where it’s difficult to put together the fastest partial times in a lap due to its length. I think it’s going to be a good weekend for us. I’m happy with the preparation that we have. I feel in good shape and quite ready. We’ll go there, we’ll work on what we know we need to improve and we’ll try to keep progressing.”
The Belgian GP on this circuit will never be just another race for Juan Manuel. “There’s obviously something special at Spa after what happened, it will never be just another race. I’ll have Anthonie (Hubert) in my mind the whole weekend and I’m sure it will be very emotional, but life is like that and I’ve been preparing for this return for a long time. I feel ready.”
This year, the Spa circuit celebrates 100 years, as it was inaugurated on August 12, 1921, and it has hosted 53 F1 Grand Prix editions, 18 of GP3, between 2010 and 2018 as well as the four last races of the FIA F3 in 2019 and 2020.
