Greatest F1 Circuits

At 7.004 km, Spa is the longest lap on the current calendar, and the uphill charge from Eau Rouge through Raidillon is still the corner drivers use to measure each other. Its Ardennes microclimate can leave one sector dry and another flooded, so Belgian Grands Prix often turn on a tyre gamble.

Run on public streets since 1929, Monaco squeezes 19 corners into 3.337 km, the shortest lap in Formula 1, with the Fairmont hairpin the slowest corner the sport visits. Ayrton Senna won here six times, five of them in a row from 1989 to 1993.

Interlagos runs anti-clockwise around a natural bowl in São Paulo, and its short lap keeps the field packed together. The 2008 title changed hands on the last lap when Hamilton passed Timo Glock, and Senna won his home race in 1991 with his gearbox stuck in sixth.

Suzuka is Formula 1's only figure-eight layout, with the back section crossing the front straight on a bridge, a quirk of John Hugenholtz's 1962 design for Honda. The opening esses and the long left of 130R reward commitment, and championships were settled here in 1989 and 1990.

The 22.8 km Nordschleife threaded more than 170 corners through the Eifel forest until Niki Lauda's fiery crash in 1976 ended Formula 1's use of it. Jackie Stewart won there in 1968 by over four minutes in fog and rain; the far shorter GP-Strecke opened in 1984.

Silverstone staged the opening race of the first world championship on 13 May 1950, won by Nino Farina for Alfa Romeo. Laid out on a wartime bomber airfield, it still carries the fastest corner sequence in Formula 1 through Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel.

Monza has hosted the Italian Grand Prix in every championship season except 1980, and its long straights and shallow chicanes produce the highest average speeds in Formula 1. The 1971 race ended with Peter Gethin winning by 0.01 seconds, the closest finish on record.

One of the few anti-clockwise circuits Formula 1 visits, the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari is inseparable from the 1994 weekend that killed Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna and forced a total safety overhaul. It returned to the calendar in 2020 after a 14-year absence.

Built on the Île Notre-Dame in Montreal, the circuit is named for Gilles Villeneuve, who won its first grand prix in 1978. The barrier on the exit of the last chicane became the Wall of Champions in 1999, when Hill, Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve all struck it in the same race.

Baku pairs a run to the line of roughly two kilometres with an old-town section that squeezes between castle walls at Turn 8, packing both extremes into a 6.003 km lap. The mix breeds attrition, as in 2021 when Verstappen's tyre failed in the lead and Sergio Pérez inherited the win.

Singapore staged Formula 1's first night race in 2008, an event later exposed as Crashgate after Nelson Piquet Jr. admitted crashing deliberately to help Fernando Alonso win. Humidity, concrete walls and a layout trimmed from 23 corners to 19 in 2023 make it a brutal physical test.

Hockenheim once fired cars down enormous straights through pine forest before Hermann Tilke cut roughly a third of the lap away in 2002. Jim Clark was killed there in a Formula 2 race in 1968, and Rubens Barrichello scored his first win from 18th on the grid in 2000.

Austin's track opened in 2012 as the first purpose-built Formula 1 venue in the United States, greeting drivers with a steep blind climb into the Turn 1 hairpin. Its first sector echoes the rhythm of Maggotts and Becketts, and Hamilton won five of the opening six races held there.

Brands Hatch held the British Grand Prix twelve times between 1964 and 1986, alternating with Silverstone, and the plunge through Paddock Hill Bend just after the startline gives it a rollercoaster character. Nigel Mansell took his first win here at the 1985 European Grand Prix.

Watkins Glen held the United States Grand Prix from 1961 to 1980, drawing entries with one of the richest purses in the sport. The Boot extension added in 1971 pushed the lap through fast blind country, and the circuit claimed François Cevert in 1973 and Helmuth Koinigg in 1974.

Zandvoort came back in 2021 after a 36-year absence, rebuilt with banked corners at the Hugenholtzbocht and the final Arie Luyendijkbocht so cars can carry speed onto the main straight. Niki Lauda's 25th and last grand prix win came here in 1985.

Spielberg's 4.318 km lap has only ten corners and the quickest lap time on the calendar, which compresses qualifying into hundredths. A truncated version of the old Österreichring, it climbs and drops sharply enough that track limits at the exit kerbs decide results.

Fuji hosted the 1976 title decider, where James Hunt claimed the championship in torrential rain after Niki Lauda withdrew. A crash the following year killed two people standing in a prohibited area, and Formula 1 stayed away for three decades before returning in 2007 and 2008.

Catalunya opened in 1991 and spent decades as Formula 1's default winter testing venue, leaving teams with more data on it than on any other track. The long, heavily loaded Turn 3 makes it an aerodynamic benchmark, and Max Verstappen won here in 2016 aged 18 years and 228 days.