Aussie F1 victories at Spa-Francorchamps

Oscar Piastri will be attempting to become just the third Australian since 1928 – after Sir Jack Brabham in 1960 and Daniel Riccardo in 2014 – to win a Belgium Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend.

Only Jack Brabham (1960) and Daniel Ricciardo (2014) have had victories at Spa Francorchamps in Formula 1, with Kiwi Bruce McLaren (1968) also having been added to the list of Antipodean winners at the infamous track.

After his win at the Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend, we can now talk about Piastri being in the frame as a potential addition to that list with some realistic weight behind the notion.

Piastri takes the inside corner at the first turn at the Hungaroring to set up his maiden F1 win. Image: LAT

Last season at Spa, the McLaren #81 driver made his F1 debut at the track, taking out second place in the Sprint behind a lit Max Verstappen, whilst in the feature, he collided with Carlos Sainz whilst trying for the inside on Turn 1 to be forced into retirement.

Whilst the Belgium Grand Prix has often found occasion to drift away from the notorious Stavelot track for reasons of safety, or even having been flatly cancelled on occasion – owing to such matters such as tobacco advertising laws, and even the second Arab-Israeli war (the Suez crisis) –  in the 66 GP’s held at the track, victories for Aussies have only come in 1960 and 2014.

The 1960 Grand Prix won by Jack Brabham will forever go down in history as one of the most tragic in the annals of F1, with it being the only race where two drivers have lost their lives during the actual race itself.

In the lead up to the Grand Prix, Stirling Moss and Mike Taylor were both seriously injured during practice, with Moss suffering breaks in both legs, whilst Taylor’s crash forced him into an early racing retirement.

In the race itself, British drivers Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey both lost their lives, with Bristow’s crash in his Cooper perhaps too gruesome to detail, whilst Stacey’s crash was owing to being struck in the face by a bird at the dangerous Masta kink.

The fourth win of Brabham’s F1 career at Spa was sombre in celebration. Image: LAT

In an article at the time by the famous British Motorsport magazine, it said regarding Brabham’s win that:

“Brabham completed his last lap to win the fastest race ever run at Spa, a race of incident and tragedy but one that he well deserved to win, having been in full control of the situation throughout the whole meeting.”

With Brabham winning pole position for the race by +2.5 over Tony Brooks for a Copper-Climax front row lockout, he would eventually take out the attentional race by +1:03.3 over a young McLaren, who was also in a Cooper.

Fast forward 54 years to 2014, and after Mark Webber had taken second on the podium two years running in 2010-11, Daniel Ricciardo became just the second Aussie to claim a victory at Spa.

It came at a time where Ricciardo was on a tear in the 2014 season, with the Belgium victory in his Red Bull RB10 machine being his third in six races after his maiden triumph in Canada (Round 7), before taking out the Hungarian GP in Round 11.

(That provides a nice tale of curious synchronicity for Piastri should he too take his first F1 double at Hungary and Spa.)

Ricciardo passes Alonso early on the way to his third career win, and the first Aussie to win at Spa 54 years. Image: LAT

After qualifying own the third row in 2014, Ricciardo pounced on an earlier Mercedes error by the time the first round of pit stops had came about, with front starter Lewis Hamilton puncturing his left rear tyre on poleman Nikko Rosberg’s front right wing in just the second lap, whilst Ricciardo also got in front of his teammate Sebastien Vettel prior to that first pit cycle.

Holding off a late charging Rosberg, Ricciardo would record the third of his eight F1 wins to date.

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