Tyre pressures at Spa-Francorchamps
The lap, to scale. Track outline © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
How hard a circuit works each corner of the car shows up as tread temperature, and temperature is what sets pressure. GripCalc carries corner heating figures for Spa-Francorchamps as a starting point: how much hotter each tyre runs over the session's base temperature, from the layout's mix of corners and load. They pre-fill the calculator when you pick the circuit, and your own pyrometer readings refine them from the first session.
| CORNER | RUNS HOTTER BY, °C |
|---|---|
| Left front | +1.5 |
| Right front | +1.0 |
| Left rear | +2.5 |
| Right rear | +2.0 |
ESTIMATED — class-based starting values over an 85°C session base, derived from this layout's type (direction, speed profile, load), and shared with circuits of similar character rather than measured here. Not gospel: enter your own pyrometer figures after a session and they take precedence.
Spa-Francorchamps, on paper
| Location | Francorchamps, Verviers, Belgium | OSM |
| Opened | 1924 | WIKIDATA |
| Lap as mapped | 7.231 km | MEASURED |
| Longest straight | ≈779 m | DERIVED |
| Corners | 19 | DERIVED |
OSM — the sections mappers have named on this venue's tarmac: Les Combes · Courbe Paul Frère · Double Gauche · Speaker's Corner · Fagnes · Bruxelles · Raidillon · Kemmel · Eau Rouge · La Source · Malmedy · Campus · Blanchimont · Chicane
Lengths are measured from the OpenStreetMap geometry drawn above; the longest straight is derived from the same line and is approximate. Section names are the venue's, and can belong to any of its layouts.
What Spa-Francorchamps asks of a tyre
Spa-Francorchamps measures 7.23 km on the map, with 19 corners counted along that line. Corners come about every 381 m, so the lap is more about carrying speed between them than surviving them back to back. Its longest straight runs about 779 m, far enough to cool the tread before the stop at the end of it, so a hot pressure taken in the pit lane understates what the tyre saw mid-lap.
DERIVED — length, corner count, hands and straight measured from the mapped lap drawn above. Corner counting is a judgement (a double apex can be read as one corner or two), so treat these as this line's reading of the circuit, not a series' official figures.
Spa-Francorchamps is the great examination: a long lap through the Ardennes with the Eau Rouge and Raidillon compression, the flat-out Kemmel straight, and fast sweeps like Pouhon that hold load for seconds at a time. Vertical compression, sustained lateral energy and long cooling straights all feature in a single lap, and Ardennes weather can change the question between sessions.
Eau Rouge compresses the car harder than anywhere in club driving; no soft setups
Pouhon's long left works the right side; compare side averages
Long straights cool the tread; probe immediately or the readings lie
Weather moves fast; recompute pressures when the ambient shifts
A 992 GT3 on Cup 2 R at Spa-Francorchamps
Published hot target 30.5 / 32.0 psi at 92°C tread, on a 15°C morning, with the corner figures above: cold set 21.5 / 21.6 front, 22.6 / 22.7 rear. A different car, tyre or morning moves every number, which is what the calculator is for.
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