Feature: Eau Rouge, Belgium's Bravery Test

If Spa sorts the men from the boys, then Eau Rouge is where the fearless stand out from the brave. Hailed as the greatest and most thrilling corner in modern Formula One, Eau Rouge is a rare test of a driver's mettle.

There are those who lift, be it ever so gently, and others who keep the accelerator nailed to the floor right through the sweeping, plunging left-right flick in a demonstration of cast-iron courage.

"What a corner. There is nothing like it, the best in the world for sure," said Austrian Gerhard Berger, now BMW motorsport director, when he was racing and most of the current generation would agree with that.

"The highlight of the track has to be the flat out blast through Eau Rouge, which is exhilarating when you get it spot on," says McLaren's David Coulthard.

"Eau Rouge is just different from any other corner during the whole season," adds Renault's Jarno Trulli. "Being able to take it flat is a question of confidence in the car. That is definitely the most important thing."

Flat Out

Approached flat out, drivers accelerate downhill out of the first La Source hairpin, exiting at around 56 km/h and hitting 290 in seventh gear before entering the Eau Rouge depression.

Maintaining speed, while enduring heavy G-forces, coming out of the corner is vital before the majestic sweep up Raidillon hill into the fast Kemmel straight at 330 km/h. The consequences for the unwary, the over-confident and the plain unlucky are seldom minor.

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, a real racer who was World Champion in 1997 but has never won at Spa, has had several big accidents there. Germany's Stefan Bellof was killed in a sportscar race in 1985 while Italian Alex Zanardi had a lucky escape while at Lotus in 1993, emerging with only a broken tooth.

Others, yet to experience the full flat-out blast, yearn for a car capable of providing that unforgettable thrill.

"It's the best. It's about the only corner in Formula One where you're happy to arrive at it, but even happier to exit," says BAR's French driver Olivier Panis. "The big thing is when you start going uphill on the exit because everything goes so light you feel as if you're going to take off," he told Autosport magazine this week.

"I've never had a car good enough to take Eau Rouge flat...I talked to Mika Hakkinen and he told me that in the McLaren it was flat through the whole race, no problem. Last year I could only dream of a car like that."

Heartbeat

Spa, the longest circuit on the calendar, is often seen as the last of the old-style racetracks and Eau Rouge was part of the original 1921 circuit. The line has changed little since World War Two.

But there are some, such as Williams' Ralf Schumacher, who feel that modern car technology has taken away some of the fear factor.

"The once popular Eau Rouge corner has lost a bit of its glamour," he said in a team preview this week. "Today you can drive it without any concern, as the cars remain stable. There are certainly other corners in Formula One that raise my heartbeat higher."

Renault's Jenson Button added: "I think the challenge is more in the heads of the media than the drivers. Sure it is exciting and different but it's just one corner. You won't win a race by only being quick through there."

Ralf's teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, as macho a driver as any on the circuit, shrugs that off.

"I think it's very exciting," he said at the track on Thursday. "It's not an easy corner to do flat. I managed last year I think two laps in the morning before qualifying to do it flat and that was it.

"It's a big challenge. I like it. It's probably one of the most exciting corners there is."