Lee McKenzie: The magic of Spa

After a three week break in Formula 1 world, nobody minds getting back to work when we have Spa to look forward to. Some tracks might leave you longing for another few days off, but the trip to the wet and cold corner of Belgium seems to unite everyone as people return to work with smiles on their faces.

My first trip to Belgium came in 1998 when my now colleague David Coulthard triggered the massive crash on the opening lap and then found himself in Michael Schumacher's bad books after they collided at mid-distance.

Spa is a true legend of motorsport © sutton-images.com

Schumacher stormed along the pitlane to find him, a move which he told me last Sunday in a BBC TV interview, was the single thing he regretted most from his career.

From that point on I became, if not addicted, then amazed by this iconic circuit and I have been going back there ever since.

It's not glamorous, but then it doesn't need to try hard. It's just there, nestled somewhere between the hills and clouds, basking in glorious sunshine one minute and in danger of being washed away the next. But nobody cares because that's Spa and that's exactly what the fans come. It's that quality of the unknown that makes qualifying and racing in any category of motorsport there so enthralling.

Spa, like Monaco, brings out high emotions in the drivers and can poke fun at the best teams and strategists. Qualifying was the scene of an unusual amount of mistakes and drama - even by the standards of F1 2011; Schumacher's wheel coming off before he had even set a time, Force India calling in Paul di Resta and telling him he was safely through to Q2, only for Heikki Kovalainen to bump him out, Jenson Button and McLaren getting their timings wrong and failing to make Q3 and then Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado trading paint and chassis parts - Q3 hadn't event started yet!

What Spa does though, is reward those who rise to its challenge. Schumacher's drive from 24th to fifth was fearless and committed and showed how he has learned to tame this track and gain its respect over the years.

Seeing Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso charging into Eau Rouge side-by-side was a real highlight for me; the fine line between madness and greatness evident. As Webber said, there are not many drivers you would enter into that move with. If the Maldonado v Hamilton battle was one that F1 should be ashamed of - as many people claimed - then Webber v Alonso should be shown to prospective racing drivers and children all over the world.

Webber v Alonso thrilled McKenzie © sutton-images.com

Spa makes the pulse quicken, it entertains and is packed with fans. You queue to get into the track and to leave the track (which doesn't happen that often in F1 any more). To hear discussions about not bringing F1 to this track every year really angers me. What more must a place do to prove itself? If safety was an issue, I would completely understand; that must never be compromised or taken lightly.

This F1 season has been an exciting, if perilous one for a pitlane reporter. Clothes and shoes have succumbed to the elements in what has been a pretty rainy season; pneumonia and trench foot have both been narrowly avoided! But as I packed my wellies, raincoat (well, two of them actually) and umbrella I was delighted. Spa was just days away and I was going to get drenched and I didn't care.

Now we've got to wait a full year for F1 to get back there, but if you are starved of Eau Rouge, Pouhon and other such delights then there are plenty of other motorsport series that go there. I just call it 'research'.