The second race meeting of the season takes the young drivers competing in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 to a true monument of motorsport, namely the circuit of Spa-Francorchamps with its legendary Eau Rouge/Raidillon combination.
Carlos Sainz Junior (Koiranen Motorsport) and Will Stevens (Fortec Motorsport) opened the list of this year's winners in Spain. Competing on his home soil, Stoffel Vandoorne (KTR) will be proudly displaying the Belgian flag and the colours of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium on his car, and is dreaming of glory.
The young guns of Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 will be installed in the endurance paddock, at the foot of the Raidillon, as soon as they arrive at the Belgian circuit, so they'll be ideally located to observe one of the main difficulties of the Spa-Francorchamps track.
Winning at Spa is never a matter of chance and with some forty cars on the start grid we'll indubitably be in for two spectacular races, as were the first two rounds of the year at Motorland Aragón.
Carlos Sainz, Jr., with one win and one second place, is already looking a serious contender. At just 16 years of age, the Spaniard has already shown great maturity and is sustaining the high level of performance he displayed this winter. El Matador Junior, as Spanish fans have started to nickname him, has produced a near perfect start to the season.
Under the spotlight now, he'll have to learn to manage the pressure of being a favourite. More than at other circuits, experience is a huge asset at Spa, so drivers who have already tasted victory here will necessarily be in a good position, Will Stevens and Robin Frijns (Josef Kaufman Racing) being cases in point. Both drivers have already driven to victory here behind the wheel of a Formula Renault 2.0 last season in the Formula Renault 2.0 North European Cup.
Dutch driver Robin Frijns has actually taken two wins in 2010 on the Belgian circuit, counting a Formula BMW Europe win at Spa among his achievements, as does Javier Tarancon (Tech 1 Racing). Another winner at Spa last season was Stoffel Vandoorne in F4 Eurocup 1.6. The young Belgian driver, wearing the colours of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, knows how important it is to have a whole country urging you to win.
Around 70,000 people are expected to flock to the Spa circuit for the May 1st weekend, and every last man, woman and child will be hoping to see Stoffel Vandoorne shine on Belgian soil. Very much on the pace during the various winter test sessions, the KTR driver had an off-weekend at Motorland Aragón. Back on form during the collective testing at Navarra, Stoffel Vandoorne arrives brimming with confidence on a circuit he knows like the back of his hand.
Drivers who were already competing in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 last season will also have a big advantage, because unlike for the opening round of the season, no collective testing sessions were held at Spa-Francorchamps this winter. Spaniard Alex Riberas (Epic Racing), on the podium at Motorland Aragón, and also Miki Weckstrom (Tech 1 Racing), Carl Oscar Liiv (MP Motorsport) and Henrique Martins (Cram Competition) will all have a good chance to shine.
Let's not forget Timmy Hansen (Interwetten.com), the son of Kenneth Hansen, fourteen times European Rallycross Champion, or Mathieu Jaminet (Josef Kaufman Racing), Daniil Kvyat (Koiranen Motorsport) and Oscar Andrés Tunjo (Josef Kaufmann Racing), who have all got off to promising starts in the discipline. The fight for victory will be fierce, as always in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0.
