In 1919, the Eupen-Malmedy region was separated from Germany and transferred to Belgium following the Treaty of Versailles. Jules de Thier, owner of the Liège newspaper La Meuse, identified the roads between Spa-Francorchamps, the former German town of Malmedy, and Stavelot as forming a natural triangle-shaped circuit. Following a meeting at the Hotel des Bruyères in Francorchamps with local burgomaster Joseph de Crawhez and racing driver Henri Langlois van Ophem, the course was established. The Eau Rouge creek had served as the Belgian-German border until 1920, adding historical resonance to the layout's geography.
An inaugural race planned for August 1921 was cancelled when only one driver entered. The first car race was held in 1922, and 1924 saw the first 24 Hours of Francorchamps. The circuit first hosted Grand Prix racing in 1925.
The old Spa-Francorchamps ran through a triangle of public roads in the Ardennes forests, passing through the villages of Francorchamps, Malmedy, and Stavelot. Its most defining characteristic was relentless speed: most corners were taken at over 290 km/h (180 mph), and in the final configuration, drivers averaged around 240 km/h (150 mph) for a lap lasting approximately three to four minutes. Every fraction of the throttle mattered enormously — a slight lift could cost whole seconds rather than tenths.
The circuit's key sections included:
Masta Kink: Described by Jackie Stewart as "by far the most difficult corner in the world," the Masta Kink was a high-speed left-right chicane positioned between two straights of approximately 1.5 mi (2.4 km) each. Speeds through this section could reach 298 km/h (185 mph). Stewart's own crash at Masta during the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix — when his BRM ended upside down in a ditch beside a farmhouse, with fuel pouring over him as he sat with broken ribs — became a defining moment in his campaign to improve safety in motorsport. Masta was removed from the Formula 1 calendar after 1970.
Eau Rouge and the Raidillon: The Eau Rouge crossing and the steep Raidillon corner climbing out of the valley was in existence by 1939, when the original hairpin at the Ancienne Douane was replaced with a faster uphill sweep. This corner survived the 1979 redesign and remains the most celebrated element of the modern circuit.
Kemmel Straight and Les Combes: A long high-speed section connecting Eau Rouge with the Malmedy part of the circuit; the Kemmel curves were straightened as part of the 1979 redesign.
Roads in the village of Stavelot contained a sharp hairpin that was later bypassed by a quicker banked corner in an earlier modification to the layout.
Houses, trees, electric poles, and other ordinary road-side obstacles lined the circuit with essentially no buffer. Before 1970, no safety modifications of any kind were made, and conditions were virtually identical to everyday civilian use. Former Formula 1 driver and team owner Jackie Oliver noted that "if you went off the road, you didn't know what you were going to hit."
The circuit became notorious for fatal accidents at a rate comparable to the Le Mans road circuit. At the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix alone, two drivers — Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey — were killed within 15 minutes of each other, and Stirling Moss was severely injured in practice. There were ten car racing fatalities in total during the 1960s.
In 1969, Formula 1 drivers boycotted the Belgian Grand Prix entirely due to the extreme danger. Armco barriers were installed before the 1970 race, and improvements made to the Stavelot and Hollowell sections, along with a temporary chicane at Malmedy for that year's event. Even with these modifications and the chicane, drivers averaged over 240 km/h during the race. For the 1971 race, insufficient updates meant Formula 1 did not return to the track at all. Formula 1 would not race at Spa again until 1983, on the entirely new short circuit.
Multiple fatalities during the 1973 and 1975 24 Hours of Spa touring car races effectively sealed the old circuit's fate. By 1978, the final year the old layout was used, only the Belgian motorcycle Grand Prix and the Spa 24 Hours touring car race remained on the calendar.
During the 1972 24-hour touring car race, while Hans-Joachim Stuck was in the pits, he shouted to co-driver Jochen Mass over the engine noise to "look out for body parts at the Masta Kink." Mass arrived at the section expecting scattered car debris and instead found the remains of marshal Léon Grisard, who had been struck by Walter Brun while inspecting the track.
Eighteen Formula 1 World Championship Grands Prix were held on the original circuit configuration before it was abandoned. The official lap record of the old 14.100 km layout stands at 3 minutes 13.4 seconds, set by Henri Pescarolo in a Matra at the 1973 Spa 1000 km World Sportscar Championship race, at an average speed of 262 km/h (163 mph). The fastest time ever recorded on the old circuit was a pole position lap of 3 minutes 12.7 seconds, set by Jacky Ickx in a Ferrari 312PB at that same event.
The circuit was shortened from 14.100 km to 6.947 km in 1979, using only a portion of the public road network and adding newly constructed permanent sections. The start/finish line was moved in 1981 to the straight before the La Source hairpin. The new layout retained Eau Rouge/Raidillon and Blanchimont but removed the Masta Kink, most of the Malmedy section, and the Stavelot village passage.