The Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, who organise the Grand Prix on the hilly and wooded Spa-Francorchamps circuit, invariably prefer a small entry of top drivers to a large entry of assorted talent, and this year was no exception. Of the 15 entries only two were private owners, the rest being factory runners, while unlike many meetings race day was confined solely to the Belgian Grand Prix, which counted points for the World Championship.
Since last year some improvements had been made to the circuit, notably the complete resurfacing of the long, and previously bumpy, Stavelot curve, the wide tarmac road having a 12-in, edging of concrete flush with the road circuit. Thursday evening saw the first practice period take place and Mercédès-Benz and Ferrari were out in full force, the Stuttgart firm having three different cars, while the Italians had three Tipo 555 cars and one spare car of the older type, the 625 model.
The Mercédès-Benz team consisted of a medium-length wheelbase car, with outboard front brakes, to be driven by Fangio, a similar length car with inboard brakes, for Moss, and a long-chassis car as the training-car which Kling, Uhlenhaut and the other two drivers all shared.
