Belgian Grand Prix 

The race on the circuit of Spa Francorchamps was going to take place in June of that year. Zolder was going to be replaced once and for all by the gigantic circuit in the region of Ardennes, Belgium. Spa’s administration completely overhauled the track which pleased everyone, paying special attention to its repaving: they used much rougher asphalt to improve the cars’ grip with full wets.
Unfortunately, the organizers scheduled the construction to start two months before the race when the ideal timeframe would be 12 months. To make matters worse, they had to delay it due to snowstorms. The result was that Spa’s new track was opened only ten days before the first practice session, with no time for the asphalt to set.
During the first free practice session, the extremely rough asphalt resulted in an impressive amount of grip. Case in point: Spa-Francorchamps’ previous quickest lap record was demolished by more than ten seconds, compared with the 1983 Spa Grand Prix (the 1984 race took place in Zolder).
As the qualifying sessions went on, the track started to fall apart. The more the cars used it, the worse things got. So much so that, at night, an army of workers was summoned to patch up the asphalt. However, their efforts seemed to be for nothing.
On Saturday, when the cars started running, things had changed dramatically. The previously “grippy” track had become extremely slippery thanks to the new patches. Drivers had to drop two gears lower than usual on some corners: complete chaos and the race was postponed to September 15th.