Spa-Francorchamps for 3 more years

Since the election of François Hollande on May 6th, the project of alternating the French Grand Prix with the Spa-Francorchamps circuit seemed to have seriously stalled. A few weeks ago, the management of the Belgian track announced that they had put forward a contract proposal to Bernie Ecclestone with a reduced price of 2 million euros. The amount to host the paddock was thus reduced from 17 to 15 million euros, thereby helping to reduce the event’s deficit.

Today, on the sidelines of the British Grand Prix, Gaetan Vigneron, presenter for the Belgian television channel RTBF, announced that the project had been approved by the Walloon government and that Belgium would still be on the Formula 1 World Championship calendar for three more years: 2013, 2014, and 2015.

Belgium, and also Wallonia, will be happy to learn that we have been able to negotiate an extension of the contract, which means for the years 2013, 2014, and 2015. That’s three more years where there will be a Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, declared Jean-Claude Marcourt, Walloon Minister of Economy, on the Belgian public channel’s microphone.

« Recently, Formula 1 drivers ranked their favorite circuits and placed Spa-Francorchamps well at the top. It would therefore have been a shame to lose this circuit, » adds the minister.

News welcomed with joy by Jérôme d’Ambrosio, third Lotus driver and consultant for RTBF, for whom Spa is obviously a special event.

On the side of the French Grand Prix, however, all is not lost since the new Minister of Sports, Valérie Fourneyron, has handed the project over to the head of the FFSA, who now needs to put together a solid case for France’s potential return to the calendar. According to Jean-Louis Moncet, co-presenter of Formula 1 on TF1, finding the French Grand Prix is likely for 2014 and not before, unless a decision is made before September 2012. Fans will therefore need to be a little patient…