Spa, three-year agreement with Ecclestone

Spa-Francorchamps is destined to remain on the F1 calendar for the next three seasons: an "agreement in principle" has in fact been reached between the government of Wallonia, where the circuit is located, and Bernie Ecclestone.

If the issue with the Singapore GP, despite the reassurances of the patron of F1, is still in doubt, the Belgian GP seems safe: despite the economic problems for a large part of Europe, the requests of the organizers and of enthusiasts, who consider the Spa track to be the most beautiful in the World Championship.
In recent months there had been talk of a possible alternation with the French GP, to be organized on the Paul Ricard track in Le Castellet, in Provence, but the change at the top in the French government led to the abandonment of this project by the French and Spa are going ahead on their own in negotiations with Ecclestone.

Walloon Economy Minister Jean-Claude Marcourt revealed that Spa had reached a preliminary agreement to continue hosting the Grand Prix for a further three years until 2015. “We were able to negotiate a contract extension for the years 2013, 2014 and 2015, in which the Belgian Grand Prix will be held at Spa Francorchamps in Wallonia”, Marcourt told public broadcaster RTBF. “What we wanted to do was to reduce the size of the spending budget for the Walloon region and I would say we accomplished that mission. There was no reason why we could continue to lose money as we have in the past. Of course, there is still an outlay of money, but it is less than in the past. What we are doing is to strengthen the attractiveness of Belgium”, concluded the Walloon minister.

Lorena Bianchi