Start, Spa, 2017

Spa extends F1 race deal to 2021

2019 F1 season

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Spa-Francorchamps will appear on the 2019 F1 calendar after agreeing a new three-year deal.

According to BELGA press agency the Walloon Economics Minister Pierre-Yves Jeholet on Friday signed a contract with Liberty Media that secures the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps until 2021.

The current contract expires after this race, scheduled for 26 August.

Although Jeholet described the contract as ‘a good agreement, he urged the organisers to trim costs.

The Belgian Grand Prix is one of three contracts to expire this year – the others being Japan and Germany.

18 comments on “Spa extends F1 race deal to 2021”

  1. One down, two to go. Let’s secure Suzuka in particular, and that’ll be a big sigh of relief for many of us.

    1. I want Suzuka to stay, but I’m not totally opposed to switching it for Fuji. That’s a great flowing circuit and wide too. It’s a beauty: Hamilton onboard Fuji. Suzuka can produce processional racing.

      1. @jeffreyj – that would work for me as well, if Toyota is willing. I date my relative newness to F1 by saying that I’ve only seen the last one or two races held there.

        1. @phylyp, given that, before the 2007 race, Fuji had last been used 41 years ago in 1977, you’d probably have to be close to 50 to have watched Fuji’s previous stint on the F1 calendar.

      2. Michael Brown (@)
        16th June 2018, 17:32

        @jeffreyj There should be two F1 races in Japan. If there’s a country the deserves two races, it’s Japan, and they have Fuji and Suzuka to do it.

  2. Yay, a very solid reason to open up a bottle of Belgian trappist beer today!

      1. I take the “+1” to mean one MORE reason to open a bottle! :-)

    1. @huhhii – done! Cheers!

  3. “Good Agreement” = hosting fees cut?

    1. Good question. This has important implications for new negotiations with Monza (not opposed to switching to Imola) Germany (hope it will be alternating between Hockenheim and Nurburg) and Silverstone (Please God, no crappy street circuit in London!!!)

    2. Or maybe they were happy to just agree on the same amount but without huge yearly increases @jeffreyj, @stefanauss

  4. Spa used to have a non-compete clause for the BENELUX in it’s old deal, meaning no F1 GP’s may be organized in the Netherlands or Luxembourg (where there is no track that I know of anyway). With 60.000+ Dutch buying tickets every year I can understand why.

    With two Dutch tracks interested in organizing a GP (Zandvoort and TT Assen) and, unfortunately, Liberty saying last year they fancy a street race in Amsterdam or Rotterdam, I wonder if they still have such a clause in this new deal.

    1. Amsterdam street circuit not possible due to ancient waterways (grachten) Rotterdam could host a GP City is redesigned after WWII. I think i could layout a nice track.

      1. @macleod Not a fan of street tracks personally, so I’d rather not add either city to that list. Those tracks rarely have challenging corners and need either rain, safety cars/crashes or both to be interesting.

        With new street tracks coming in Miami and Hanoi and talks of possible additions like Copenhagen, Las Vegas, Berlin and London I have to fear for the worst.

  5. Best news of the day so far

  6. Good news. Now secure Suzuka for beyond this season as well.

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