The Grand Prix in Bahrain is over and while the troubles will no doubt continue, and I will keep an eye on them as I have for the last 15 months, it is time for F1 to move on. All we can do is to hope that things will improve and that the Grand Prix – or indeed any Grand Prix – will not be held in such conditions again. It is not for the sport to be involved in the politics of a nation. We were last weekend and I am not sure what good came of it. We went to Bahrain because the race was there, even if we did not think it was a good idea to go, and if some of us managed to provide a more balanced picture to the world, then that is something positive. It is not much, but at least we went away feeling that we had done something of value and were not just being used as propaganda tools by both sides… It was an experience but if we wanted to be political reporters we would have chosen that path. Just because we are sports reporters does not mean we are incapable of understanding such things, we have simply chosen to do what we want to do.
In the F1 world, the Bahrain situation drowned out all other stories. The most important story for F1 was that Bernie Ecclestone announced that the French Grand Prix will be back on the calendar in 2013. It will be alternating with another race, but as far as I can understand it is not yet decided which race that will be. The original plan was for it to be Belgium, but there seem to be other problems going on there and the latest suggest I have heard is that it could be with one of the Spanish races. If that is the case Belgium will probably disappear completely, which would be a shame. The local politicians in Wallonia need to get themselves sorted out quickly if they want to have a guaranteed future for the race at Spa.
The deal for the French GP was done at a meeting in London on the Tuesday before Bahrain between Ecclestone and France’s Sports Minister, David Douillet. The plan is for the race to be held in late August/Early September, and I believe that it is a 10-year deal, with France getting 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021. Thus the races on that date in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 are available and will go to the first bidder with the right package.
The race will be at Paul Ricard.
The most exciting thing about this story was that it was done against the background of a fast-approaching election. It was essential for the current government to get a deal in place before the election is finished as no new government is likely to address the question of F1 racing in the short, or even medium term. The current deal involves no government money but the work done by Prime Minister François Fillon’s staff has been essential in getting the deal done.
The first round of the voting took place on Sunday and the result was that François Hollande of the Parti Socialiste won 28.63 percent of the votes (10.2 million), while President Nicolas Sarkozy of the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) polled 27.18 percent (9.7 million). These two will now go on to the second round of voting in a fortnight.
In the next two weeks the supporters of Marine Le Pen (Front National), who scored 17.9 percent (6.4 million), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Front De Gauche) who polled 11.1 percent (3.9 million) and François Bayrou (Mouvement Démocrate) who scored 9.1 percent (3.2 million) will have to decide whether to vote for Hollande or Sarkozy.
This means that the election could still go either way.
joeblogsf1 
So. It’s as blatant as the French Grand Prix being awarded, every other year, late August / early September, i.e. Spa’s date on the calendar in recent decades**, and as soon as 2013.
Joe, please remind us, when does Spa’s (or is it technically Belgium’s?) current contract run out?
And you might have said as much above but I’ve missed it: is it your best understanding that Spa will retain it’s slot every other year; lose it’s place on the calendar outright; or is it too murky to call just either way as yet?
[** admittedly, unlike the rest of the classics, the Belgian GP has not had a regular-ish date slot, as before 1988 it used to dance around in May /early June — avoiding the post-Ascension Day weekend that the Monaco GP used to tie itself to — and before 1973 was a June fixture. Could it not reappear in a similar slot if the Spanish GP becomes the partner to the French GP, or is that out of the question?]
The Spa contract ends this year. My understanding is that Spa will not get a new deal unless it agrees to alternate with France, or comes up with the cash to keep a race of its own.
Sadly the Belgian government is going through a big cost-saving operation right now and finding the money for a new deal with Bernie after the contract runs out may not be simple. I’d hate to see Spa disappear though, that is a good track.
It’s not even because I am from Belgium originally, it’s just because Spa is a good classic track.
It should be on the calendar.
Sadly, having a good track is not part of the discussion when it comes to deciding on venues these days.
Perhaps the future lies in building copies of Spas in countries that can afford to pay for races, just as Olympic cities build new facilities in order to secure their selection…
F1 without Spa is like tennis without Wimbledon. Eclestone should keep that in mind. It is one of the classic’s and a worldchampionship without the classic’s is futile.
1. Thanks Joe, always seem to learn a few things from each of your posts.
2. RE: Bahrain, The real shame about the political shambles and media coverage of the event is that it was a great race which did its part in making the 2012 season a cracker. 4 races – 4 race winners, many still in the hunt.
3. It would be absolutely tragic to lose SPA, so few circuits left on the calendar with that sort of of character and history.
Wasn’t there some talk of Lopez (or was it Lux?) of Genii buying Spa to save the GP?
Wouldn’t he be saving his pennies to buy out Lotus?
With Bernie wanting (probably rightly) to continually expand F1, but there being a natural limit on the number of races, it seems to me that alternating races is a good solution. What is so wrong with having a pot of 5-10 races that are held every year and the rest which cycle with others on a 2-5 year basis.
If you said that the “every year” races were the most prestigious (Britain, Monaco, Italy) and the most lucrative (Singapore, USA, Abu Dhabi) and then alternated everything else, we could have back grands prix in Portugal, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina and still expand F1.
I guess that would lead to arguments over what cycle your races is put on then….
Problem with having half races is you can’t race on half a circuit.
Horrible idea for two reasons.
1) You most likely wouldn’t get that combo. It would Monaco, another old race or two and whoever pays the most so you’d end up with Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Russia and China every year while Britain, Italy, Australia etc would end up every 2nd year
2) Define the fist class of events? The Concorde agreement aparently does and requires a certain number to be in the calender each year but has been changed to include Abu Dhabi or something similiar of the sort.
You say Britain and for sure that is a big one with most of the teams based there (HRT, Ferrari, Toro Rosso and Sauber being the exceptions) so they should keep it.
Monaco has history too!
Germany seems like a must doesn’t it!
Australia has had a GP for many decade and has been every year since 1985! It is also one of the best attended races on the calender!
Japan has history and the car industry so it needs a full time slot
Russia is massive and a GP there would have and effect on more people than in France only a few miles away from Monaco
Spain deserves one with its history and with Alonso it is popular. Spaniards flocked to watch testing even!
Singapore is lucrative and a centre for success with F1 in Asia. It would be stupid to through it away as it’s a model for GP’s to look to when setting up theres.
Malaysia has a team currently AND also there are a ocuple of drivers coming through who combined with a GP would grow support. A weaker argument however still a good reason
Italy. I need to say no more about this one.
Spa. One of the best tracks for fans and drivers. And complete with history!
And I’m sure I’ve missed even more!
Some people will go away anoyed and most wont be happy.
The USA is not, or will not be a lucrative race.
There has been a proposal for some years to alternate regional races.
F1 is to difficult for thr USA, they have to see cars drive in circles and it will flop.
Er, last time we had one in the US at Indy we had record crowds for an F1 event? Austin will be a chance to establish F1 at a proper circuit and the region is accessible from lots of places and – trust me on this – there are lots worse places to be in November and the town itself is party central.
NASCAR has over-reached itself TV-wise and sadly the spectacle that it once was is passe and boring.
I think that’s a good idea but you’d need to alternate the right races for it to work. No point doing it if the best races get left off every other year.
Personally if something like this happened then the classic events get given a sort of ‘heritage status’, say the traditional European events (Britain, Monza, Spa, Monaco, Germany, France, Spain) and the popular non-European races (Suzuka, Australia, Brazil, Canada and USA) which means that they have to be run every year (unless of course those countries choose not to run it) and then the rest alternate between the 8-9 spots that are left.
It would be a tragedy were Spa to be discontinued. Doubly so since I’ll miss Spa AND Monza this year due to prior commitments. They can can Valencia with my blessing, though. A year or two ago the TV spoke of a hundred thousand spectators but to me the stands looked like Boothferry Park circa 1980.
if spa is relegated to once every 2 years F1 will be much worse off for it, We need the classics, we do NOT need Bahrain and these other new tracks in the middle of god knows where
I agree
Joe – since Bernie Eccelstone has proposed the idea of “majors” in F1, I assumed that the four majors would be Monaco, Silverstone, Spa and Monza. Based on your article Spa could be history. shame if true, but which race would be the fourth major?
I’m not even sure about silverstone anymore – new deal in place and agreed or not.
Not only Belgian politicians need to sort themselves out, but F1 as well. Bernie needs to stop his display of sycophancy to oppressive Bahraini princes and listen to the fans for a change, because without fans F1 has no future. I’ve never missed a race for almost 20 years, but on the day the best track in F1 is left out because of greed and politics I will stop watching. And from talks with friends and F1 forums I know for a fact that I’m not the only for whom Red Water is the red line(sorry couldn’t resist).
I so hope Spa can sort things out so they can have a yearly race. Man!
Losing Spa would be much worse than a shame — it would confirm that there is no limit to how much BCE and CVC are willing to degrade/dumb down their product in the pursuit of short-term gain. I can only make time to watch a few races a year (Spa, Monaco, Montreal, Suzuka, Brazil), and it would be one fewer without Spa. Sponsors and investors take note…
Totally agree. From a racing point of view Ecclestone’s legacy to the sport is going to be huge long term damage. Surely by now he’s got enough money and could just move on. How he managed to hijack our sport for his monetary gain (and with the aid of the ruling body) just defies belief.
Remember that these days Bernie really works for others. His personal share of the take is quite small.
If you ride the tour de France you do the Alpes, if you have an F1 worldchampionschip you do Spa. Both difficult, dangerous and exiting, but so important to the endresult. You can’t play a footballgame by sitting it out wen it rains or wen there is no catering for the crowd’s. You can’t fight a judo-fight without smacking on the floor sometimes.
Sadly the days of F1 being a European sport for enthusiasts are long gone. Who cares about the driving challenge provided by the circuit or the provenance of the venue if there’s money to be made from countries where F1 has the same fanbase as international tiddlywinks? Bernie, as has been proved by his workrate at the age of 82, obviously cares little about hpw many years something’s been around: it’s how many years it’s got ahead of it that matters in business.
I am just glad i had the honour of attending the race in person.
Isn’t Bernie Eclestone the promoter for Spa, and doesn’t he own the circuit?
Seems slightly odd he’s shooting his own race in the foot
No, the cirtcuit is owned by the locals and promoted by them
He own’s “Hotel de la Sourse” but that’s only little money for Bernie.
Joe, your comment that losing the Belgian Grand Prix “would be a shame” is the understatement of the year. My solution — hold the Grand Prix of Bahrain at Spa. Everyone would be happy.
Here’s an idea a little bit out of leftfield: Award GPs to the countries having the top finishing teams (based on the country of registration), and then drivers, in the previous year’s championship. Plus Monaco as a special case. (actually it would have to be the year before that, to get the calendar sorted in time). So the 2013 calendar (based on 2011) would contain these races (but not necessarily in this order):
Monaco (Special Case)
Austria (Red Bull)
Britain (McLaren)
Italy (Ferrari)
Germany (Mercedes)
India (Force India)
Switzerland (Sauber)
Malaysia (Lotus aka Caterham)
Spain (HRT)
Russia (Virgin aka Marussia)
Australia (Webber)
Brazil (Massa)
Japan (Kobayashi)
Mexico (Perez)
Venezuela (Maldonado)
Finland (Kovalainen)
Belgium (d’Ambrosio)
That gives 17 races – the remaining 3 slots could be then be auctioned off to the highest bidded (eg Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, China, USA etc) and/or countries which didn’t want or couldn’t host a GP (eg Switzerland , Venezuela, Finland) could sell their slot back to the FIA/FOM to go into the auction pot.
This would mean that GPs were being held mainly in countries where there are actually fans, and would encourage countries that want a GP to enter (or buy) a team, or nuture young driving talent.
Joe – feel free to give Bernie my e-mail address if he wants to discuss my proposal! 😉
This would of course make D’Ambrosio everyone’s favourite driver!
What about Montreal?
That would need Jacques Villeneuve to buy a team, or Robert Wickens to get a drive
Heh indeed 🙂
Do note that putting Switzerland in that list is a no-no. Any form of car racing is forbidden in Switzerland and has been so since the 50s when that big accident happened at Le Mans.
The ban on motor racing in Switzerland was lifted in 2007; however there is simply no drive to hold major motorsport events in the country now.
They could always hold it at Dijon like in ’82
And keep it at one boring Thilke circuit a year, to sterile.
So…Bernie made a deal with himself?
He must have done this for the French race at Paul Ricard – I think he owns this circuit, or his arms length family trust does.
In my opinion Spa is one of the best races of the circuit. There is such a great history there that it would be sad to see it removed.
Well said, Joe
You go to 19 other races where there is no intense political debate and controversy intertwining the race directly with the country as in Bahrain. I’ll bet you are looking forward to a normal Grand Prix weekend in Spain.
The loss of Spa would be very, very bad for Formula 1. A great shame that would only serve to reduce the charismatic value of the sport, but since when has F1 cared about good taste?
I might be showing my age here but it’s not that long ago (2006?) that Italy had two GP per year – sort of (San Marino anyone?) The same arguments were put forward about the history, etc. and that seems to have disappeared so well it doesn’t even make it into the list of ‘historic’ tracks discussed here …
There is, I believe, an allowance for some countries to have more than one race.
Do these alternating deals make financial sense? The Japanese one didn’t last long, the Spanish sharing deal clearly isn’t done yet (I assumed it was) and how are the two German circuits getting on? Struggling, the last I heard.
The British GP sharing deal was before my time, but Brands Hatch did get a couple of extra GPs in “Silverstone” years. Would Ricard and Spa become first reserve in their years off?
It’s a matter of organisation I suppose. The whole alternating races thing seems to work well for WRC, where even the biggest classic is bi-yearly now.
BUT many of these races are still run every year, with a number of them counting for IRC on the off-years. There is no such alternative championship for F1 however.
In my opinion though, F1 should be having some preference for some of the “classic” tracks. I mean I love having a race 20 minutes away by metro here in Singapore, but if I had to choose between having Spa or Spore on the calendar? THAT should be an obvious one.
“It’s a matter of organisation I suppose. The whole alternating races thing seems to work well for WRC, where even the biggest classic is bi-yearly now.”
I couldn’t disagree more. The WRC is an utter shambles with next to no crowds, barely a TV deal in sight and a very, very blank future.
The alternation of its main events has only served to whittle away the support they receive to the point where they almost resemble club events — and this is coming from a WRC fan !!
Spa solution: sell naming rights to the world championship to a big bucks sponsor and consider the cash as income in lieu of the standard race fee that you’d get from a dictatorship if you had that race somewhere else. Spa becomes a loss leader but with no overall reduction in income for the year. It’s the best racing track in the world, and you’d be crazy to strip it from the calendar.
Presumably though naming rights to the championship is the one thing Max wasn’t allowed to sell to BCE for peanuts? Otherwise he’d sell that and still kibosh Spa in favour of a dictator-race…
Dig up eau rouge and a couple of the other classic corners from Spa and transplant them to another country. There is historical precedent the Chinese did this with the Rover factory, and before that there was London Bridge.
Well apart from who owns what circuit and what dates they can have if they can afford it, does it not strike anyone as totally incongruous that immediately after Bahrain, where F1 was shamefully in politics up to it’s neck, that most of the discussions that Joe mentions above, are absolutely dependant upon politics or political support?
Bernie has apparently done a deal with M. David Douillet but he may not be in office for very long and if his successor is of the opposite political persuasion (again with the influence of the new PM) then the deal could be worthless, so lets not get too excited.
Bernie has obviously announced the French GP “nearly deal” (“As soon as France is ready, we will sign.”) in order to get focus away from Bahrain as quickly as possible, so expect more diversionary revelations from him shortly.
Has Bahar claimed credit for the excellent Lotus performance in Bahrain yet?
(It was very good, M. Boullier must be well chuffed).
No, the deal is not related to this specific government and so should stand up on its own.
Does Bernie still own the Paul ricard circuit
No-one knows
My tickets to this year’s Spa GP arrived today. Mega excited, but tinged with a little disappointment that it could be the last time we go.
Spa is a magnificent race, and should be retained for historical reasons – if not for financial. Hermann Tilke may be a great designer, but if the traditional flavour of F1 is entirely lost we’ll all rue the day.
A season without drivers tackling La Source, Eau Rouge/Raidillon, Blanchimont, and the Bus Stop would be terribly sad. 😦
Have to say that if a race like Spa gets dropped for any reason, it just proves how lost & confused Bernie & co have become. F1 is obsessed by new money History,Sport & Fans mean very little to them now! It’s all about greed!
I love the Belgian gp, it is such an exceptional race, full of history and rich in spirit. From the new F1 tracks we can discern two things:
1.) Herman Tilke can’t design good race tracks and he shouldn’t have ever been re-employed.
2.) You can not export a culture for motor sport with a brand new ‘state of the art’ track.
I have no problem with expanding the F1 field across the globe, to truly make it a WORLD championship, but what Bernie has increasingly and is still doing, is making it the Asian championship. Outside of Japan and India, I consider all the other races, not necessarily awful, but certainly no where near as good as the European races, which undermines the key challenge of the sport. At first Bernie’s culls of European GPs were arguably necessary, one country should not have two grand prix, and for the record, Monaco might as well be French as it is a principality of France, so I don’t think France should have a GP whilst there’s still one in Monaco. However, increasingly from my perspective, Bernie appears to be on a personal crusade against the European races, saying things like “Europe is finished…it will only have 5 or 6 races in the future”.
For the life of me, I can not see the merit in this argument, the key audience for F1 lies in Europe, and as a result I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that therefore the majority of races should be held there. Nevertheless, Europe does not need to be canceled in order for the emerging markets of the world to be given a chance at a race. I am a big fan of the Hungarian GP and fear its loss, which will inevitably happen once its contract expires in 2018 (?). But what is the problem with having 8 European races, that is completely satisfactory to the key F1 demographic (Europe) whilst allowing room for expansion (up to 12) in the rest of the world?
In addition to this, I must point out that Bernie’s arguments for expansion and cancellation are completely inconsistant. He uses economic arguments to suggest why Europe may lose GPs, yet cancels races in Turkey and (probably come next year) South Korea, both of which are part of the N-11 states, or next 11 states, after the BRICS, to ’emerge’, according to Goldman Sachs.
Therefore, it must be noted that F1 is on a doomed trajectory if it continues as it is. The key viewer demongraphic is in Europe, and so they must be afforded a legitimate amount of races and prospects to reflect this status. But more than that, it is also a quality issue. Races such as Silverstone were never built up, they were developed and designed over decades, its crazy to think so many old tracks evolved from WW2 landing platforns, which makes them the races they are today. We can not destroy or neglect them or else we will be left with a snoozefest calander of the Abu Dhabi’s and Singapore’s of this world…
Watching F1 cars tackle Spa is one of the seasons highlights. The loss of Spa would be a massive blow to F1 and just looking at the opinions expressed here says I’m not alone in thinking this. Change is good but I wish we could lose some of the dull circuits instead of the good ones.
Monaco, Estoril, Silverstone, Hockenheim, Suzuka, Interlagos, Spa, Monza, Canada and Australia are the Grand Slam circuit’s. F1 can’t do without them. They are the salt and the pepper of F1 let alone the History.
F1 needs to safeguard the historic race tracks and countries that have supported F1 through thick and thin, they are the heart and soul of Formula 1.
First step in building the calendar should be to add Albert Park, Spa-Francorchamps, Monza, Silverstone, Monaco, Montreal, Barcelona, Nurburgring, Singapore, Hungaroring, Suzuka and Interlagos.
Next you to put in the interesting newer tracks of India, China and Malaysia. That would leave 5 spaces left on a 20 race calendar.
Add France, Abu Dhabi, USA, Argentina and Russia and you have what I believe to be a perfect F1 season.
Someone should sell the circuit to the Bahrainis. That way they would have a back up for next year 🙂
On a serious note, the only way for Spa to be saved is do what people have done as part of the “Save the Ring” campaign. The true F1 supporters should lobby Mr E to keep the circuit. Perhaps the best way is to siphon some “heritage” EU funding or to get Lord March to replicate Goodwood there.