'Spa is a crown jewel of F1, it must be kept at all costs'

F1

With new tracks backed by huge sums of money being added to the F1 calendar, Spa must remain at all costs, says Andrew Frankel

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Spa remains an iconic track for F1

Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Author

Andrew Frankel

There is just one circuit on the Formula 1 calendar whose name has become synonymous with the Grand Prix it holds. Sure, to outsiders with a mere passing interest in F1, the next race on the calendar may very well be the Belgian Grand Prix, but to those who genuinely know and care about racing at the top level, it is simply ‘Spa’.

That doesn’t happen anywhere else, not even at Silverstone, Monza or Suzuka. Not even Monaco, for the race there is actually around the streets of Monte Carlo. Spa is also the oldest circuit still in use by Formula 1: older by far than Monaco, and by months than Monza. And yet the race is on the chopping block, the grizzled executioner raising his axe, ready to strike.

“I bet almost every driver in F1 would name Spa among their top three tracks”

It will perhaps not slacken your jaw too much to learn the issue is money, or lack thereof. With China, Las Vegas and, wonderfully, South Africa all slated to return to the as-yet unpublished calendar and Qatar joining it, but the overall number of races rising only by one, something’s got to give. Two things in fact, currently the French and Belgian Grands Prix. Essentially those races are simply not in a position to give F1 the kind of money offered by those returning to or joining the circus for the first time.

Of course in a business as cold-blooded as this, we cannot expect there to be any subjective component to the negotiations. No matter that I bet almost every driver on the grid would name Spa among their top three tracks – Max I know rates it as number one – nor that the fans (remember them?) would likely rank it higher still. There’s a few more mill available elsewhere, so let’s go there instead. Simple as, and sod all those naïve dreamers stupid and sentimental enough to care about where Formula 1 has come from, not just where it’s going. They appear to have mistaken it for a sport with some great historic legacy upon which to draw.

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But actually it’s not just that. I know I’m again making the mistake of thinking Formula 1 is a sport, but the truth is that, with the notable exception of last year’s fiasco, Spa tends to put on a bloody good motor race. There’s the sheer spectacle of a driver trying to take Pouhon flat, there’s the thrill when two cars approach Eau Rouge side by side, there’s the satisfaction in the many and various overtaking manoevres it affords (Mika on Michael in 2000, anyone?) and then there’s circuit itself as it weaves, climbs and plunges its way around the natural contours of the Ardennes.

Nor can I, as one of those romantic fools who had motor-racing heroes before his trousers touched his knees, go to Spa and not think further back into its history. Covid aside, I race there every year. And every year I go out beyond the confines of the current circuit to the roads that made up the evil old Spa – over double the length of what is already the longest circuit used in F1 today – and wonder. I drive slowly down through Burnenville, curse the roundabout that has ruined Malmedy and then onto the endless Masta Straight, with its notorious kink. And I always stop at the exit where for years has stood the Masta Friterie, buy chips, mayonnaise and sit at the outside tables, facing back up the track. Here Pedro and Jo would have skimmed past in their teetering 917s at – what? – 190mph? Then they’d have blasted down the hill towards the banked turn at Stavelot, turning them for home and rocketing back up the track to the place where, then as now, Blanchimont was waiting to host them.

Jo Siffert leads Pedro Rodriguez at the start of the 1970 1000Kms of Spa

Siffert pulls ahead of Rodriguez at Spa in 1970

Bernard Cahier/Getty Images

And I think, in particular, of one lap. It was that which brought pole to Jacky Ickx for the 1973 1000km race, for it was I believe the fastest lap ever completed on that version of the circuit. Almost half a century ago, in a car with a 3-litre naturally aspirated engine, and despite having to decelerate for one of the slowest hairpins in racing, his Ferrari 312PB averaged over 163mph. Averaged. He must have been absolutely on the edge for every inch of its 8.76-mile circumference. How he was able to block out all that could happen here at such speeds and, indeed, all that had happened here, time and again for year after year, confounds my comprehension.

So please, Stefano, don’t take Spa away. Listen to the fans, the people who, ultimately, pay your wages. Lose France if you must – Ricard is a challenging but soulless place these days – but keep Spa. I expect one of the new deals will fail to materialise in time for next year (it would require a major change in policy from Covid-phobic China for a start), so please retain Spa in its place; then cut another race from the 2024 calendar from a country whose contract is up for renewal and which is not steeped in racing heritage. Baku springs to mind. And then make Spa a permanent fixture.

For me, Spa is one of the crown jewels of motor racing, up there with Le Mans and the Brickyard, and the only one currently still in use at the top level of our sport. Love watching cars threading the needle at Monaco though I do, as a circuit it’s not even close. Keep Spa and you keep the best loved circuit on the calendar, the oldest and the most challenging too. Surely in PR terms alone, as a move to show that beneath all those sharp suits real hearts beat in the chests of people who share our passion for the sport – that word again – it would have a value all by itself? Lose Spa and, let’s face it, it’s not coming back, so it stays lost and all of us, including even F1 in the longer term, will be poorer as a result.

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