Nervous Spa waits for new multi-year F1 contract

With Imola securing a new Formula 1 race deal through 2025, Belgium’s fabled Spa-Francorchamps is hoping for a similar breakthrough.

2022 is the popular circuit’s last year in the current contract, but key organiser Vanessa Maes - in Bahrain for a promoter’s meeting with F1 authorities - is hopeful of an extension.

"It’s good and necessary to get together like this to discuss what works, what doesn’t, get some feedback," she told the Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

As the world starts to put covid into history, Formula 1’s popularity is also on the rise due to the new 2022 regulations and the ultra-intense title battle of last year.

"For us, sales are going very well," agrees Maes. "In a fortnight we should be able to close the ticket office, because we will have reached our authorised quota of 100,000 spectators per day.

"We are happy that the fans are still so loyal despite what we suffered last year," she added.

The nervous wait to secure historic Spa’s place on the 2023 calendar and beyond, however, begins now.

"Then there’s all the work we have done this winter for safety but also the addition of gravel traps to regain a somewhat ’old school’ style," said Maes.

"We are really looking to the future and all these elements put together make me think that we have every chance of extending.

"We are in negotiations and I firmly believe that we will sign a new contract for several years."