It will be necessary to hope at least until the 2007 to return to live the drawn up one on Spa. Any hope of which the Great Prize of Belgium was reinstated in the calendar of Formula 1 2003 went by the hut with a vote of the government Belgian ratifying the sweeping censorship without-exceptions of tobacco that will enter August of the next year in force.

Spa and its unique geography

The censorship had been approved provisionally in this year, but another voting was requested after the civil servants of the government realized impact that he would have on important events, no more than the Great Prize of Belgium, that is carried out in the great track of Spa-Francorchamps.
The Commission of F1 considered at the end of October that the race left the calendar because the equipment endorsed by tobacco companies, McLaren with West, Ferrari with Marlboro, BAR with Lucky Strike and Renault with Mild Seven, would not agree in running with commitment designs. They already did this for the Great Prizes of Great Britain and France, but their agreements with the sponsors would not allow that its publicity was absent for one third race.

THE FAVORITE CIRCUIT OF ANY PILOT

The traditional curve “Eau Rogue”

It is not difficult to understand because. When the majority of the circuits includes only curved of third and Mexican American without difficulty, Spa conserves the challenging characteristic that reserve normally to the historical narrations and the 60 heroic stories of ' s. It requires of an aerodynamic load of low average to being able to take advantage of the long straight lines to the maximum. A balance is essential all land to be competitive. With drawn up that it still includes parts of the route it publishes, Spa-Francorchamps was the longest circuit of calendar F1 and from his inclusion in the world-wide championship, it has demonstrated to be the circuit par excellence that it on approval put the ability and the value that any pilot of Great Prizes would have to know how to confront. The circuit, that enters and leaves the Forest of the Ardennes is famous by two reasons: rain and the curve Eau Rouge. And whereas first she is random and it can fall in a part of the circuit and elsewhere the sun shines, Eau Rouge - the most stimulating curve of the F1 is equally arbitrary when choosing its victims. In spite of the fascination that the pilots feel by this curve, more than one it has fallen in his trap. They ask Villeneuve, Alex Zanardi or Mika Salo, among others.

MARKED BY THE MULTIPLE TRAGEDIES

The changing climate of Spa

The nerves arise in the GP of Belgium, where the high speeds are mixed with an irascible mountain climate. Dick Seaman died while it led on a rainy circuit of Spa in 1939. The fifth since it reached Jim Clark - who in 1960 just ran his second GP- was opacado by the deaths of Alan Stacey and Chris Bristow. Spa stopped being used after Pedro Rodriguez won with BRM in 1970, although new incidents appeared in the drawn up one alternative of Nivelles and Zolder. In 1981, the Argentinean Carlos Reutemann gained a tragic race, since in the training, a mechanic died when he crossed himself to him to the car of the Argentinean. In 1982, in Zolder, pressed until the limit to use his last rubber game of classification and forced to be placed him to the slowest cars by difficult hollows, Gilles Villeneuve he found the death when its Ferrari attacked to the March de Jochen Mass. The following year, the GP of Belgium returned to Spa.

OPINION OF AN EXPERIENCED ONE: JOS VERSTAPPEN

The F1 says goodbye to him to Spa…

“He is drawing up very variable and much is enjoyed handling in him. It is possible to be arrived at a good rate because he is agile for the amble. As the circuit is closely together of Holland, Spa is the race that has major amount of Dutch fanatics in the tribunes, so somehow I feel as if it ran in house. Most interesting of Spa: one never knows what is what is going to happen.”
And at the moment, it is known less than ever, at least until the 2007.