Belgian GP signs new F1 deal until 2031 on rotational basis

The Belgian Grand Prix has signed a recent four-race contract extension because it joins Components 1’s deliberate rotational system.

The occasion at Spa-Francorchamps will host 4 F1 races over the subsequent six seasons – 2026, 2027, 2029, and 2031 – and can drop off the calendar in 2028 and 2030.

The Belgian race’s contract was set to run out after this 12 months’s version, with the organisers pushing for a recent five-year deal.

However with curiosity from potential venues to host a grand prix at an all-time excessive, and F1 notably eager to increase into Asia, Spa had lengthy been earmarked as considered one of a number of European rounds to enter a rotational system.

The top result’s a compromise that can hand Spa, which is dependent upon monetary backing by the Walloon authorities, an extended operating deal that enables it to write down off investments and transfer away from its latest run of anxious short-term contract extensions. It additionally permits F1 the flexibleness so as to add a brand new venue to the calendar with out stretching past the restrict of 24 races per season.

Spa’s deal leaves simply the futures of Barcelona and Imola to be determined, with each races additionally dealing with expiring offers. Like Spa, Imola’s present deal is operating out after this season, whereas Barcelona’s final races is presently scheduled in 2026, when it loses its Spanish Grand Prix moniker to a brand new race in Madrid.

Logan Sargeant, Williams W46,Daniel Ricciardo, AlphaTauri VCARB01,Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri VCARB01

Picture by: Erik Junius

The aforementioned races have seen competitors for European slots diminish in latest months after organisers of Zandvoort’s Dutch Grand Prix determined to attract the curtain on its occasion after the 2026 version.

The Belgian Grand Prix, initially held on a fearsome 14km nation street loop across the Ardennes forests, was one of many seven authentic races on the world championship’s inaugural calendar in 1950.

After spells in Zolder and Nivelles, F1 returned to a curtailed and modernised Spa-Francorchamps within the 80s, with the favored Ardennes circuit nonetheless thought to be a fan and driver favorite. Spa has hosted the Belgian Grand Prix yearly since 1985, with two interruptions in 2003 and 2006.