{"id":13362,"date":"2011-08-11T07:28:39","date_gmt":"2011-08-11T11:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=13362"},"modified":"2011-08-11T07:28:39","modified_gmt":"2011-08-11T11:28:39","slug":"spa-admits-gp-alternation-talks-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/spa-admits-gp-alternation-talks-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"Spa admits GP alternation talks underway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Organisers of the Belgian grand prix have admitted it is possible Spa-Francorchamps will in future only host a single F1 race every two years.<\/p>\n<p>It has been rumoured that the famous and much-loved Belgian venue might have to alternatively share a single annual calendar slot as the French grand prix vies to return.<\/p>\n<p>Belgian promoter Etienne Davignon told the Belga news agency that a solution along those lines is indeed &#8220;under discussion&#8221; between Spa, Bernie Ecclestone and French officials.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The competition among countries who are willing to hold grands prix on their territory is becoming stronger,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The alternating solution would be to perpetuate the Belgian grand prix on the championship calendar.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He suggested that Spa could use its &#8216;off&#8217; year to organise activities that help to economically sustain the F1 race.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The organisation of the grand prix requires the Spa-Francorchamps circuit to close for three weeks.\u00a0 This period could be utilised for other activities,&#8221; said Davignon.<\/p>\n<p>He also said privatising the circuit is &#8220;not an option&#8221;, after Renault team owner Gerard Lopez reportedly said on Tuesday that it could be a way to make the track a source of profit.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, another Spa official indicated that Belgian driver Jerome d&#8217;Ambrosio&#8217;s presence in F1 has led to slightly higher ticket sales ahead of the 2011 edition next month.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The (d&#8217;Ambrosio) effect has been noticeable for some months,&#8221; Andre Maes is quoted by the Flemish newspaper De Morgen, &#8220;and it will be even more in 2012, when Jerome is better known.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Organisers of the Belgian grand prix have admitted it is possible Spa-Francorchamps will in future only host a single F1 race every two years. It has been rumoured that the famous and much-loved Belgian venue might have to alternatively share a single annual calendar slot as the French grand prix vies to return. Belgian promoter &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[2037,59,3226,5262,5340,90],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13363,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13362\/revisions\/13363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}