Spa 24H race will be rescheduled as 2023 F1 calendar announcement will have a ‘domino effect’
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Belgian GP
The 24 hours at Spa is a gruelling endurance race that takes place every year at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. With F1 recently releasing their 2023 calendar dates, fans were quick to notice that the Spa 24H and the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix happened to be taking place during the same weekend. It made life hard for the folks down at the FIA World Endurance Championship.
With the Belgian Grand Prix moved to take place before the summer break, F1 will be getting the preferential treatment as the GT World Challenge Europe’s flagship event had to be moved to a different date. The Spa 24 hour race has traditionally been using the same date since 1953 but had to change it for this year. The GT endurance race will be taking place on July 1 and 2 due to the situation created by Formula 1.
Stéphane Ratel who is the head of the GT World Challenge Europe and International GT Challenge series, said that a “domino effect” has occurred within their calendars as a result of Formula 1’s antics. Ratel and his team had a massive job on their hands as this small change by F1 affected their schedule, requiring substantial changes. He spoke his mind on the whole situation.
“We have had to change a total of 14 dates,” Stéphane Ratel talks about F1 and the Belgian GP’s impact on the Spa 24 hours race and other endurance events
Stéphane further went on to talk about how the team worked around to create a new schedule. “We try not to clash with the World Endurance Championship, the ADAC GT Masters and some other series, so this has created a chain reaction,” Ratel said.
“We have had to change a total of 14 dates across the GTWCE, the British GT Championship, the GT2 European Championship and the FFSA GT French Championship; we appreciate that we have been able to work with the circuits to change them,” he continued.
It will be a bit odd to see the Belgian Grand Prix take place before the summer break. Now that a significant amount of rescheduling has taken place for the different races, it is confirmed that this will be the final change, for now. With a 24 race calendar planned for next season, it must have become harder for the F1 teams to manage the schedule. The off season has also been cut.
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Varad Joshi
(940 Articles Published)