Formula 1 has seen a plethora of changes ever since Liberty Media took over the sport in 2017. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has become well-known as a proactive individual who continuously looks to explore options to make the sport more interesting.
In his pursuit of doing so, the 57-year-old has also made several controversial decisions that have not been received well by the drivers, the teams, or the public. A similar issue has also popped up recently that may anger the F1 community.
Domenicali has recently stated that some of F1’s longstanding venues cannot remain in the sport solely because of their history. This remark seems to suggest that iconic F1 venues like SPA may lose their place in the calendar from next season onwards.
Stefano Domenicali’s huge plans for the 2024 calendar put SPA at risk of losing its spot
According to soymotor.com, F1 has already begun planning for the 2024 calendar. One of the key plans of Stefano Domenicali is for F1 to return to Africa.
One potential venue that F1 could visit next year is Kyalami for the South African Grand Prix. This iconic circuit last hosted an F1 race in 1993.
While F1 has huge plans of visiting more countries for the Grand Prix, they, unfortunately, are not planning to increase the number of races from 24. As a result, some longstanding venues may lose their place on next year’s calendar.
One such iconic venue is Belgium’s SPA, a place that F1 has visited every year since 1983. This historic venue is at risk of losing its place from the 2024 calendar onwards as the circuit just has a year remaining on its contract.
Belgian GP delegation confident of retaining a place in 2024
Even though SPA seems as the most likely venue that will lose its place from next year onwards, the Belgian Grand Prix delegation is confident of retaining its place on the 2024 calendar. Vanessa Maes, the director of SPA, told Belgian media Het Laatste Nieuws that they are optimistic about retaining their place on the 2024 calendar.
“An F1 delegation came this month and stayed for two days to take a look at what we have changed at the circuit to make the next Grand Prix an even greater success than in 2022. We are convinced that Francorchamps now fully meets F1 specifications,” Maes explained.
