The iconic Belgium circuit will be doing major safety improvements to bring back MotoGP.
If you are a fan of motorsports, then you probably know that one of the iconic circuits that every pilot in the world wants to race in is Spa-Francorchamps. Located well inside the Ardennes forest, Spa is known to feature a fantastic and fast flowing layout, but unfortunately, the Belgium circuit lost the license to host the World Grand Prix races back in 1990.
Safety reasons were quoted at the time to justify the decision to “kick out” Spa-Francorchamps of the calendar, and with the circuit unable to do the mandatory safety improvements needed to be homologated for MotoGP, one the FIM Endurance Championship continued to visit this track until 2004.
Since then, Spa-Francorchamps hasn’t seen a world motorcycle championship.
Now, two years after circuit director Nathalie Maillet visited Madrid to speak with Dorna CEO, Carmelo Ezpeleta, the good news that so many fans wanted to hear have arrived: The financial backing needed to improve safety and homologate Spa for MotoGP racing was approved, and work will start soon to allow MotoGP to return to Belgium in 2024.
The total cost of the work that will be done to this iconic circuit will be of 80 million euros, of which 50 million euros will be a government loan. This money will be used to completely update the circuit facilities, but especially to create safer run-off areas on the faster corners.
For example, the mythical Eau Rouge, that sweeping fast corner where F1 cars reach around 320 km/h before climbing to a bling left-hander, will need to get a much bigger run-off area so that MotoGP riders can race and be able to use the extra track width in case they need to get out of track limits.
Carmelo Ezpeleta is well aware that a return of MotoGP to Belgium, especially to Spa-Francorchamps, is very well regarded by the fans, and the Spaniard does want to include Spa in the MotoGP calendar by 2024.
According to the latest information, the return of some of the best motorcycle championships in the world could be a little sooner than that, since the FIM Endurance World Championship might be allowed to race there for the first time since the early 2000s.
With other tracks also looking and others already confirmed to be hosting MotoGP races in the near future, we might be getting a completely revamped calendar by 2024.
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