BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Formula One | Mosley: No way back for Belgium



By Andrew Benson BBC Sport Online motorsport editor

The Belgian Grand Prix will not find its way back onto the Formula One calendar next year, according to motorsport boss Max Mosley.

Politicians from the country are trying to put together a compromise deal to salvage the future of the race after it was ommitted from the 2003 schedule.

Axe falls on Belgian Grand Prix

But Mosley insists that the event can only reclaim its place in 2004 - and then only if the row over tobacco advertising that has cost the race its F1 status is resolved.

FIA president Mosley told BBC Sport Online: "The decision was just that - a decision. It was not an attempt to open negotiations."

All the Belgian politicians have achieved is to damage the local Belgian economy and deprive F1 fans of a good circuit

Max Mosley
FIA president

The FIA made its ruling - after the F1 teams failed to agree to keep the race - because the Belgian government has introduced a tobacco advertising ban in 2003.

This is three years before the FIA plans to introduce its own international ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in F1.

Mosley says that countries acting unilaterally make an international ban "significantly more difficult to achieve".

He added in an interview in which he also discusses this week's F1 rule changes: "The politicians have known about the problem for more than a year.

"They could have solved it easily for 2003 by moving the date of implementation by just four weeks - from 1 August to 1 September.

"They should concentrate now on trying to get things sorted out for 2004, 2005 and 2006."

Mosley cross-examined: Read the full interview

The decision to drop the Belgian race has been met with dismay because the Spa-Francorchamps track is widely regarded as the finest in the world.

FIA president Max Mosley
Mosley is playing hardball with Belgium
But Mosley dismissed claims that F1 is putting short-term political gain before the long-term good of the sport.

"The tobacco companies are paying for several teams to go racing," he said.

"The Belgian politicians knew this. If they want the cars without tobacco sponsorship, they should at least offer to replace the tobacco money for the Belgian event.

"We have an agreement with the teams that organisers will not be allowed to tell them which sponsors they can or cannot have.

"But even if we did not, how could we justify arbitrarily depriving the tobacco sponsors of nearly 7% of the benefit they derive from sponsoring their teams?

"They pay the teams' bills, not us.

"What the Belgian politicians have done will not reduce tobacco publicity, not even in Belgium, where everybody can go on seeing tobacco sponsorship on television from outside the country.

"All they have achieved is to damage the local Belgian economy and deprive Formula One fans of a good circuit."

F1 rows with EU over tobacco