MARCH 27, 2003

A court action in Belgium

A legal action aiming to force Formula 1 to race at Spa this year has been dismissed by a court in Verviers, Belgium. The FIA welcomed the judgement saying that "to bring legal proceedings against the FIA in this matter is a complete waste of everyone's time and money. The FIA can put an event on the calendar, but to do so with no promoter and no competing teams would be futile".

The FIA said that the last time a race appeared on the F1 calendar without a promoter's agreement with the teams was the 1981 Argentine Grand Prix and pointed out that this race did not take eventually place because the promoter cancelled the event.