The Belgian Grand Prix has been dropped from next year’s F1 schedule because of Belgium’s new ban on tobacco advertising which is being implemented three years ahead of the Europe-wide ban which starts in 2006. It was apparently up to the teams to agree to run without tobacco advertising on their cars and they were unable to do this.
Several other European events are already run without tobacco company sponsored teams being able to use their sponsor’s names on their cars but they were contractually bound not to take part in any more such races.
There will not be a replacement race next year and so there will be just 16 races on the F1 calendar in 2003. It does not look likely that the Belgian GP could return to the schedule later as races in China, Bahrain and, possibly, Russia are going to be added in 2004.