Spa boss says it's too early to promise ticket refunds
Aug.31 - It is "too early to say" whether sodden spectators will receive compensation for the wet and farcical Belgian GP.
In the wake of the highly controversial long delays culminating in two laps behind the safety car that formalised the half-points race result, many are calling on Formula 1 or Spa-Francorchamps to refund disappointed fans' ticket money.
"It's a painful moment," Melchior Wathelet, circuit president, admitted to Sporza news agency.
"There was a bit of driving, but there was no spectacle," he said. "There were a few laps behind the safety car, but everyone is sad.
"It's not the best way to end the weekend."
Lewis Hamilton and others are calling on officials to announce a compensation package for the spectators, who waited patiently in the rain for 10 hours only to be treated to the short safety car procession.
"When we returned to the track for the second time, it was incredible to see that the stands remained full," said Haas driver Nikita Mazepin.
"If I was in their place, I would have left already."
Wathelet is not ruling out compensation for the fans.
"We are going to think about a possible gesture for the spectators," he revealed. "We are going to see what is possible and are open to everything.
"First it has to be a bit more concrete. We are not going to create hope with the fans and then not fulfil the promise. It's too early to say if anything is possible."
He is not joining those who are openly critical of Formula 1 for the handling of the situation on Sunday.
"I understand the decision," said Wathelet. "The race directors tried to race on the track, but it didn't work.
"Everyone has their share of frustrations. We now have to find a global solution for it. But we are not going to throw anything on the table that is not feasible."
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As Lewis Hamilton already stated, it was a complete scam,they kept audience waiting for 3,5 hours, but they already knew weather wouldn't improve, so they organised five showrounds and then stop the event (farce majeure??) We paid a lot of money for no race and a flooded parking????very poor shuttleservice too...
What races happened before the f1 race was due to start please
Deeply disappointed! An incredible scam that started with the inexistence of the yellow parking lot. The organizers have two alternatives: refund or jail. The total experience: getting to Spa by car (with 5 miles lines) and parking on the road 4 miles away with no courtesy buses was already a typical organization of a third world country. 3 Hours wait, mafia prices for refreshments and 3 laps with safety car, really a shame! I'll never attend a Belgium Grand Prix again. Lawyers will contact the "organization gang" for indemnification far beyond refund, this is a promise.
Let me know how you get on will you lol
Yellow parking was flooded,we also had to park 5 miles from entrance, 1 shuttle for 300 persons every hour??
Please keep us posted if there's a group somewhere who want to take effective steps for refund.
Quit crying, you pussies. I had to fast forward through 3 hrs of TIVO to get to this fantastic spectacle. Made it very difficult to replenish my beer mug. My clicker finger was sore for two days. One huge benefit, I didn't have to listen to an episode of 'The Croft Trivia and Travelogue Show'.
I;m not done with you pussies. F1 fans at Watkins Glen used to take mud shovels and traction planks with them to extract their cars from a farm field so that they could enjoy watching there thermo gauges go red during their 7 hr track exit (one two-lane in and out for 120000-150000 folks) . That was after they watched the Brazilians (Emmo fans) burn their bus in the bog. You current crop whine too much. Of course they did get to see a race.
That almost sounds true!
Michael: Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable.
Graham: Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier, eh Josiah?
Terry J: You're right there Obediah.
Eric: Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Chateau de Chassilier?
Michael: Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.
Graham: A cup o' COLD tea.
Eric: Without milk or sugar.
Terry J: OR tea!
Michael: In a cracked cup, and all.
Eric: We never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.
Graham: The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
Terry J: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
Michael: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness."
Eric: 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.
Graham: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing and we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!
Terry J: You were lucky to have a ROOM! We used to have to live in a corridor!
Michael: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.
Eric: Well when I say "house" it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpolin, it was a house to US.
Graham: We were evicted from our hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake!
Terry J: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in a s*****x in the middle of the road.
Michael: Cardboard box?
Terry J: Aye.
Michael: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down the mill for fourteen hours a day week in week out, for sixpence a week. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
Graham: Luxury! We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, work twenty hour a day at the mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!
Terry J: Well of course, we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the s*****x at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
Eric: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our Mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."
Michael: And you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.
All: They won't..
Good old monty python
Happy to see that you understand. Thx for this. LOL