Three-Week Break Set to Stay Next Year

The popular three-week break is set to remain on the calendar next year after team chiefs fighting against the decision to drop it convinced Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone to change his plans.

There was uproar amongst team owners when the 2003 calendar was provisionally released with back-to-back races but no break, particularly from Eddie Jordan who had been a key influence in instigating the break which first appeared last year.

But speaking in the Monza paddock before qualifying, Ecclestone said: "The calendar is more or less fixed, there are just one or two things to change around. We are trying to fix it so that we can have the three weeks again."

Sources have suggested that the Hungarian Grand Prix will be moved one week later, to August 24, to create a gap between it and the German race, while pitting it in a back-to-back position with the Belgian Grand Prix.

But Ecclestone has also warned that the Belgian race, at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit that is heralded as one of the remaining 'great' circuits, could lose its spot next year because the country's plans to introduce a tobacco ban.

It is understood that it will now move from certain to provisional status on the calendar, and Ecclestone added: "We will have to wait and see what we are going to do about tobacco."