Switzerland is a lovely mountainous nation situated between France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. However, unlike its neighbors, Switzerland has always viewed racing and motorsports in general in a negative light. Because, whereas all four of those surrounding nations stage a variety of motorsport events every year, circuit racing has been prohibited in Switzerland since 1955.
Mercedes racer Pierre Levegh and 84 onlookers were killed and at least 120 others were injured during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans. The disaster would go down in history as the worst racing accident ever. In the aftermath of such unspeakable pain and grief, Switzerland acted quickly and decisively, banning racing for the foreseeable future. That being said, there have been efforts to bring racing back to Switzerland. For instance, the all-electric Formula E series persuaded the Swiss government to overturn the prohibition specific for electric vehicles in 2015, resulting in a Formula E vehicle exhibition on Geneva city's streets and a full-fledged Formula E race in Zurich a few years later in 2018.
Fast forward to 2022, when the National Council's Transport Commission just authorized a modification of the Road Traffic Act. This signifies that the Commission's proposal to remove the racing prohibition has been approved. This was agreed in the spring by the National Council, and the Council of States decided on it towards the end of May 2022. Both houses voted to lift the prohibition, thus overturning the statute. The most persuasive point was that in 67 years, vehicle and route safety has improved dramatically and continues to improve, meaning racing in general is leagues safer than it was decades ago.
While this is certainly good news for motorsports aficionados in Switzerland, no real racing action is set to take plce just yet. Naturally, in a country where racing has been banned for more than half a century, no full-fledged racing facilities exist just yet. As such, popular racing series such as MotoGP, WSBK, and Formula 1 may take a while before Switzerland is included in their race calendars. However, the Swiss Supermoto Championship, which has previously been staged in various European nations, may ultimately be held in Switzerland.
