SILVER BULLET
Silverstone set to ditch Grand Prix from 2019
SILVERSTONE will today announce they have ripped up their contract to host the British Grand Prix.
The British Racing Drivers’ Club, who own the circuit, decided to trigger a break clause that releases them from hosting the race beyond 2019 because the cost is ‘potentially ruinous’.
They will have informed Liberty Media — the sport’s owners who bank the annual hosting fee — by the time they go public with the news during a press conference this afternoon. The decision leaves the Grand Prix’s long-term future in doubt just two days before teams and drivers arrive at Silverstone for this year’s race.
At the heart of the issue are Silverstone’s losses — £2.8million in 2015 and £4.8m in 2016 — which would likely have got worse as the cost of hosting the event rises by five per cent each year until 2026, the last year of the contract they are leaving behind.
However, the BRDC, a private club of 800 or so members including the royalty of British motor racing from Sir Stirling Moss to Lewis Hamilton, have not given up on negotiating a more sustainable deal in the next few years.
Silverstone is the only circuit capable of hosting the British Grand Prix, a position reinforced by the virtual collapse of absurd plans to build the Circuit of Wales in Ebbw Vale. A grand prix on London’s streets remains as remote a possibility as ever, though F1 cars will perform in a promotional event around Trafalgar Square tomorrow night.
Silverstone bosses had hoped Liberty would amend the terms of the old contract agreed with Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s former chief executive, but they refused to budge.
A spokesman for Formula One Management, the umbrella organisation under Liberty’s control, told Sportsmail yesterday: ‘We want a British Grand Prix and there is a desire from our side to see a race at Silverstone. Silverstone have a contract. They seem to be invoking the break clause, not us. We tried to help them in various ways. We now have three years to sort it out. We are willing to continue to negotiate with Silverstone to make it happen.’
This year’s race will be the first attended by Chase Carey, chief executive of Formula One Management. And Silverstone’s organisers hope he will be bowled over by the unique atmosphere and an anticipated race- day crowd of about 140,000 — the biggest anywhere in the world.
‘We desperately want to keep hold of the race,’ said a source close to the BRDC. ‘It has to be affordable. It’s as simple as that.’
The BRDC appear to be in a strong position. Liberty are torn. They cannot afford to lose the race set in the heartland of the world’s motor racing community in the English Midlands, yet nor can they cut Silverstone such a generous deal that they undercut their own business, which is dependent on 20 or so promoters worldwide.
Good weather and a British winner this weekend would act as the perfect showcase for Silverstone. Hamilton wants the latter to help him claw back his deficit to Ferrari’s championship leader, Sebastian Vettel.
Victory on Sunday would also see the Englishman emulate Alain Prost and Jim Clark as a five-time British GP winner.
‘This is an intense battle which I’m loving,’ said Hamilton, whose fourth place in Austria last weekend left him 20 points behind Vettel. ‘I don’t have a crystal ball but it doesn’t look great at the moment.
‘The bigger that gap gets, the more the pressure builds. But there are still 11 races to go. Momentum can easily switch around in just one race.
‘It’s important for people who are watching to have patience with us drivers. You’re going to be p****d off sometimes because you put so much into it. You train, you sacrifice everything to make sure you get the best result possible.
‘So when you don’t deliver and things are stacked against you, it’s hard to come out smiling. People think that means you don’t care enough, but the fact is I care more than I need to.’