Silverstone set to host last British GP in 2019
It remains one of the best-supported sporting events in the country but the hosting fee is prohibitively high
Silverstone is expected to stage its last British Grand Prix in 2019, with the British Racing Drivers’ Club, the circuit’s owner, understood to be opting out of its 17-year contract in just two years’ time.
Its deal to host the race is due to run until 2026, but costs have become prohibitive.
The original fee was £12 million (Dh56.77 million) per year but could rise to as much as £27 million by the contract’s conclusion. The BRDC has stressed its predicament to Liberty Media, Formula One’s rights holder, but has been told there is no room for renegotiation.
The British Grand Prix remains one of the best-supported sporting events in the country, attracting 139,000 fans on race day in 2015 and a similar number last year. But the hosting fee is so exorbitant that Silverstone is poised to make at least a £4 million loss even with another full house on Sunday.
“We are pretty much a full house, and we are charging pretty much a full price, and we still can’t make the sums add up,” Stuart Pringle, the track’s sporting director, has said.
Silverstone is the only circuit in the UK with the classification to support F1, and no plausible alternatives have yet been offered.
Should it withdraw from the sport, it would mark the first time since 1950 that the calendar had not included a race in Britain.
In Austria last week, Zak Brown, McLaren’s executive director, implored Liberty to buy Silverstone to safeguard the future of the grand prix.
“My view is that Liberty should buy Silverstone,” he said. “I think they should buy it so that, much like the NFL, they own their Super Bowl. I have voiced my views on that to Liberty. They listen and would be quick to tell you if they disagreed. They didn’t disagree with this logic. But I wouldn’t want to put words in their mouths by saying that they are going to buy it now, because I have no idea.”
No government support
Officials at Silverstone are not prepared to continue hosting at the expense of financial ruin. As it stands, the Northamptonshire circuit receives no government support. Serving notice of its intention to leave F1 creates a significant problem for Liberty, which has been at pains to respect the western European heritage of the sport.
Lewis Hamilton is targeting his fourth consecutive victory at Silverstone this weekend but has acknowledged he faces a three-way fight for the title, after the win for Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas in Spielberg. He now trails Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by 20 points, with Bottas a further 15 behind.