In the past year banks have been criticised for their reckless lending which collapsed consumer confidence in the financial sector. As any seasoned F1 follower will know, many companies in the sport are saddled with their fair share of debt but the lenders tend to get their money back eventually. There may be one exception to this.

Writing in the Express, Pitpass' business editor Chris Sylt reveals that Anglo Irish, a bank which is owned by the Irish government, is expected to lose £13.7m on a loan it gave to wannabe Grand Prix promoter Donington Ventures Leisure (DVL).

In February 2007 Anglo Irish gave a £16.3m loan to DVL and the following year the company was granted a 17-year contract to host the British GP from 2010. The circuit last hosted an F1 race in 1993 so it needed a huge renovation to bring it up to standard. DVL's grand plan was to raise a £135m bond, led by Citigroup, to fund the work but the bond issue crashed in October last year and one month later DVL went into liquidation.

According to its latest report, DVL's administrator Begbies Traynor expects to receive £530,000 from the company's debtors leaving after costs a total of £330,000 for creditors. Anglo Irish is at the top of the list since its loan was secured on DVL's assets. The bank had received £2.3m in debt repayments from DVL by the time the company went bankrupt. This left it with an outstanding debt of £14m and the administrator's report shows that the bank is expected to get back just £260,000 of this. It is a further setback for Anglo Irish which announced in March a loss of £10.9bn - the biggest in Irish corporate history.

Other creditors may not be as lucky as Anglo Irish. Begbies Traynor reveals that DVL has a total deficiency of £18.3m in its funds to repay creditors. The company has £1.7m of unsecured creditors including £445,000 owed to accountancy firm BDO and £69,000 to ratings agency Standard & Poor's. Donington's ultimate owners, the Wheatcroft family, are also owed £3.1m by DVL in unpaid rent.

In contrast, DVL's highest-paid director, believed to be its chief executive Simon Gillett, received £230,000 in the year ending 31 December 2008 - the company's last full year of trading.

Donington was left in an unfinished state following DVL's bankruptcy because the renovation had been started but was far from complete. After Donington's bond issue hit the buffers Silverstone took over its contract to host the British GP from this year. Race contracts fell like dominoes for Donington as it also lost the right to host the British rounds of World Superbikes and MotoGP.

Donington's lease is now in the hands of the Wheatcrofts who got the Adroit construction firm to complete the renovation work in July this year. Rebuilding the circuit's damaged reputation may take a lot longer.