08/03/2019
NEWS STORY
The clock is ticking, and unless a deal can be agreed in the coming months, a deal which hasn't been agreed since July 2017 when the owners of Silverstone, the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), activated a clause in their contract which ended their existing deal early, this July's race will be the last.
Fact is, the BRDC finally woke up to the nightmare deal they had signed with the sport's previous owners, a deal which, due to the annual increment to the hosting fee, meant hosting the Grand Prix was unsustainable.
From the outset, Chase Carey insisted that keeping Silverstone and the British Grand Prix was important to the sport, but now, with just four months to what could be the last British Grand Prix at the iconic Northamptonshire track, we appear to be no closer to reaching a deal.
Indeed, with F1 continuing to eye what it calls "destination cities", in this case a race on the streets of London, and Silverstone boss, Stuart Pringle believed to be one of the driving forces behind the Formula One Promoters Association statement which criticised a number of moves the sport has taken under its new owners, it appears the two sides are actually drifting apart.
"We want to find a solution with Silverstone," said F1's technical boss, Ross Brawn, following the screening of the first two parts of the new Netflix series documentary on the 2018 F1 season. "But we are differing in our views of what's reasonable.
"We're not far apart," he insisted. "It's frustrating that we can't find a solution."
While, confident that July's will not be the last British Grand Prix - the first ever round of the Formula One World Championship having been held at Silverstone in 1950 - he suggests alternatives are being considered.
"I don't think it will be the final British Grand Prix, but whether that's at Silverstone or not is another matter," said Brawn, the warning to the BRDC obvious.
"Racing in the UK is important to us," he continued, "and obviously Silverstone has been the home of the British Grand Prix for the last few years, but most of us here can remember it being held at Brands Hatch and it didn't seem that strange that we had a race at Brands Hatch one year and Silverstone the next. We are determined to make sure we keep a British Grand Prix, and hopefully at Silverstone, but there's no certainty."
Fact is, there are no real alternatives to Silverstone, as Bernie Ecclestone discovered, and those that might be suitable are not available because the owners are all too aware that hoisting a Grand Prix, as Silverstone discovered, is unsustainable."
Asked about a race in London, with Stratford, scene of the London Olympics in 2012, said to be the most likely venue, he said: "London would be a different race than the British GP. It is a city race. There is a place for both.
"I don't think it's feasible to have a London race in the middle of London, unfortunately," he admitted. "The chaos and impact it would have would be too severe. But on the periphery of London there are a number of areas that could work. I don't see it as it would necessarily replace the British GP - it would be the London GP."
The British Grand Prix is one of five events on this year's 21-race calendar that are in the final year of their contract. Losing all five would cost the sport £100m, which, though not impacting the sport on the balance sheets until 2021 would still come off the back of two (three?) years when F1 has posted significant losses.
In their January statement the sixteen 'rebel' promoters made note of a number of issues on which they were unhappy, and one that clearly riled them was the move, by the sport's new owners, to propose a deal for an event in Miami that would not incur (ever increasing) hosting fees but would instead be promoted on a revenue sharing basis.
By all accounts, F1 powers that be have been resolute in the discussions up to now, aware not only that a reduction to the hosting fees would hit them on the balance sheet but that other promoters would seek similar deals.