Fernando Alonso, McLaren, Silverstone, 2018

New Silverstone deal means no London Grand Prix before 2023

2019 British Grand Prix

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The promoters of the British Grand Prix have been given assurances they won’t have to compete with a race in London for the next three years.

The British Racing Drivers’ Club has signed an extension with Formula 1 to keep their race at Silverstone on the calendar for the next five years. BRDC chairman John Grant said their new deal will reduce the circuit’s exposure to risk.

“We had two very clear objectives that we’ve set out all along from the start,” Grant told RaceFans in an exclusive interview. “We’ve told our members repeatedly, they never believed us. We said one priority was to reduce the risk to a manageable level and the other one is this thing has to make economic sense for us. And we have met those objectives.”

One potential threat to the race is the possible addition of a new race in London, which would fit with Liberty Media’s goal of setting up new events in ‘destination cities’.

“That seemed to be becoming more of a reality than we had anticipated earlier,” Grant admitted. “That was obviously a source of considerable debate and discussion between us.

“We said you can have a London Grand Prix but that’s upside for you and it’s all downside for us. We’ve got to come to an arrangement that protects us in the event it happens. So we have come to an arrangement that protects us in the event it happens, if it happens.”

“It wouldn’t be for the first three years,” he added. “They’ve said it’s not going to happen until 2023 at the earliest, probably.”

The BRDC activated a break clause in its previous contract, which would have run to 2027. The new five-year deal will keep the race on the calendar until at least 2024. “The key thing for us is five years is long enough to justify more investment in the circuit, continuing with those programmes,” said Grant.

He did not confirm whether they had been able to reduce their payments to FOM. “It wasn’t all about the fee,” he said.

“It was about coming up with different ways of doing things. Additional revenues, different ways of working together to create more revenues, all that kind of stuff. There was a bit of give and take in those areas, a bit of creativity.”

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8 comments on “New Silverstone deal means no London Grand Prix before 2023”

  1. “It was about coming up with different ways of doing things. Additional revenues, different ways of working together to create more revenues, all that kind of stuff. There was a bit of give and take in those areas, a bit of creativity.”

    Translation = Burgers and cans of pop are going up in price.

  2. London GP is such a bad idea anyway.

  3. Who the hell wants a London GP anyway!?

  4. Neil (@neilosjames)
    11th July 2019, 23:07

    I think common sense and an inevitable crapstorm of angry environmentalists and politicians is what means there’ll be no London Grand Prix before 2023… or ever… but I guess Silverstone’s deal helps.

  5. I wonder if Liberty went all Bernie on them and used the threat of a London GP as a stick in their negotiations?

    1. I just don’t see how its a threat. The London GP is a fantasy. No one will put up the money for a ‘circuit’ and pay Liberty a fee.

      1. The sheer lostics of a London race would be a nightmare.

        Preparing the road surface along the route.
        Making safe drain and manhole covers.
        Relocating signs and traffic lights from traffic islands and removing said islands.
        Removing various traffic calming measures that have been built up over the citys war on cars.
        Shutting down half of one of the biggest cities in the world for the weekend and diverting the tonnes of traffic.

        Yeah, Marathons and bike races have been held in London, but they are usually only on one day and a runner/bicycle is a lot smaller and easy to route than an F1 car.

      2. It’s not a “threat”. Please allow me to quote Mr Martin Grundle of Pie-in-the-SkySports in 2024: “The leaders have just rounded Saint Paul’s cathedral and are heading back to Trafalgar Square. Oh no! one of the back markers has just run wide at Piccadilly Circus, so VSC is deployed and the DRS zone at Buckingham Palace is not available for dying star Careless Carey to Chase down world champion Bernie in his new model of ‘Old Flatulence’.”

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