Silverstone bemoans 'potentially ruinous' costs: Considers Break from 2020

[Eckhart von Glan]

as someone who watched the sport back in the lauda vs. hunt days, i have to agree with mr. biscuit, the wizard of wherever. the safety concerns (whcih need to be taken very serious, the slaughter back in the day was barbaric) and the marketing juggernaut have turned the sport inside out, i now find any gt3 race far more interesting. germans are notoriously good at calculating costs and making ends meet, so the fact we will probably never have a german gp again speaks for itself. with more and more tracks in far off places, f1 will move away from its core constituency of european fans (who do own a buck or two) and move to ... where exactly? let us europeans watch gt instead and forget about f1.

 

[Sky]

I just hope they don't go to another track because they would have to completely ruin it to meet f1 'standards'.

 

[fortyfivekev]

Hey Kev,

Yeah it's feeling a little bit more of a clubby track these days that's true I'm still a regular visitor though, its my second home ...

Unfortunately all British tracks other than Silverstone are now at club track level. Circuit of Wales seemed promising but now looks like a disaster area so whether that ever gets built who knows. Currently it's Silverstone or nothing for F1 in Britain and I guess they know it.

 

[Wu !]

Yes... F1 can go where the $$$ are for circuits but seriously would you watch a F1 totally on those souless ugly Tilkedroms that look like they came out from an arcade videogame like ridge racer or NfS?
It's a couple of years that i watch only the European races and sometimes Suzuka cause to see F1 cars racing in stupid tracks like Baku, Austin and so on it makes my eyes bleed...
F1 is almost dead for me... This Championship is more and more boring every year...

That was sort of my point, they seem to be actively looking at and targeting other markets, whether this is a wise move or not is beyond me, I'm not psychic. The fact it makes your or my eyes bleed, is of no importance to them if they believe they can reach a wider audience and eventually bigger revenue in the end.

Time will tell if it's a wise thing, if they can manage by racing at Tilkedromes and have a good return, they will. Most of my friends who watch F1 but not big fans seem to prefer Tilkedromes anyway, so "when you make a mistake you can make up for it", instead of being stuck in a gravel trap. Might not be our cup of tea, but I don't know... too much beer, we shall see what happens, Bernie will die eventually in around 80 years after having ruined Liberty media and becoming the oldest man ever.

 

[Andrew Harper]

I live on the other side of the pond but is Brands Hatch not an option?
A lot of the politics (local, governmental and FIA) and personal conflicts don't make it over here in the press.
Can Brands never happen again? If so, why or not?

Unfortunately the track is too narrow compared to somewhere like Silverstone. Overtaking would probably be almost non-existent but you're right, seeing F1 cars round there at full speed would be special

There's also one other problem. The circuit in it's current form does not comply with F1 specification. Some time ago there was a proposal for Brands to host the British GP (roughly at the same time as the debacle with Donington) but most of the corners would have to be changed. Paddock Hill was to be re-profiled into a sharper corner and most of the backend of the Grand Prix circuit was tightened, in other words the corners were brought forward and turned into almost right angles. This was to allow enough run off in the case of an accident. It was also going to cost 10's of millions because the pits complex was considered below standard as well so that was going to have to be rebuilt. So I would prefer to leave the circuit the way it is rather than chop it up.

There's also one other problem....it's called the circuits neighbours. Just the other side of the treeline is lots of housing and considering the amount of petitions and protests they done in the past about noise I would imagine that they would not let the F1 race happen. Not in the traditional sense anyway, everything would have to stop by 4.30pm on a Sunday afternoon probably...

In the UK, Silverstone is still the most viable circuit to host the Grand Prix. I would be quite happy to alternate Donington one year and Silverstone the next but the way the contracts work I'm not sure that's possible.

From a personal point of view I feel F1 has lost touch with it's core fanbase. The races are too expensive now and it costs a small fortune to attend one. The problem is people will pay it because it "is" F1. I was tagged into a FB group the other night and they were all talking about seeing Lewis or seeing Max, or partying at Monaco. The racing was nothing to them it was purely the spectacle of it and that's a bit sad to me.

It will be interesting to see the development of F1 with the new owners and whether they reduce the entry fees for the circuits to at least allow them to break even rather than making losses all the time. Otherwise the admission prices will just keep rising

I may attend the GP on the Friday as I'm in the UK for something else (depends on work and money really) but I'm off to the WEC and Blancpain this year, ok it doesn't have the "glamour" but the racing is better and the admission prices are much more reasonable

 

[Andrew Harper]

hopefully with new owners in place from next year prices can be brought down or stabilised

Hopefully my friend, that would be nice!

I would imagine though that until the circuits reach the end of their current contracts the costs of hosting an F1 race won't drop but fingers crossed

 

[fortyfivekev]

...The circuit in it's current form does not comply with F1 specification. Some time ago there was a proposal for Brands to host the British GP (roughly at the same time as the debacle with Donington) but most of the corners would have to be changed...

There was a proposal back in the 90's to basically abandon the current Brands GP loop and build a new one with new pits, etc on the farmland to the north of the circuit linking up with the current Indy circuit. They would literally need to do something like that before they could get F1 back to Brands and then of course it wouldn't be the circuit that people love so what's the point?

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

I'd give my right arm to see Donny get the GP, without the loss of any of the original character of the current track. Can't see it happening sadly, so hopefully Silverstone can sort this all out and remain on the calendar. For me F1 must retain its heart of historic European locations, even going as far as bringing back some of the sadly missing events like Imola and Estoril, plus a few other nice tracks such as Jerez wouldn't go amiss too

Heh, I much preferred the US approach to Formula 1: Screw adapting iconic tracks to F1's requirement of runoffs that can land an airplane and just build a new track to accomodate to that. Over the past few years the debate around track limits has risen but the elephant in the room is that that discussion should never have been had: Grass and gravel traps should be what the driver faces when he goes over the white lines, not more tarmac. Take another look at the brilliant, brilliant tracks the Americas have, which all retained their identity whilst European tracks have traded their soul away just because "Europe must remain the heart of F1", without questioning what that actually meant.

 

[joe pineapples]

Hey, who needs Silverstone when you have pearlers like Baku

 

[Andrew Harper]

Heh, I much preferred the US approach to Formula 1: Screw adapting iconic tracks to F1's requirement of runoffs that can land an airplane and just build a new track to accomodate to that. Over the past few years the debate around track limits has risen but the elephant in the room is that that discussion should never have been had: Grass and gravel traps should be what the driver faces when he goes over the white lines, not more tarmac. Take another look at the brilliant, brilliant tracks the Americas have, which all retained their identity whilst European tracks have traded their soul away just because "Europe must remain the heart of F1", without questioning what that actually meant.

Yeah make 'em run around Sebring for 80 laps that'll sort the men from the boys!

 

[Andrew Harper]

Wait a minute, Mercedes own part of it.....

Brooklands anyone?

Perfectly safe (kind of) and lots of infield runoff (apart from the bloke on the fence..)

Just need to move that A road and the Tesco's on the corner and we can get the builders back in!

 

[gamer19]

All other UK tracks are just too small. Ok, too narrow.
I guess it's cause they love to make their tracks in some ...parks.
You know... like Oulton park, Donnington park, Cadwell park, Mallory park,... Silverstone park... ok, scratch that last one. They've just been limited by the park dimensions pure and simple.
But, yes, there's one that's not old and double dozen time re-surfaced, quite new shiny Rockingham Motor Speedway! Yes, indeed, that's one is not narrow!!!
It's short.
Oh those British... you thought since they're (some will say self proclaimed) pioneers of motorsport ...they would know better. You woulda though.

 

[mister dog]

Reminds me of this great interview with Derek Warwick. If you have a spare hour be sure to check it. If you want to see the part where he details the difficulties in hosting a GP and the costs of Silverstone these past years check as of 54 minutes:

 

[fortyfivekev]

All other UK tracks are just too small. Ok, too narrow.
But, yes, there's one that's not old and dozen time re-surfaced, quite new shiny Rockingham Motor Speedway! Yes, indeed, that's one is not narrow!!!
It's short.
Oh those British... since they're (some will say self proclaimed) pioneers of motorsport ...they would know better. You woulda though.

Rockingham is in the middle of an industrial estate with sh*tty access and the pit/paddock area is way too small for anything much bigger than BTCC. On the plus side though it still has some pretty big grandstands and space for more so you could fit a decent crowd in.

 

[gamer19]

Like I said it's just way too short. With it's longest layout being 2.05 mi (3.299 km) it would be shortest circuit in the calendar. If I'm not very much mistaken.
Which I'm not. Monaco is 2.074 mi (3.337 km) long.

 

[Andy_J]

Some state help to Silverstone with a promise of free to air TV coverage and cheaper admission tickets will keep it and carry on providing the jobs that go with the whole thing. I say tax the rich more to keep it. Or get the greedy bankers to bail it out like we did for them.

 

[Stephen O'Sullivan]

Thruxton is a speed demon's delight. All F1 needs is permission from Patrick Giranthon.

 

[The Arj Guy]

The cost of hosting just seems scandalous, ticket prices are rediculously high and they still can't make a profit. Donny is a great track but the access to the track is beyond poor. Went to the Moto GP back in the day and took me 4 hours to get out car park.

F1 itself is an expensive sport. Teams and FOM spend millions to host a single race. So it is not a problem or a scandal to keep the prices high

 

[grahamw]

I thought I had read some where Brands Hatch was being brought up to standard but how much truth is in the rumor I don't know. But it's close proximity to London and M25 bring it's own issues so it's not a done deal if Silverstone fails to get it's act together but could be a fall back option ?

The F1 high up's and wealthier teams keep making money at the expense of the fans the average F1 fan only can afford so much to enjoy the sport but corporate entertainment, marketing and the like has taken priority over the true fans a trend which has killed many sports over the years.

I used to be a regular at Twickenham but when it was sold off for debentures it became a luxury I could no longer partake in and like so much sport in the UK has become a company reward day rather than a fan of the sport.Greed has slowly reduced most sports even on TV to be beyond the typical working man and woman if you can't afford pay per view in one of it's various guises you are stuck with watching highlights or resorting to less ethical means of viewing sports events

Whilst I hate comparing sports the distribution from things like TV money (like in the Premier League) could save some struggling teams and the owners of F1 need to consider the effect of changes to the rules which put greater burden on the less well financed teams and arguably will actually bring a wider gap not a narrow one on then grid.

 

[James Cook]

Also consider that Bernie has been angling for a London GP on a street circuit for many years and I still believe this ambition hasn't died.