Silverstone (again) set to terminate British GP contract.

[Crafty_]

BRDC had to announce this week if they wanted to enact the break clause, hence the timing of their announcement.
Liberty Media offered them an extension, but they didn't take up the offer and announced the break anyway.

Chase Carey has previously said that they don't want to reduce fees, but provide more entertainment for the money. I don't really see how that is any different to what Bernie used to say.

The statement from the BRDC is interesting - it says they lost £2.8m on the 2015 race, yet at the time reported a profit http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122553

This was in the Patrick Allen era, who they fired because they thought he was too close to Laurence Tomlinson who put a bid together to lease the track. As far as I can find out BRDC haven't even entertained his bid, even after the JLR deal fell through. MSV said they were considering an approach too.

I suspect that they've actually done this now to try and save money in the 2020s rather than right now.

The fee this year is £17m, cheapest race day ticket is £179, so £100k people buying those covers the fee.
Of course, Silverstone have plenty of other costs. They expect to make a similar loss to last year (that they quote as £4.8m).

So, all the income from:
Any tickets over the 100k (Silverstone said attendance was 139k last year)
More expensive tickets (grandstand etc)
Weekend tickets
Camping
Car parking
Hospitality
Helicopter shuttles
Food vendors
Traders
Merchandise/Programmes

will be £4.8m less than their costs? I'm surprised at that.

That becomes a bit more desperate in (say) 2024 when the fee would be ~£24m

There is no doubt that its a lot of money to hold a race, I haven't found any solid figures, but some claim the Silverstone fee is less than some other circuits on the basis it isn't supported by Government. It'd be interesting to find out.

[airbusA346]

ukaskew said:

The whole Wing thing is a farce without the accompanying stuff on the other side of the start straight to accompany it (the bridge and hotel), which they are never going to have the funding for. And don't even get me started on them sinking the pit straight so you can't even see half of it.

Visiting the circuit as a regular punter is a bit of a joke now. If an event does use the Wing and allows access to the pits you've either got to get a bus or take a ridiculously long walk through the very temporary looking Loop infield section to reach it.

As far as I am aware, the pit lane/track difference is because the pit lane has to be level/flat.

It's about time they put a proper tarmac/concrete footpath in from the national paddock to the Wing. It's not fun walking on hardcore with crutches.

[loose cannon]

There is a rumour that there are other tracks around the world to follow as they want to concentrate on Moto gp

[carl_w]

l354uge said:

Just after this announcement liberty actually announce the London show that's happening tomorrow.

Coincidence? or warning shot at the BRDC?

I'm pretty sure they didn't plan the London show with <24h to go, and they had to announce it some time before tomorrow.

[l354uge]

carl_w said:

'm pretty sure they didn't plan the London show with <24h to go, and they had to announce it some time before tomorrow.

You'd think they'd ideally give more than a days notice though.

[Vaud]

l354uge said:

You'd think they'd ideally give more than a days notice though.

I understand that they had concerns for both security and crowd sizes which led to minimal notice.

[Welshbeef]

IF F1 did go then what would Silverstone replace it with?

Is it at all possible the UK could host a 24hr Le Mans equivalent race? Weather would generally be ok/good - track is decently long (could they make it longer and faster at all?

For those who cannot make the full on Le Mans why not a Silverstone 24hr with full LMP1/2GT etc.

[l354uge]

Welshbeef said:

IF F1 did go then what would Silverstone replace it with?

Is it at all possible the UK could host a 24hr Le Mans equivalent race? Weather would generally be ok/good - track is decently long (could they make it longer and faster at all?

For those who cannot make the full on Le Mans why not a Silverstone 24hr with full LMP1/2GT etc.

We used to have the Britcar 24hr but it seems limited to touring cars only now? noise restrictions?

[Welshbeef]

l354uge said:

We used to have the Britcar 24hr but it seems limited to touring cars only now? noise restrictions?

We used to go to the LMSeries always in Aug 1000km /6hour race on a Sat start 4pm go late into he night. Surrounded by great racing all day Sat and Sun.

Sadly moved to miserable March.
Last time I went in Aug it was very busy - seeing March on TV it's utterly deserted.

[Pintofbest]

rubystone said:

Can you post a link to it? I was told that the standalone cost to them of the weekend resulted in a deficit for the event of £4.8m for 2016 rising to £7m by 2019. Substantially different to them saying they would lose even MORE money by NOT staging the event!!!

Here is the link:

http://www.silverstone.co.uk/news/silverstone-and-...

Key part for me, and based on knowing a few who work there, is this :-

'The cumulative effect is that, despite being the most popular weekend sporting event in the UK, the net revenue from ticket sales and hospitality at the British Grand Prix is not enough to cover the Grand Prix’s share of Silverstone’s overhead costs. This is why the BRDC has taken the decision to trigger the break clause in its contract with Formula 1/Liberty Media.'

The share is overhead is disproportionate with other events hence losing this will have a bigger effect on overall commercials than just the P&L of the weekend itself.

[Welshbeef]

Pintofbest said:

Here is the link:

http://www.silverstone.co.uk/news/silverstone-and-...

Key part for me, and based on knowing a few who work there, is this :-

'The cumulative effect is that, despite being the most popular weekend sporting event in the UK, the net revenue from ticket sales and hospitality at the British Grand Prix is not enough to cover the Grand Prix’s share of Silverstone’s overhead costs. This is why the BRDC has taken the decision to trigger the break clause in its contract with Formula 1/Liberty Media.'

The share is overhead is disproportionate with other events hence losing this will have a bigger effect on overall commercials than just the P&L of the weekend itself.

What about rising ticket prices by £50 each for the weekend?


I guess if all fails the Formulae E could go instead - but my god no noise is horrible.

[Pintofbest]

Welshbeef said:

What about rising ticket prices by £50 each for the weekend?


I guess if all fails the Formulae E could go instead - but my god no noise is horrible.

Would be an idea - they are already pretty high and have escalated more than was expected but looking at the net losses it doesn't look necessarily like a mountain to,climb with Liberty to agree a better deal. I'm sure the debt incurred for the wing complex doesn't help either!

[steve-5snwi]

Silverstone is one of the better F1 tracks, along with the likes of Italy and Monaco, Brazil, Australia etc, ok Monaco isn't a great track as such but is one of the original circuits that has what modern bland circuits lack. I don't bother with F1 anymore but always try and watch Italy and GB races.

I'm disappointed that the Moto GP is at Silverstone as i find it a dull circuit, i'll be off to the Moto GP but would really prefer it if it was at Donnington. The last time I went to Silverstone for an F1 race was 1990, mind you the cars were better then too.

What would be good is if they moved the British GP to Rockingham and ran it over 500 laps of the oval circuit, that would be much more fun - and 20 minutes from me.

[lord summerisle]

carl_w said:

'm pretty sure they didn't plan the London show with <24h to go, and they had to announce it some time before tomorrow.

there was a called for marshals several weeks ago, with the proviso that the event was "unconfirmed" and not to make any comment on social media til an official announcement was made

[ukaskew]

Welshbeef said:

IF F1 did go then what would Silverstone replace it with?

Is it at all possible the UK could host a 24hr Le Mans equivalent race? Weather would generally be ok/good - track is decently long (could they make it longer and faster at all?

For those who cannot make the full on Le Mans why not a Silverstone 24hr with full LMP1/2GT etc.

I don't think anywhere in the UK would realistically get approval to run a new big noisy 24hr race now, complete non starter. The existing Silverstone 24hr is stripped back compared to its former self but it's still a fun weekend to attend, dirt cheap and still can't attract a crowd. Club Race Days at Castle Combe genuinely attract bigger crowds, unfortunately the full Silverstone Circuit is simply not spectator friendly, it's a bit of a wasteland away from events like the Classic and F1.

[suffolk009]

It seems to me that this isn't really Liberty's doing at all - it's a legacy of Bernie's greedy deal.

BRDC just did the best they could at the time.

[p1stonhead]

Evangelion said:

Well here's my circuit for 2020, the London Olympic Park Grand Prix.



Put the designer's cheque in the post please, Tilke eat your heart out.

Id be up for that

[Evangelion]

Thanks for that, p1stonhead, I was beginning to think no-one had noticed!

The eagle-eyed will have seen that I put in a bus stop just outside the Aquatic Centre, and that it also goes the wrong way round a roundabout (a la Monaco). Start/Finish line is next to Big Breakfast House and of course it runs clockwise.

I'm hoping some clever person can tell me how long it is.

[Vaud]

It's missing an opportunity - to go through the stadium like Mexico!

[Vaud]

Evangelion said:

I'm hoping some clever person can tell me how long it is.

About 1.7 miles plus the hairpin section, so ~1.9 miles.