Silverstone (again) set to terminate British GP contract.

[anonymous-user]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/40518666

Looking possibly almost certain this time after 2019.

What's the answer? Should the government prop up the British GP? Should there be a street race in London?

It doesn't seem to be able to keep going on funded by the BRDC.

[anonymous-user]

They will trigger the break clause, that will allow a new contract to be negotiated with Liberty on more sustainable terms.

They would be mad not to now we have new owners, who appear to understand things have to change to have a long term product.

[anonymous-user]

jsf said:

They will trigger the break clause, that will allow a new contract to be negotiated with Liberty on more sustainable terms.

They would be mad not to now we have new owners, who appear to understand things have to change to have a long term product.

Trouble is, loads of these other countries (governments) are paying loads more than silverstone to host a GP.

Liberty seem to want to keep a British GP but not at any cost. The calendar is full and there's plenty of places willing to pay far more than the BRDC can afford.

[anonymous-user]

Not much of the original left as said.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 7th July 12:17

[anonymous-user]

Silverstone was one of the best circuits on the calendar but the changes have ruined it.

Would not be disappointed to see it go.

Just watch how amazing it use to be.

Shocking how much tracks have been ruined.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyEJIoG52xw

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 10th July 21:18

[anonymous-user]

Pintofbest said:

Without the money they get from F1 they will not survive, the notes are in the announcement. A huge amount of the general overhead and debt servicing is covered by the GP weekend, without that the bills wouldn't get paid.

Moto GP must take in a good crowd.

Worth going to see as well.

Many tracks around the UK and further afield do very nicely without F1.

F1 cars ruin the track surface for other forms of Motorsport especially bikes so this might actually be a blessing.

[anonymous-user]

thegreenhell said:

They won't survive if they continue to lose millions on one event every year. They reported loses on the GP of £2.8m in 2015 and £4.8m in 2016, and that will only increase year on year unless something changes.

If they ran the current contract to its conclusion in 2026 they'd be paying approx £1m extra each year than the previous year, so they'd need to find either £1m in savings or £1m in extra revenue each year just to stand still.

Are those losses on the event or overall losses?

Is the GP the only loss making event?

[anonymous-user]

Looks like this is the proposed London street circuit for 2020

[anonymous-user]

The bottom one looks great, my top one is entirely made up.

[anonymous-user]

Welshbeef said:

I've not been to F1 UK which is a shame but if it does go then the worry is Silverstone will really struggle a massive weekend gone.

They have full time salaried staff suddenly one event where they don't earn their keep.

Also IF they actually did lose £6-7m last year on the event don't they see that as a great investment in marketing the place? Very cheap for global recognition.


Then again Silverstone Classic that's epically good.

They could give every employee a massive pay rise by not holding the GP, they have lost money hosting it for years and are due to lose even more every year.

Events like the Silverstone Classic are subsiding the GP, because those type of events are being used to claw back the losses from the GP.

Silverstone do as good a job as you could expect in terms of marketing the event, they sell a huge number of tickets at very high cost, but even with that they still lose millions. You simply cant justify or generate from the event the GP fees commercially, which is why all events except the British GP are government subsidised.

[anonymous-user]

ClockworkCupcake said:

jsf said:

They could give every employee a massive pay rise by not holding the GP, they have lost money hosting it for years and are due to lose even more every year.

I'm not sure it is quite as simple as that. If it were then there would be no concept of a "halo product" in manufacturing.

I know its not quite that simple, but as things stand right now if they continued on the current path they would bankrupt the circuit.

[anonymous-user]

Most circuits, no matter how old or new are dumps when you get to the brass tacks of it.

What matters is the racing and challenge they present.

On that score Silverstone is right up there with the best.

[anonymous-user]

VGTICE said:

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Silverstone was one of the best circuits on the calendar but the changes have ruined it.

Would not be disappointed to see it go.

Just watch how amazing it use to be.

Shocking how much tracks have been ruined.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyEJIoG52xw

This video proves how much worse the F1 is nowadays. I love how he basically flies around the thing rather than do the usual stop and go 90 deg/chicane nonsense that the tilke and alike call exciting circuits these days. I'm now waiting for someone to tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about because F1 is about technological progress not excitement.

I think quite the opposite, the circuit layout is dull and the car looks relatively slow compared to the modern cars.

I think some people don't realise just how damn quick these current cars are.

[anonymous-user]

VGTICE said:

jsf said:

I think quite the opposite, the circuit layout is dull and the car looks relatively slow compared to the modern cars.

I think some people don't realise just how damn quick these current cars are.

Tilke is that you? Guten Tag!

What a strange suggestion. Silverstone is one of the few circuits he hasn't been involved with, it's one of the best they currently run on and is far more challenging and interesting than the old layouts.

[anonymous-user]

VGTICE said:

jsf said:

VGTICE said:

jsf said:

I think quite the opposite, the circuit layout is dull and the car looks relatively slow compared to the modern cars.

I think some people don't realise just how damn quick these current cars are.

Tilke is that you? Guten Tag!

What a strange suggestion. Silverstone is one of the few circuits he hasn't been involved with, it's one of the best they currently run on and is far more challenging and interesting than the old layouts.

Sorry, I thought you were Tilke because only he could say that the video contained footage that was boring. He has 90 deg corners fetish so I understand that. Just FYR the average lap speed in quali in the year the vid was from was higher (159.4 mph) than the record braking lap this year (152.2mph).

I didn't say the footage was boring, I said the circuit was dull, which it is. The current Silverstone circuit doesn't have a 90 degree corner fetish, it has some of the most challenging high speed corner complexes on the calendar. Even with some of the slow speed sections the average speed this year should tell you how quick these cars are.

[anonymous-user]

VGTICE said:

jsf said:

I didn't say the footage was boring, I said the circuit was dull, which it is.

This doesn't make sense. Since the main attraction of the footage is the F1 car doing a lap around the circuit that means that the footage can only be exciting (or not boring) if either the car or the circuit or both are exciting (or not boring). In this case 90% of excitement comes from the fast flowing circuit with corners that would upset majority of millennials because they are lethal (by today's standards set out by Tilke and FIA).

jsf said:

The current Silverstone circuit doesn't have a 90 degree corner fetish, it has some of the most challenging high speed corner complexes on the calendar. Even with some of the slow speed sections the average speed this year should tell you how quick these cars are.

There's almost 30 year gap between the two. It shouldn't come as a surprise that current era cars are faster than the cars of 1990.

The cars are built to a formula, hence formula 1. If the rules dictate they can be slowed down, which is why some circuit records stand for many years. This year is the first for a very long time that the rules have been written to make the cars faster.