Formula One’s British Grand Prix is STAYING at Silverstone in a new £300m 10-year deal, leaving hopes for a London road race dead

Silverstone has secured its long-term future as the house of the British Grand Prix in a brand new 10-year deal price £300million.

Mail Sport understands affirmation will comply with later in the present day that the Northamptonshire circuit has secured the contract with Formulation One’s American house owners, Liberty Media. Silverstone, we will reveal, pays some £30m-a-year to stage one of many jewels of the sporting summer season till 2034. 

There aren’t any plans to host a counter-attraction in London. F1 chief govt Stefano Domenicali is of the view {that a} race down such iconic landmarks because the Mall would supply glamour sufficient to comply with by means of on the thought however that there are insuperable obstacles, resembling closing down massive elements of the capital for days on finish. There isn’t any need on Domenicali’s half to placed on a grand prix at a much less recognised setting out of city, and London as a risk is useless for the foreseeable future.

So it’s all weapons blazing at Silverstone, the place 480,000 spectators flocked final 12 months, cementing a relationship with the lineage of British followers who attended the primary post-war race on this nation in 1948, watched by King George VI. The previous airfield, from the place Wellington bombers flew, now a state-of-the-art facility, hosted the primary race of the world championship on Could 13, 1950, gained by Nino Farina for Alfa Romeo.

It’s understood that talks between Domenicali and the British Racing Drivers’ Membership (BRDC, which owns Silverstone) have been extra harmonious than in earlier renegotiations. Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was a critic of the circuit’s BRDC ‘blazers’, famously describing one race, with its jammed roads, as a ‘nation honest masquerading as a world championship occasion’.

These points have been addressed beneath the management of Silverstone’s managing director Stuart Pringle, a former secretary of the BRDC, who struck the take care of Formulation One bosses together with Peter Digby, chairman of the BRDC. Underlining their improved requirements there, Silverstone gained one of the best fan leisure award on the world promoters’ awards on the British Museum on Wednesday evening.

Silverstone’s earlier deal ran from 2019 to 2024, and this new settlement represents no less than a £5m improve on their earlier contract.

For Liberty, securing Silverstone is an antidote to the accusation that they’re taking the game away from its heartlands in Europe for eye-watering cash in new money cows such because the Center East. The charges in Saudi Arabia are £70m-a-year. Qatar is analogous.

Solely final month, Liberty have been accused of compromising the game by taking the Spanish Grand Prix from Barcelona  – a drained previous venue – to Madrid for a partial road circuit from 2026 for £40m a 12 months.

Protecting one of many sport’s most historic occasions, in Silverstone, on the roster augments Domenicali’s acknowledged need to strike a steadiness between new, glitzy venues, and locations that keep historic hyperlinks to motor racing’s heritage.