(01 Oct 04)

Reports that the British Grand Prix has been dumped from next year's Formula 1 World Championship are a little premature, although that's not to say it won't happen.

The situation is that the negotiations between Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Management company and a group of interested parties - including Brands Hatch Circuits Limited, which currently holds the rights to the British GP title, the Department of Trade and Industry, the East Midlands Development Agency, and the British Racing Drivers Club, which owns the circuit - have fallen down on the point of how much money these Silverstone stakeholders are able or prepared to put up to run the race from now on, with improved circuit facilities.

FOM issued a statement after a meeting held on July 22, attended by representatives of all five groups, saying that a proposal had been put forward which would have secured the British Grand Prix "until at least 2015. The proposal did not involve the BRDC . . . in any financial risk. Unfortunately, no progress was made with the BRDC representatives."

On September 7, the BRDC made an offer to act as the promoter of the Grand Prix for the next three years, on terms which it said carried an "inherent commercial risk", but that didn't get anywhere. There was a time limit for the financial details to be worked out to FOM's satisfaction, but that has passed, without any resolution of the problem.

The provisional 2005 calendar which Bernie Ecclestone is expected to present to the FIA on October 13 does not include the British Grand Prix - although in all the emotional outbursts about this situation it has to be borne in mind that in its present state the list isn't final. It has to be ratified, in whatever form, by the World Motor Sport Council.

The BRDC, for its part, is peeved beyond measure. It says that as "a non-profit club with limited finances, we have made the best offer we can to maintain the Grand Prix in the United Kingdom at Silverstone. Our offer to promote the race is at a price which at best will break even, and in a poor year will lose the club a considerable amount of money.

"The club has examined its finances carefully, including plans for drastic reductions in expenditure, including reduced financial support for young driver initiatives, but we cannot financially save the British Grand Prix on our own.

"The international finances of Formula 1 are now such that almost every country around the world that hosts a Grand Prix is given considerable financial support by its government."

After campaigning for UK government support, and discussing various financial options, the BRDC has got nowhere on that front either, and it's pointing to the quite different situations with the new Grand Prix circuits in Bahrain and Shanghai.

It also makes the intriguing point that FOM "has already been paid for next year's race through the contractual exit of InterPublic", the company which previously held the rights to that event, but pulled out of all its motorsport interests.

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