British GP Deadline Date Set For Silverstone
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has handed Silverstone a deadline of 9th December, when the F1 Commission is scheduled to meet to green light the 2010 race calendar, to agree to terms regarding the staging of the British Grand Prix.
Said Ecclestone: ‘At the moment there is no British Grand Prix. The meeting on 9th December is when it would be taken off the calendar. If there’s no contract in place, there won’t be a British Grand Prix.’
Donington Park was set to host the British GP but was seemingly ruled out after failing to show it had the necessary £135m funding.
According to Ecclestone, there is a very slim chance the track could still stage the race ‘if someone comes along with the right ideas and funding’.
However the focus is still on Silverstone, which has yet to agree financial terms and faces a warning from the sport that it must modernise its facilities in order to host the event again.
Ecclestone added: ‘There is no change with the British Grand Prix. They had a contract in place which they could have signed, and they haven’t.’
The absence of a British GP next year would naturally be a disappointing development for British fans of F1.
Even more so given the last two world champions, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, are both British and will be in action for the Woking-based McLaren team.
