Interpublic cancel BGP contract/Bernie buys contract until 2015 (merged x2)

[scorch]

Can I just point out that the BRDC did NOT sell the rights to the GP. Foulston did.

[Super Tourer]

If there is to be a British GP, the BRDC and BE/FOM need to knock their heads together and get on.

Silverstone is the obvious place to continue the race, it already hold's it, which shows it still has capability despite BE's gripes, it has the new access road and car parks, etc and new investment (including £20M from Bernie IIRC)has been made.

It would be the cheapest to upgrade of all the other available tracks, and would not have any planning issues for re-development.

All the ingredients are there, the BRDC need to be less obstinate and FOM need to have a spirit of working together.

One point is that now Bernie own's the whole event as it were, the already slim (IMO) chance of government funding for the venue are nil, no minister is going to sanction public funds to support an event, the entire revenue of which goes into the pocket of one of the UK's richest men, and one that New Labour have 'form' with.

[Andrew Hornsey]

Scorch,

I think you have missed what Cynic is trying to say. The BRDC did renew their contact, I believe, rather than selling. Quite simply, they couldn't affoard to renew the contract.

And if you want to get technical, Brands Hatch Circuits Ltd sold the company and all of its assets to Octagon. Yes NF was the chief exec at the time, but business is business (and lets face it, F1 and the GP is just business now).

The GP would be a huge loss to the UK economy, in terms of revenue from the event and the teams/industries that may move out of the UK.

Is this just sabre rattling again? Why do the BRDC need to be so stubborn. Lease the circuit to Bernie, and let him fund the upgrade that Silverstone so badly need. With the £70m he just made on his London flat, just think of the work that could be done to bring Silverstone up to the level of the new circuits in Malaysia and Bahrain.

[Cynic]

I didn't say they had. I said that BRDC sold the rights to Foulston. Or am I wrong on that one as well?

[garry]

I think that the reasons Bernie was so scathing about Silverstone was to get the circuit improved using other peoples money and then try and get the rights back. He knows the importants of this event and I am sure that this will secure its future and not the demise.

[Stephen Green]

Brands Hatch Circuits won the bid to hold the British GP from rival bidders BRDC. BHL then sold out to Octagon Motorsports, a part of the Interpublic Group. The Secretary of State then announced that the plans to redevelop Brands Hatch should go to a public enquiry as there were objections from those who wanted to protect the ancient woodlands that would have been destroyed as part of the redevelopment. Octogon then leased Silverstone from the BRDC and the rest is history.

Why would BE want to invest his own money in Silverstone if he does not own the circuit? As BE is now the promoter and 'owner' of the event, can you imagine the British Government assisting with funding as any profits go directly back to BE?

I think the BRDC are mistaken by thinking BE will continue to hold the event at Silverstone (purely my personal view) and that he will take the BGP to an alternative venue.

Where will that be? Who knows, it was made very clear at the time Ms Foulston first won the contract that the BGP did NOT necessarily have to be held in the UK. So, what about Donington or as an outside bet Brands Hatch once again? Could BE do a deal with JP to host the GP at Brands? Could he do a similar deal with Donny? Could he take it to Paul Ricard?

Yes to all of the above.

[Cynic]

I can't see the GP going to Brands because of the planning issues, and I think I remember Donny's owner saying (last year) that he had no interest in having the GP because of the amount of changes that would be needed to the infrastructure. I can only see two options: either Bernie will can the race and award the slot to one of his new buddies in the Far East, or use the threat of doing so to try and force the BRDC or government into funding the circuit changes he wants. With the exception of Paul Ricard he's never put any money into a circuit, I fail to see why he would do do now.

[Super Tourer]

Bernie has in fact contributed to the improvements already made at Silverstone, not that this is a deciding factor in the future.

"This led to Octagon, the BRDC and Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone investing £15million in a project to help transform the circuit into a world leader. The short-term plans this year led to Octagon and the BRDC focusing their attention on parking and traffic flow improvements,"

From the Telegraph 02/08/2001

[Super Tourer]

http://www.atlasf1.com/news/2000/dec.../id/3221/.html

This is a good read, under the category best laid plans...

"British Grand Prix Future Secured " - 02/12/2000 - where have we heard that before !!!

[Tony_J]

I wonder if losing the GP would be such a great tragedy for Silverstone. Interpublic/Octagon has already realised what a dramatic drain on resources hosting a GP is with little chance of profit, particularly if it pi**es down. As said earlier, privately financed circuits can't compete with publicly funded ones. The last 5 or so years have been pretty unsuccessful for Silverstone and the GP with Bernie's constant wingeing about facilities and insufficient investment. If the circuit can't make enough profit from it, dump it before Bernie does, better to leave gracefully than have your nosed rubbed in it by someone who hasn't got a good word to say for the circuit. I even wonder whether interest in general is waning on the now sanitised format of GPs

[jim69]

They should hold the British GP at Anglesey, after all Wales now exclusively hosts the "British" round of the World Rally Championship.

[rdjones]

I have just heard on Five Live that BE has said that if no money is put into Silverstone then there WILL NOT be a British GP next.

[Cynic]

Am I a mind-reader or what?

[Super Tourer]

The underlying issue is the viability of the races, we know the situation with the French GP and that Melbourne's race loses money as well.

My concern is that BE and the FIA are having their 'heads turned' by foreign governments that are not only willing to pour millions into new facitlites, but also subsidise the race as well. You can see the attraction, BE gets a new venue and potential new market for the sponsors, whilst the promoter of the race takes a financial hit just for the kudos of holding it.

This is all well and good, but motorsport and business is cyclical and it's unlikely that foreign govenrments and wealthy promoters will subsidise new tracks and races for ever, so the real focus should be on making the races more financially viable. Under the current arrangement FOM take the majority of the money from the races, leaving only the gate money for the promoter (as mentioned before).

The fact of life is that not many, if any, European governments will stump up public money to support an event, the revenue from which goes almost entirely into one organisations pocket.

If we look at Canada, the promoters are subsidising the race, by paying compensation (hard to believe)to the teams for not allowing tobacco advertising, this is not a tenable situation and unlikely to continue.

In the usual head in the sand mentality that operates in F1, the teams are choosing to ignore rising costs and you have to wonder if they are considering the future of any circuits?

Amazingly JYS and others are allegedly expecting the British Government to invest in Silverstone, which is incredulous. No government minister is going to sanction public funds going to support an event, the revenue from which goes almost entirely to BE, which is participated in by some of the world's biggest and richest corporations, whose teams bosses all appear in the UK's richest list !

I would imagine just getting a proportion of the trackside advertising revenue would make a race more financially viable....for example.

[Super Tourer]

More on this from pitpass.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=20607

"I would welcome a new promoter coming forward," he tells the Daily Telegraph today, "and would be delighted if the British Grand Prix were to go ahead at Silverstone. It is the only feasible circuit in this country, but it has to come up to scratch.

"We saw at the last race in Bahrain what facilities should be like," he continues. "The standard has been raised by these new venues and Silverstone has to fall in line. The BRDC have got a lot of land there and are still receiving rent from Interpublic.

"On the back of that, they can raise the necessary cash to invest in the circuit. I have put a chunk of my own money in it and all I have seen for it is new car parks. They are very nice but we need a new pit-and-paddock complex, too. Unless the BRDC do this, there will not be a grand prix in the UK in 2005.

"I never say never, but I don't envisage being the promoter of the British Grand Prix," Ecclestone told The Times. "Anybody can come to me now and negotiate a new contract to have the promoter's rights. I think a promoter who is willing to get up and out there with plenty of ideas can make money. Other people do. I won't do a special deal for Britain just because it is Britain.

"Interpublic wanted out because they no longer wanted to be in this business," he added. "They paid too much for the rights in the first place and were paying more than we are charging in Europe. I've got no plans to do anything with the British Grand Prix. It's not up to me. It's not up to the Government, either, to give money to a gentlemen's club, which is what the BRDC is. I am prepared to sign a contract with anyone once they have spoken to the BRDC, who are the landlords. Maybe the BRDC should consider being the promoters, why not?"


Oh dear....

[PaulSands]

Same old same old really isn't it...Bernie is never going to be happy until every part of Silverstone is demolished and new state of the art facilities are installed, including an airport probably and moving that annoying little village out of the way so that traffic can get in even easier. And while we're at it could we guarantee some nice weather too ?
Screw em I say...if F1 thinks it doesn't need to come to Britain fine...do we really want it on any terms?. Why should everybody have to cow tow to FOM??
A bully is a bully no matter what arena they operate in and BE & FOM are nothing but bullies.

[Mal]

Is there any chance that Rockingham could host the GP as it is in many ways the most up to date facility in the UK

[Stephen Green]

ST and Paul I echo your views. This is BE's last stand at humiliating the BRDC and trying to force them into spending huge amounts of money for one race a year!

[Super Tourer]

Another worry for Silverstone is that after 2007, when the lease to Interpublic runs out, the BRDC will have very little income and who is going to wander up and lease Silverstone for £4M per year? No one I would warrant.

This limits their ability to raise finance to invest in Silverstone when their main source of income is uncertain after 2007.

Tricky times ahead I think.

[PaulSands]

Mallory Park has a new media centre...maybe now their time has come
With regards to Rockingham despite it being the newest and probably most up to date of British Circuits, one that actually has much permanenet seating, I would imagine even that would need 10's of millions of £'s spendning on it to bring it up to BE's standards...not sure the local infrastructure could handle it either

[Dan Rear]

F1 is deadly dull anyway. Let Bernie and his money men get on with their Sunday afternoon bores in China/India/Thailand or wherever. Bring on the Sportscars and Historics to Silverstone, and get rid of the GP-obsessed hangers on.

[avro]

There is no doubt in my mind that the future of the major UK based Inernational motorsport should be at one and only one UK facility, that is not for emotive reasons but purely financial, if for example the UK goverment and circuit owners spent all allowed monies on developing one facility, say Donnington as an example, in conjunction with the FIA, and input from Bernie, but ensured with the help of the FIA that all of the following series HAD to run at least one round at this facility:
F1
F3000
BTCC
DTM
Champ / IRL
FIA GT
ETCC
British GT
F3

Need I say more, a financially viable circuit that WOULD attract the crowds and enjoy many a good weekends racing, but what about the circuits that miss out ?, give some of the monies to JP to assist in providing the National racing better facilities and paid marshalls as a start, and for another large circuit eg Silverstone, WSB and British Superbikes.

The UK racing scene is like a bad business, all talk and no strategy, we need someone to grab it by the b**!!ks and sort it before we lose it. !!!!!!!!!!

[garcon]

BBC Sport seem to be on the ball again...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/moto...ne/3648575.stm

I have to say I'm kind of with Bernie on this one. But I wish he could sit down with the BRDC and work out a plan rather than the current state of affairs whereby Bernie and Jackie have alternate pops at each other via the media.

Let's face it, what has the investment given us so far? Car parks and greatly improved access where absolutely vital and are certainly a vast improvement, but what else has been done? Oh yeah, a BRDC clubhouse. Nice one, guys.

[mark_l]

Everyone know the BRDC does not have access to the kind of funds Bernie is asking to be plowed into Silverstone. The government wont help that is obvious.

This will be his excuse for scrapping the British GP and giving the slot to one of the new circuits under development.

[garcon]

As Bernie says, there's a hell of a lot of land at Silverstone, owned by the BRDC. All he's doing is asking the BRDC to make use of what they have. I don't agree Bernie is looking for an excuse to scrap the British GP. He knows that could be a disaster for the UK based F1 industry.

I do agree that the BRDC can't be expected to fund the redevelopment of Silverstone themselves, and I also agree the government won't help - which immediately puts us at a disadvantage to many of the others.

I'd just like the BRDC to stop bursting into tears every time Bernie has a swing at them. In fact what I'd like to see is the news that the BRDC have set about putting a consortium together to raise the £250m+ required to re-establish Silverstone as the Home of Formula One and the world's greatest motorsport venue.

Much of this story is about PR, good and bad. Turn the current bad news into something positive and we have a start. All it needs is a few people in the right places to start thinking big and thinking positive. Then the money will come.