Heartily agree with the business heartland spin, but given global advertising and TV income, suspect Bernie WILL play hardball and there will be no British GP after next year. The industry will have to move on and do it’s wining and dining elsewhere – no a huge hardship given the budgets involved and the global nature of the organisations who make up their client base.

Ugly truth is F1 has long since become a cash-cow, BRDC and the British government are quite right in not agreeing to further bankroll this.

Will F1 lose fans over this? Not many I suspect. The very nature of multimedia access to this sport is way beyond any other at present. Live timing and web video feeds will continue to advance. How long before we are watching from our computers, selecting which driver to ride onboard with and commentary to plug into. No, I suspect F1 will probably continue to increase its global fan base through technical advancement.

I agree with everyone who says Donington won’t be ready – they really do need to build a new spur from the M1. Not to mention that there is a real risk of destroying the track’s character too – i.e. beautiful parkland circuit.

No British GP 2010? That is the question

The key thing about the British GP is that it is the commercial hub of the F1 year. Monaco is all about posturing, but Silverstone is where the big deals get done – between the teams and the industry, between the sponsors and the teams and between the sponsors and their clients.

The majority of F1 sponsors if they don’t have UK head offices at least have significant representation here and should F1 walk away from Britain then I think many sponsors would walk away from F1. For many F1 sponsors races in Bahrain, Malaysia and even Brazil mean very little and are impossible to entertain staff at.

The BRDC and FOM are engaged in a game of dare. The BRDC are refusing to move because the terms of business being offered (allegedly involving a substantial sum up front) are hugely inequitable and are effectively holding the BRDC to ransom, forcing them into a loss making business arrangement. As a result the BRDC are the only organisers to date to hold strong and say ‘no’ (largely because the government won’t underwrite the losses). The arguments around facilities etc are a very distance second, the bottom line is that the BRDC won’t give Bernie the money he wants because it would destroy their bottom line.

So what to do? As outlined above no British GP would damage the sport enormously, the UK remains motorsports commercial heartland and that is unlikely to change in two years. No British GP would see a lot of personnel, sponsors and suppliers go elsewhere and the damage to F1 would be severe.

Given the sums of money currently in F1 the most common sense approach would be to host one race that does not make FOM an astronomical sum, but that would keep F1′s business wheels turning nicely.

25 years ago Long Beach were put in a similar position and walked away, effectively destroying F1′s US profile for two decades, to do the same in the UK would be far more damaging given the sport’s current market saturation

(NB – its a joke folks, all be it poor one)

Bernie DID say something to the effect of “Donington or bust.” If Donington can’t hold a British GP by 2010, then no one ever will (and that includes Silverstone, regardless of whether they’re ready or not).

So what IF Donington isn’t ready by 2010? What next?