Practice – 9,310
Qualifying – 40,000
Race – 126,690

Source – SportsPro magazine March 2009

Alternating the British GP between Silverstone and Donnington is not an option as you can see from the Canadian GP’s experience I just outlined. Bernie has signed a 17 year deal with Donnington because he really does not care aboutF1 fans. The primary motivation is money. The only reason they started alternating the race in Germany was to halve the cost of the franchise fee paid to FOM. At the start of 2007 Hockenheim was US$35 million in debt and so the prospect of two GPs in Germany could no longer be entertained. The other point to make is that Hockenheim receives no govt contribution to the FOM fee, whereas, Nurburgring does. This did not mean that Nurburgring could afford to sign a new contract with FOM to run the German GP every year. Hockenheim’s contract expires after the 2010 race and there are rumours they are not in a position to go beyond that. To put this in perspective the newer GPs are paying absurdly high fees US$40 million (Valencia)- US$50 million (Abu Dhabi) all funding courtesy of govt coffers (local or national). Please note that, contrary to popular opinion, Bernie does have a heart. Monza only pays FOM US$3 million in fees.

If Donington Park can’t hold the race next year, Silverstone should be offered the opportunity. For more than half of F1 teams it is a race right on their doorstep, and hence is the most cost-effective to attend. It packs in the crowds, and has never been off the world championship calendar.

Can’t agree more. Although new places do present a refreshing change, good established GPs should always feature in the calender.

An article on this site a while ago showed a lot of us here got into F1 due to Mansell mania. Before Alonso came along F1 wasn’t that popular in Spain, even though they had had F1 drivers in the past, I remember people saying you could always get tickets for the Spanish GP as it was never sold out, now Spain has two Grand Prix. And most recently look at F1 popularity in Poland since Kubica.

While it is always good to have expert analysis in the media from people who were involved in the sport, it is easier for sports such as Football and Cricket to do this just due to the number of people involved. In Football there will be hundreds of players each season in the English Premier League alone, whereas in F1 you have 20 race drivers each season. And then the really successful in both sports may just decide to retire totally when they give up playing/driving, as they are multi-millionaires and don’t need to work again.