Mosley: F1 may go to Silverstone in 2010
On the eve of the British Grand Prix FIA President Max Mosley has raised the prospect of the race returning to Silverstone in 2010 instead of moving to Donington Park.
Speaking to the BBC Mosley said he thought it was very likely there would be a British Grand Prix next year – even if Donington isn’t ready in time.
This contradicts Bernie Ecclestone’s oft-repeated insistence that if Donington Park is not ready for 2010, the British Grand Prix may have to skip a year.
Given the political turmoil F1 faces at the moment – with no guarantees what form of world championship may take place in 2010 – it is likely to be some sort of political manoeuvre on Mosley’s part.
At very least, with the FIA deciding not to publish details of its proposed 2010 F1 teams list today as promised, it may simply be an attempt to deflect attention away from the wider crisis facing Formula 1.
Regardless of whether the offer is serious or not, it makes sense for F1 to keep a British round on the calendar: the reigning world champion is British, and the team and driver leading the championships at present are both British, as are most of the current teams’ bases.
As discussed earlier this week, Britain attracts far more fans than new venues like Istanbul or Shanghai.
Read more: F1 leaving Britain would be madness
Mosley rescuing the British GP?, wow, thank you Mosley… now i’m on your side!
Did he have to wait until now to say this. I’m not the least convinced. I want to see FOTA championship at Silverstone not Mosley’s lame F1.
This could all be a ploy to prevent Silverstone from booking the FOTA championship next year. If I was deciding what to do for the FOTA, the first thing I would do is put Silverstone on the schedule.
I’m thinking this is just a ploy to try to get some people thinking positively towards the FIA.
Max won’t get the british grand prix back at silverstone next year.
This is just his way of appeasing us fans
I’m not a Mosley fan, not because of his private life but rather his association with the FIA’s dubious decision making of late; in my opinion the real villain pulling the strings is the creepy Ecclstone, however watching Mosley in the middle of the media scrum yesterday, i couldn’t help wonder how this man manages to carry on: he had had his private life paraded in public in such an awful way, an act that reeked of Eccelstone, but most importantly his son died about 2 months ago and yet still he ploughs on. This has nothing to do with the current FOTA/FIA thing; it’s just a thought that occurred to me while watching Max’s now gaunt face surrounded by media ppl….. dare i say it, maybe spare a thought for the man in the front, taking all the crap, while the real mastermind of this nightmare, Bernie, walks around with a big grin on his face waiting to swoop in for the kill; again!
Is Mosley really completely aware of what’s going on? To turn round and say that there may yet be a British Grand Prix at Silverstone next year contradicts everything that’s been said in the Poison Dwarf’s ongoing spat with the BRDC (IMO, the only reason why Silverstone has lost the GP). This sounds like a desperate attempt to try and get the focus away from the FOTA breakaway.
But hey, maybe he’s right. If the breakaway series does come to pass, there most certainly will be a British GP at Silverstone next year, won’t there?
This is a brilliant move. The BRDC now have to decide if they go with the FIA or FOTA if they want to be in with a shot of holding the GP at Silverstone again. Its a smart move by Max.
Its worth remembering that FOTA won’t carry Spa, Monaco and most likely the British Grand Prix with them – because all the current GPs are signed up to Bernie’s side.
Instead of the British G.P.the new series can have the G.P. of England
Monaco has already publicly said there will be no F1 race next year if there is a split.
Just another person for Gillett and co. to prove wrong, then. Hopefully.
Let’s not forget that the architects of Silverstone’s downfall are the muppets at the BRDC who refused point-blank to consider Ecclestone’s requests for facilty upgrades, despite its privileged position of paying less to host the GP than almost any other venue. Blaming Ecclestone is a nice diversionary tactic, though.
Sure he now will / want to save British GP at Silverstone, cause if that venue would go to FOTA next year, FIAs F1 would be finished in UK.
This is typical Max Mosely.
Middle of a major crisis and he’s trying to divert the attention away from it.
Max it try to buy brit fans out. poor old max.
Max is trying to buy brit fans out. sorry for the typo –
Charming Man
Its not Max, its Bernie.
I know that Spa etc have contracts with F1 but does that guarantee exclusivity?
And also, we should ignore this this is quite clearly a ploy to swing support to the FIA/FOM. If he meant what he says about it, he would have said it months ago, why now? (Rhetorical question)
And SYM – it is really odd/slightly off-putting how the man continues on
Almost all of the tracks run other races throughout the year (basically Turkey is the only one that doesn’t). So the F1 race isn’t the exclusive race on the track. The big question is does the contract say it’s the only “open wheel race”, etc. I doubt it though, as there are GP2, Formula Renault, etc. races that have run at all these tracks over the years.
The exclusivity question is interesting in other ways too. Lets say Ferrari is forced to run F1 next year because they are in fact contractually obligated to do so. Is there anything that say’s Ferrari can’t run in both series? Teams can be in multiple types of autosport, and its not like anyone knew this would happen when the contract was written, so it won’t specifically exclude FOTA races. If that’s the case, and they can run in both, if I was Ferrari that’s exactly what I would do, and what I think the other FOTA teams should encourage them to do. With the teams left in F1, Ferrari could easily just run a half hearted effort with two rookie drivers in F1, moving Massa & Kimi to the FOTA circuit. This would give Ferrari the opportunity to publicly position F1 as a step below FOTA and show they were treating it like a developmental series. Done right this could be a tremendous blow to the FIA offering.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Ferrari’s contract did have some sort of exclusivity clause to do with F1, because there have been threats of splits in the past such as the GPMA earlier this decade, what effectively killed that off was Ferrari breaking ranks and signing with the FIA.
Anyone watch the interview Jake Humpries did with Mosley?? My god, Mosley wasnt pulling any punches. Calling certain FOTA members loonies isnt helping anything Max!
yes yes yes
Musso – that’s the problem with MM, he talks to people as if they don’t have a clue and are about 10. He must assume that all watch the special CBBC commentary!
People barking up the wrong tree. These are all Bernie´s deals, not Max´s
Niiiiiice backpeddling, very nice. 9 out of 10.
Grovel ,grovel,grovel.
Why did this come to mind,
“Yes, well, that’s the sort of philistine pig ignorance I’ve come to expect from you non-creative garbage. You sit there on your loathsome, spotty behind, squeezing blackheads and not giving a tinker’s cuss for us ‘fans’. You excrement! You whining, hypocritical toadie with your color TV set and your Tony Jacklin golf clubs. Well I wouldn’t become an ‘FIA President’ now if you got down on your lousy, stinking, purulent knees and begged me!”
There has never been any doubt in my mind that Britain would hold a GP. Whoever would make the deicision to skip Britain would be a lunatic.
god i hate joe publics idea that any idea is better than the kings. yeh hes a megalomaniac yeh Moseley is probably well off his peak but jeesuz H do we really need to get rid of a man who ran an f1 team, is a barrister and who ran a sport that went from minority interest to 3rd most watched sport in the world behind the olympics and the world cup ( btw they occur once every 4 years)
grow tf up, know your history, know what the sport was before Ecclestone sorted it out. NO SPORT can acceptably deal with the scrutiny todays 24 7 media puts it under. But in a sport the media still deems contemptuously as rich boys getting “inside cars fast and women faster”- they havent a chance. Make up your mind based on what you have watched over the last 1-30 years not what the Daily Mail say. ( and if you have watched less than 10 years – shut up for a bit)
No man sets up a highly expensive project to try and get cars to overtake who doesnt understand the sport. Just as his hand on the tiller of increasing safety saved Sutil from injury today and countless others from death, give kers a chance, give the aero changes a chance. The man is one of us, well he is one of the people i call us anyway. I dont know who the rest of you are but lemmings springs to mind.
The only logical reason Silverstone is being offered a race in 2010 now is that Bernie, with MM, is trying to stitch up the spare circuits to prevent FOTA getting a critical mass of circuits. There is no change of heart about the original Donnington decision – it is just part of a desperate scramble to stop FOTA.
“Whoever would make the decision to skip Britain would be a lunatic.”
Well, Mosley is, anyway