silverston's swansong?

On Sunday it was the British Grand Prix at Silverston.

Potentially this could be the last Silverston Grand Prix for a very long time. Bernie Eccleston, the "commercial rights holder" for F1, has signed a 17 year deal with Donnington Park for them to hold the British Grand Prix.

However, there is quite a lot of doubt as to whether Donnington will actually be ready in time for next year. There's been some stuff in the news about some financial struggles they've been having and there's quite a lot of money that needs spending, in order to improve the track and the facilities so that it can hold a GP.

Bernie had made a proclamation that if Donnington wasn't ready next year then there wouldn't be a 2010 British GP as it wasn't coming back to Silverston. This was not good news.

One of the things I like about British GP fans is that they're both passionate and knowledgeable, but they're also magnanimous. If someone drives well and wins - even if it's not what we were hoping for - then we'll congratulate them too. This was amply demonstrated by the big cheer Sebastian Vettel got this year after his truly dominate performance this year, even though all the Brits were clearly hoping Button would win here too.

In other words, Britain is one of the few places on the calendar where F1 (and, indeed, motorsport in general actually) gets a huge reception. The atmosphere is always great and the crowds are always big and vocal.

The same can't be said about a lot of the tracks on the modern roster. Indeed, some of them you're hard pushed to see any spectators in the grandstands, even on Sunday.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean that from the point of view of there's no point gong there, but it make it disappointing that Bernie was basically implying there wouldn't be a 2010 British GP.

However, he now appears to have relented, saying that there are now more "commercial people" in the BRDC so he's okay with Silverston having it in 2010 if Donnington isn't ready. The BRDC is the British Racing Driver's Club and they actually 'own' Silverston (I think it's actually held in trust or something) and this comes down to the crux of why Bernie doesn't like Silverston - he hates the BRDC.

From some perspectives you can understand why - the problem with this type of ownership is that it's put a lot of difficult restrictions on raising money to improve the rack, etc.

But here's the thing that makes this an annoying situation - Silverston makes no money from hosting the British Grand Prix, mainly because Bernie charges a fortune for the rights.

When you think about that it's quite an amazing revelation because tickets to the Grand Prix (and the Friday and Saturday supporting days) cost a small fortune. They're way over £100, but if you use that as a basic number, and then think that about 300,000 people attended this year (admittedly a record attendance, but still) then that means £30,000,000 revenue. And Bernie takes so much of it they can't make a profit.

He also keeps all the money generated from TV revenue. He is literally the fat cat that hoovers up most all the cash F1 generates.

Add to that the fact that he and Max Mosley - the head of the FIA - are thick as thieves and you start to understand why the teams have been acting the way they have this year.