Silverstone is close to grand prix deal
Silverstone has just three more weeks to save the British Grand Prix, under the latest deadline imposed by Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
While discussions between the sport's commercial rights holder and the owners of the Northamptonshire circuit have been on-going for several weeks there has been no breakthrough, with the financial terms Ecclestone wants in excess of what the track is willing to pay to stage the event.
The circuit's owners were given a 48-hour deadline to sign the contract on the table earlier this month but that passed with no word about what had happened.
Now Ecclestone has issued a further warning, saying the British Grand Prix will be dropped from the Formula One calendar if Silverstone does not put pen to paper before the next meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Monaco on December 11.
"The world council will meet and we will just pull it off – we will have to," Ecclestone told The Times. "We will have no other choice if we don't have a contract. We shouldn't have anything on the calendar unless we have a contract in place."
Ecclestone said he had been in regular contact with the circuit and added he believed the circuit was trying to source additional funding to help settle the deal.
"They are close and they know they are close," he said. "It's not the terms and conditions so much as whether the investors are prepared to bankroll them and take the risk."
Ecclestone said the race would be scrapped initially for only one year and no other grand prix would be scheduled in its place, reducing the 2010 championship to 18 rounds.
Damon Hill, president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, which owns Silverstone, said the two sides were close to a deal.
But he said the circuit was hesitant to sign a contract which could break it financially in the long term and risk it following the fate of the leaseholders of Donington Park, who lost a 17-year contract to stage the British Grand Prix earlier this year after failing to get financial backing and have since gone into administration.
It is believed the deal on the table requires Silverstone to pay an annual fee of 12 million, subject to an annual escalator originally set by Ecclestone at seven per cent.
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