London mayor revives hopes of city street GP

The chances of a Grand Prix on the streets of London have received a boost today following positive remarks from the city's current mayor Sadiq Khan.

"The Mayor believes that it should be possible to organise a race in London in the future and has asked his team to explore options with F1," a spokesperson for the mayor's office said this week.

"London is always open to hosting the world's biggest and best sport events," the spokesperson continued. "From the final of UEFA Euro 2020 to the NFL, and the Cricket World Cup to Major League Baseball."

The city has often been mentioned in recent years as a possible venue for a street circuit, but planning for such an event around Westminster, Green Park and Buckingham Palace has been met with numerous logistical obstacles.

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However, a new push by Formula 1's new owners Liberty Media to add more street races to the F1 calendar has rebooted the prospects of London staging just such a race in the future.

Hanoi will hold an event in the city in 2020, and Liberty still hopes to add a second Grand Prix in the United States on the streets of Miami in the south-eastern state of Florida. Liberty held a successful F1 Live event at Trafalgar Square last year.

However Formula 1's director of motorsport Ross Brawn was quick to cool suggestions of a full race at the heart of the country's capital, suggesting an event held just outside the city would be more feasible.

"London is an iconic city with a massive history in the sport and there's huge enthusiasm here," Brawn told the London Evening Standard newspaper.

"[But] I think because F1 is a week-long activity minimum, the disruption it would cause in the centre of London would be unacceptable.

"I don't think Londoners really need to worry about us taking over the centre of London for a week," he admitted.

"But there are things on the periphery that are being explored," he added. "Not slap-bang in the centre of London, but Greater London."

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Formula E did stage a ePrix in the city in 2015 and 2016, when the event was held in Battersea Park just across the river Thames from Westminster. However such a compact circuit would not have been suitable for Formula 1 race cars, and problems with hosting the event led London to drop off the calendar in 2017.

London's prospects of staging a full F1 event have been given a boost because of the risk of the British Grand Prix finding itself without a home after 2019.

Silverstone has exercised a break clause in its existing contract with Formula 1, citing rising costs as the reason for the event no longer being viable despite packed grandstands.

But Brawn says that even if a city race did eventually materialise, it probably wouldn't be as a replacement for the current British GP.

"We'd like to see London complement Silverstone, not replace it," said Brawn. "We could see ways we could make it work both sides."

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