London F1 race still on the cards despite Silverstone deal

F1 CEO Chase Carey said discussions over a London Grand Prix are still "ongoing" despite Silverstone's new five-year deal with F1.

Since taking the reins of the sport over two years ago, Carey has spoken of Liberty Media's desire to bring F1 to "destination cities" located in various parts of the world.

The Formula One Group's attempts of securing a second race in the US by courting the city of Miami have so far been unsuccessful, but its efforts continue unabated.

F1 also earmarked London as a potential host capital for the sport and overtures to the City's authorities were initiated last year. During Wednesday's announcement of Silverstone's new deal with the sport, Carey said a race in the UK's capital was still very much on the cards.

• Silverstone secures 5-year contract with Formula 1!

"We have interest from a lot of places and the discussions with London are ongoing," said Carey. "We look forward to continuing to have those discussions.

"It will be a different experience and we will see where they take us. But certainly in the short term our focus is here on Silverstone to make sure we continue to build on the new contract."

Through the voice of its chairman John Grant, the BRDC, which owns Silverstone, believes a potential cohabitation of the two races is possible.

"We recognise Formula 1's desire to have destination city races, and frankly if that brings a new audience to Formula 1, I think in general that is a good thing," said Grant.

"We don't oppose that and we certainly support the intent. Of course, we are concerned about the commercial threat to us of having a competitor event on our doorstep so to speak, and just 85 miles or so away.

"So we have had very frank discussions with our friends at Formula 1 about that and they understand those concerns," added Grant.

"And it's fair to say we have come up with some modus operandi, a set of agreements, that protect our interests to our satisfaction should that set of events ever become a reality.

"We are not going to get into any of our commercial arrangements, but we think there is room for two races to co-exist side-by-side as long as they have sufficient separation in time and as long as our commercial interests are recognised in some reasonably flexible way."

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