Liberty 'won't renegotiate Silverstone contract'

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Liberty Media Group boss Chase Carey has said that he won't change the terms of the commercial contract that Silverstone signed with Formula One to stage the British Grand Prix.

However, Carey did offer hope that Liberty might be able to find other ways of helping ensure the race remains on the calendar in the future.

"We are not going to renegotiate with Silverstone, but we will work with them to be good partners," Carey told the Mail on Sunday newspaper this week.

Silverstone's owners, the British Racing Drivers Club, have said that the race is unaffordable under the current commercial terms, which provide for an incremental increase in the race fees paid by the BRDC year-on-year.

Recent reports have suggested that the BRDC is on the brink of activating the break clause on the contract and walking away from holding the contract after 2019.

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"The British Grand Prix is an important race in the calendar," confirmed Carey. "Although we want to stage new races in “destination” cities such as London, New York, Miami and Los Angeles, we recognise the European foundations of the sport and want to continue that tradition.

"With Silverstone, we want to help them promote the race. When there is an NFL game in London, the shops in Regent Street are full of it.

"We want to do that sort of thing with the British Grand Prix and also make the event broader, with the race at the centre of a full weekend show."

However promotion isn't an issue for Silverstone, which in recent years has reported a near sell-out with crowds close to the 140,000 capacity of the circuit including last year's event which was won by home hero Lewis Hamilton.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.