Silverstone has secured its long-term future as the home of the British Grand Prix in a new 10-year deal worth £300million.
Mail Sport understands confirmation will follow later today that the Northamptonshire circuit has secured the contract with Formula One’s American owners, Liberty Media. Silverstone, we can reveal, will pay some £30m-a-year to stage one of the jewels of the sporting summer until 2034.
There are no plans to host a counter-attraction in London. F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali is of the view that a race down such iconic landmarks as the Mall would offer glamour enough to follow through on the idea but that there are insuperable obstacles, such as closing down large parts of the capital for days on end. There is no desire on Domenicali’s part to put on a grand prix at a less recognised setting out of town, and London as a possibility is dead for the foreseeable future.
The British Grand Prix will remain at Silverstone after a new 10-year deal was agreed with F1
So it is all guns blazing at Silverstone, where 480,000 spectators flocked last year, cementing a relationship with the lineage of British fans who attended the first post-war race in this country in 1948, watched by King George VI. The old airfield, from where Wellington bombers flew, now a state-of-the-art facility, hosted the first race of the world championship on May 13, 1950, won by Nino Farina for Alfa Romeo.
It is understood that talks between Domenicali and the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC, which owns Silverstone) have been more harmonious than in previous renegotiations. Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was a critic of the circuit’s BRDC ‘blazers’, famously describing one race, with its jammed roads, as a ‘country fair masquerading as a world championship event’.
Those issues have been addressed under the leadership of Silverstone’s managing director Stuart Pringle, a former secretary of the BRDC, who struck the deal with Formula One bosses along with Peter Digby, chairman of the BRDC. Underlining their improved standards there, Silverstone won the best fan entertainment award at the global promoters’ awards at the British Museum on Wednesday night.
Silverstone’s previous deal ran from 2019 to 2024, and this new agreement represents at least a £5m increase on their previous contract.
For Liberty, securing Silverstone is an antidote to the accusation that they are taking the sport away from its heartlands in Europe for eye-watering money in new cash cows such as the Middle East. The fees in Saudi Arabia are £70m-a-year. Qatar is similar.
Only last month, Liberty were accused of compromising the sport by taking the Spanish Grand Prix from Barcelona – a tired old venue – to Madrid for a partial street circuit from 2026 for £40m a year.
Keeping one of the sport’s most historic events, in Silverstone, on the roster augments Domenicali’s stated desire to strike a balance between new, glitzy venues, and places that maintain historic links to motor racing’s heritage.
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