Ahead of the final British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the chairman of the BRDC has expressed a familiar worry that there will be no UK race in 2010, although he is glad that at least this time it won't be Silverstone's fault.
With the F1 teams gathering in overcast Northamptonshire for one final Silverstone Grand Prix, Robert Brooks, the aforementioned chairman, has had a dry old waffle about the fate of the GP next year, when it is scheduled to switch to a heavily-modified Donington Park track.
"Our concern is for the 2010 Grand Prix," Brooks insisted, "We all know that grands prix don't take sabbaticals terribly well, and 2010 is a big concern to us. We don't think from where we sit that a summer grand prix in 2010 is a possibility at Donington."
Although the Donington Park boss Simon Gillett recently announced that the track's contract with Bernie Ecclestone now stood at 17 years, scuppering any plans that the BRDC may have had of swiftly regaining the contract, recent rumours have said that Gillet needs to find £80 million of investment to complete the required modifications to the track before the 2010 debut.
Bernie Ecclestone has apparently offered Donington the chance to take a sabbatical in 2010 with the view to starting afresh in 2011, but with the number of new countries clamouring for a slice of F1's bloated pie, the return of a dropped track may well prove tricky in the future.
Brooks, in no way trying to paint Donington as evil after losing his headline event to them, also said that: "I'm not here to knock Donington. Donington is a great club racing circuit. I was looking through my old programmes and I raced in my old Formula Ford in the first meeting when they reopened the track in the 1970s, and I remember after that race thinking, wow that is a great circuit.
"And it is a very exciting club circuit, as is Oulton Park, as is Brands Hatch Grand Prix, as are a number of British circuits. But the difference between a good club circuit and an international standard grand prix circuit is massive, it is huge. And the amount of work that needs to go in is considerable."
Casting aspersions on Gillett's plan to raise the necessary funds through a complicated debenture scheme, which is a fancy term for a number of long-term loans, Brooks said that: "We had a debenture scheme as part of our thinking for building a grandstand as part of our overall masterplan here, and it would work well for building a grandstand or something of that nature, but the idea that you could fund a £100 million development off a debenture scheme just doesn't stack up. It just doesn't stack up." To clarify that point: it doesn't stack up.
Brooks, though, was at pains to claim that Silverstone was actively looking to host the 2010 event, though he seemed to have little problem with passively looking to stir up distrust about Donington's abilities. He did say that the Silverstone track could step in to fill the gap, should Donington hit trouble.
"FOM are very, very good businessmen. They know our numbers, they know where we are and they know what the situation is," he said, going on to beg: "I hope we can continue to discuss the possibility of a 2010 race."
Despite having lost their biggest race for next year, the proposed redevelopment for Silverstone is set to go on unruffled, and there would be a level of irony if the BRDC finally managed to improve Silverstone's facilities after Bernie takes the F1 away. The BRDC have counteracted the loss of F1 from next year by poaching the rights to Britain's round of the chucklesome smugfest MotoGP from 2010.
In another clear piece of evidence that he wasn't actively looking to secure the 2010 F1 race, Brooks said that: "Silverstone is ready for the 2009 grand prix, so that means it is ready for 2010. You can compare it to many circuits around the world. I hope that you would agree that we are certainly not up with the Arab circuits and what have you, but this is a pretty good circuit, a pretty good setup and we are in pretty good shape. Silverstone is ready for a grand prix now and it will be ready for a grand prix in 2010. Absolutely, that is a very, very clear message."
So that's sorted then. The BRDC in no way want the 2010 British Grand Prix.
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