Empty spaces haunt field of dreams

13 April 2012

If you build it, they will come. So the voice told Kevin Costner in Field Of Dreams. Kev duly mowed down his cornfield, constructed a baseball diamond and watched the punters flock in.

At Silverstone, the same equation has not worked out quite so well.

Motorsport's world governing body, the FIA, has been making warning noises for some time that if the circuit's Stone Age facilities were not improved, the continued existence of the British Grand Prix could not be guaranteed. So a huge programme of change has been instigated, with the first improvements in place for this weekend's annual festival.

Every alteration has been designed to make life easier for Joe Punter, including cutting race-day capacity by a third to just 60,000 people. This, combined with a £10 million road-building programme, was intended to ease the hideous congestion which has become routine around the Northamptonshire track. Another £56m of road improvements are in the pipeline.

Tickets usually sell out months in advance. Yet this week, despite there being 30,000 fewer passes available, tickets have been advertised on the radio in an attempt to drum up business. Something has turned off this year's customers in a big way.

Perhaps Michael Schumacher's indomitable lead for Ferrari has done the trick. As race favourite, he is likely to open up a 50-point gap over his nearest rival come Sunday, making it possible that the world championship will be dead and buried by next month. As it is, with eight races remaining this season, including Silverstone, even a repeat of his 1999 accident in which he broke his leg and then took no further part might not leave enough time for his rivals to catch up. They are too evenly matched, too likely to share the spoils rather than monopolise them like the German.

Perhaps sport fans are more interested in watching the men's singles final at Wimbledon, weather permitting, even if Tim Henman foes not make it.

Time was when this was not a problem. For years what the BBC used to call the "great summer of sport" revolved around three unbreakable weekend dates in early July - the climax to Wimbledon, followed by the British Grand Prix seven days later, with the final round of The Open after that.

Not any more, and the fault lies wholly with the FIA. No one seems quite clear why it inexplicably opted to schedule this summer's British Grand Prix against the men's final, especially when both are set to start at precisely 2pm.

Race fans might opt for ITV to see the cars leave the grid, which is frequently the most eventful section of the race, but then switch back to the tennis proper.

Next year matters are no better, with the grand prix scheduled to clash with The Open. Yet the promoter is smoothly unruffled.

"We are conscious that it is Wimbledon this week," said Rob Bain, chief executive of Octagon Motor Sports, the company which has the rights to the British Grand Prix and runs it in conjunction with Silverstone's owners, the British Racing Drivers' Club. "Formula One has always done well against other sports and we are confident we will have no problems."

He must hope so, since the sponsorship agreements which are the lifeblood of the sport hinge on anticipated television audiences.

Lower audiences mean lower sponsorship revenue, leading to lower team revenue, which could mean redundancies among the 40,000 people employed full-time in British motorsport. A further 85,000 are employed part-time in the £5 billion industry. Loss of the Grand Prix itself would lead to still greater job losses.

Already this season there have been redundancies at Jordan and BAR. Yesterday came the shock news that Arrows are "doomed short of a miracle".

They might become the second team to disappear from the grid this year, after Prost were wound up in January with debts of £20m. The dawning possibility of further job losses explains the Government's sudden keenness to secure Silverstone's future.

"The Government have recognised they have to participate with us to ensure we retain the British Grand Prix," said Sir Jackie Stewart, three-times world champion and now president of the BRDC. "We don't have any other industry like this and we must protect it."

On Monday, work starts on the next stage of improvements at Silverstone, worth £23m, including a new pit and paddock complex, media centre and further infield facilities.

The money is being pumped in jointly by Octagon, the BRDC and grand prix ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Association.

Such steps are vital because countries such as China, Russia, Bahrain and Egypt are itching to join the Formula One circus in the next few years, but are most likely to do so at the expense of existing races.

Hence circuits which do not upgrade are most at risk.

"There are only 17 grands prix a year," Sir Jackie said. "There are a great many countries which want a grand prix, have the money to spend and don't mind spending that money.

"We have to be sure that Britain isn't one of the weak ones. We cannot lose the British Grand Prix."

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Empty spaces haunt field of dreams

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