Formula 1 will waive hosting fees and pay the expenses for Silverstone to host the 2020 British Grand Prix, in order to ensure the race can go ahead without fan attendance.
Currently slated to host the second race of the season on 19 July, Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle recently conceded that the COVID-19 pandemic made them “unable” to stage the event with spectators.
However with ticket sales the only way Silverstone can recoup its costs of running the GP, The Guardian is reporting that F1 owners Liberty Media have intervened with an arrangement that would see them essentially ‘rent’ the circuit from its owners, the British Racing Drivers’ Club.
Within driving distance of 7 of F1’s 10 teams, the British Grand Prix is one of the races at the centrepiece of Liberty’s plan save the 2020 season, with it believed they will use some of the cash freed-up in last week’s $1.5 billion liquidity boost to host the race themselves.
Additionally, planning continues for Silverstone — like Austria’s Red Bull Ring before it — to be used to host a second race the week after the first. Should that transpire, it would require a week’s break after the two races in Spielberg on July 5 and 12, moving the British races to July 26 and August 2.