The British Racing Driver’s Club have announced that they have triggered the break-out clause included in their contract with Formula One, which means the last Silverstone British Grand Prix will take place in 2019.
The current deal states that Silverstone have to pay five percent more each year to host the race, and following a loss of £12m in the last three years, the BRDC chairman, John Grant has decided to put an end to the contract.
This has opened new doors to bring the British Grand Prix to East London, with two options already on the table.
One of those would be to host the prestigious race weekend in the Docklands, with the track being laid out around the River Thames and Canary Wharf, a decision that would meet the new F1 chairman Chase Carey’s idea of adding more street races to the calendar.
Economy Boost
The second option put forward would mean a race weekend around Stratford, with one sector of the track going through the London Olympic Stadium.
The newly-formed organization called London GP revealed that the days preceding the race weekend would be a festival-style week, with concerts and various performances taking place around the event area, which would bring up to a total of a million people to the seven-day festival and also boost the number of seasonal jobs in the area by 3,280.
The ‘Olympic Plan’ also claims that the local area will be wealthier with the arrival of Formula One races.
According to the London GP organisation the local economy will benefit with a £472m boost, with an annual revenue of £82.5m.
Future Plans
The opinion in the London City Hall is unanimous, everyone including the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is interested in hosting a Formula One weekend in London, however there are various factors to be considered, such as pollution and safety.
Speaking to City AM, a City Hall spokesperson said: ‘’There would need to be a strong plan in place to overcome hurdles including pollution, safety and costs, but our city is used to holding big and spectacular events and the mayor is very interested in having F1 in London in the future’’
When Mayor Sadiq Khan was asked about bringing F1 to London, he said: ‘’Watch this space.’’
There is a good chance that we may see the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen racing on the streets of London, but until then, the Liberty Group will certainly receive more offers to host the British Grand Prix, and a new contract with the BRDC to keep the British GP in Silverstone is certainly still an option.