British Grand Prix: Silverstone set to make announcement over future

Silverstone's owners are expected to announce on Tuesday that they will activate a break clause in their contract that would cancel the British Grand Prix after 2019.

F1's owners have not come up with an offer to try to secure the race, a source close to Silverstone says.

The circuit's bosses are understood to be keen to work out a solution.

Silverstone has been home to the race every year since 1987, and will host this weekend's grand prix.

A source close to Silverstone owners the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) said: "The BRDC is ready to sit down with F1 to work out a solution that ensures a long-term, financially viable future for the British Grand Prix.

"However, for negotiations to go anywhere there must be sensible offers made by both sides, based on a better understanding of the numbers."

The BRDC was not available for comment on the matter. It has said it cannot afford to keep the grand prix under the terms of the current contract and will have to drop the race if it cannot agree new financial terms with F1.

The comments from the source close to Silverstone are a response to information leaked to Reuters news agency last week, which said Silverstone had rejected an offer from F1 to take over the race for five years, which would absorb annual loses of between £2-3m.

The story also said an offer to delay the deadline for a decision until the end of July had been rejected.

The BRDC turned down the offer because it did not make financial sense for the organisation, the source said.

It would have meant handing Silverstone over free of charge to a third-party promoter for three weeks every year to run the grand prix.

This would have put the BRDC in a worse financial situation than it is already in because it would earn no revenue from the grand prix but still carry all costs of maintaining the circuit.

The BRDC rejected the chance to extend the deadline because it did not want to add to the uncertainty surrounding the situation given that it is widely known a decision had to be made before this year's British Grand Prix.

F1 chairman Chase Carey told BBC Sport that he regarded a British Grand Prix as "critically important" to F1.

"We are very much determined to have a race in the UK and our priority would be to try to find a solution with Silverstone but we are not there today," he said.

"We have a race in place through 2019, so you are talking three years. So there has to be a little bit of a reality check of the timeframe we are dealing with."

Carey said there was "interest from other places that would have appeal" in the UK in holding a race.

One of these is believed to be a bid to run the race on a street circuit in the Docklands area of east London.

Carey said: "I don't want to get too far into it. This sport in the past has been a sport that likes to talk first and act second and I am not sure that is always healthy in trying to move forwards.

"In business life I have usually tried to get things done and then talk publicly about why we did what we did. Negotiating and posturing in public is not a practice I am a great fan of. The conversations are better had privately.

"We want these to be partnerships, long-term partnerships and the best way to get there is to develop a level of trust and understanding and engagement with each other."