British Grand Prix ticket deal launched at Autosport International

It is managing director Patrick Allen's latest initiative as he seeks to add value to the price of a ticket for his circuit's blue-riband event.

For the price of £249, fans will receive a grandstand ticket for all three days of the July 8-10 F1 event, as well as a ticket to the British Superbike Championship on April 8-10 and British Touring Car Championship on September 17-18.

The ticket is available only across the four days of the Autosport International Show at Birmingham's NEC, including the public days this weekend.

Explaining his thinking behind the offer, Allen told Autosport: "I'd rather do things like that than trash the price, or discount this and that - instead add value to what has already been purchased.

"That is always our challenge - to keep providing value, and that will be the model, to add things to what is already an expensive ticket in many people's eyes.

"We're testing the water with it, and we'll see what happens on Saturday and Sunday."

A year ago, soon after his appointment, in a bid to boost sales for the British Grand Prix, Allen offered a weekend ticket for just £99.

Allen has confirmed there will be no repeat of that deal on this occasion

"Last year we heavily discounted the price to find out where the initial starting point should be for our new ticketing model, which is the budget airline model in effect," he said.

"Some people have been disbelieving, thinking I would do again what we did last year, but we won't be doing that. We'll be carrying on with our current strategy.

"That saw us offer a limited number of tickets immediately after the grand prix, which then creep up in price over time.

"It's like an EasyJet flight. If you book them when they first come out you get them at £49, but if you want to go the day before then it's £349. That's how we are going to develop the whole business."

Last year's British GP was attended by a record race-day crowd of 140,000.

Allen has confirmed sales this year compared to last year are up by 25 per cent, with plans already in the pipeline for 2017.

"A lot of people took advantage of what is a fantastic early bird offer," said Allen.

"My aim for next year is to start even lower, maybe even have a £49 ticket.

"There will be a very small allocation of that, and then gradually it will increase in small increments towards race day.

"I've already worked out what the figures will be so we don't end up in a deficit situation owing Bernie Ecclestone money."