How the British GP was saved for 2020

"The British Grand Prix is the best grand prix, particularly because of the fans - the thousands that turn up and really create the spectacle," says Lewis Hamilton. "So, it's going to be super-weird. We had a test day there before the first race, and it's going to feel just like that - empty."

Hamilton knows how to succeed at Silverstone - he's won there a record six times in Formula 1. And he knows the part the home supporters play, the energy they provide, the pressure of their expectation, in which he revels. But he also knows that crucial element will be missing this year, and for good reason.

This weekend's British GP will be followed a week later by the 70th Anniversary GP, with Silverstone becoming the second F1 venue to host a follow-up race after the Red Bull Ring's Austrian and Styrian events earlier this month. Between those two venues alone, F1 has found half the races the FIA requires to call a championship.

The length of the 2020 season has become a critical element for F1. The COVID-19 pandemic swept away what should have been a 22-race calendar - the longest in the championship's history. And as well as the health risks the virus has brought to all involved, its economic impact hangs over the campaign.

In short, F1 needs to organise as many races as possible to fulfil the lucrative TV contracts it holds, and reduce the refunds to broadcasters who will not be getting as many races as they had paid for, even if the championship hits the 15-18-round 2020 target set by CEO Chase Carey.

It is getting there. The addition of rounds at the Algarve circuit, the Nurburgring and Imola pushes F1 to a new 13-race calendar, with further events in the Middle East set to be added in the coming months. This will tip things into the territory of Carey's target.

The problem is, nobody knows how the next stages of the pandemic are going to play out, with doubts about the viability of Barcelona's race on 16 August now being raised - despite its protestations to the contrary - after advice to stay at home wherever possible was recently issued for the city. This again highlights F1's need to get in every racing lap it can, when it can, in 2020. After all, there was a very real possibility that the whole season would be lost in the wake of the lockdowns following the aborted Australian GP in March.

"Those first few weeks, the big sporting events were falling like ninepins," says Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle. "We were always led by our lead time to set the venue up with temporary infrastructure that's all really related around the public. Once we'd called the public event off, then there was a serious chance that there wouldn't be any racing at Silverstone."

For F1, the following weeks through the height of the initial lockdowns became all about damage control on costs. The new car rules were pushed back to 2022 and the current designs rolled over to 2021, while funds were moved around at Liberty Media and some teams were given early prize payments to ease their financial issues.

"The view was taken pretty quickly that [12 races at Silverstone] would be a bit dull, but they came back and said, 'actually, two would be quite helpful'" Stuart Pringle

As the pandemic progressed, it became possible to see how the calendar might be reformed, with the low infection rate in Austria a crucial part of getting the season under way there. But Silverstone had a significant advantage when it came to its chances of getting a rescheduled race - the presence of seven out of 10 F1 teams in the UK, most of them essentially based on the track's doorstep.

"If F1 could get a championship away from one location," says Pringle, "at one stage it looked like nothing could happen and the answer was, 'ship in the Italian teams and Swiss team, and the Pirelli guys, and park them at Silverstone for a couple of months and run 12 races and make television if that's what you need'. The view was taken pretty quickly that that would be a bit dull, but they came back and said, 'actually, two would be quite helpful'."

Negotiations between the track and F1 concluded swiftly as the plans to redraft the season kicked into action and the two sides reached an agreement for the pair of races that Pringle says each was "very pleased with". It was clear that without ticket-sale revenue the usual race hosting fees would not be possible for many tracks and Autosport reported at the time of the rearranged Silverstone events being announced that the fee will be replaced by a deal in which F1 itself pays the event costs.

"We've got a great world class track that's available, with teams around the corner, and we're a very tried and tested team in terms of delivery," explains Pringle (pictured below with Carey and British Racing Drivers' Club chairman John Grant last year). "So, Formula 1 was keen to make it happen. They came to us, we reached a commercial accommodation. Both parties giving ground is a deal. That's what happens. And we got a couple of races."

The British GP will be one of the few British summertime sporting spectacles that can still take place. Other sports - including football and cricket - have got going under special dispensation from the UK government, and again the spectre of TV money has been a driving factor.

Although the England v West Indies test match series has involved flying in a team to take part in three games, F1 is the first global competition to get going since the pandemic began. The championship's travelling nature increased the logistical difficulties of a Silverstone race, as the 14-day quarantine rules introduced in England on 8 June presented a new hurdle - which would have been the case even if the track had actually staged the season opener given Ferrari, AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo and Pirelli are not based in the UK.

But the Silverstone race has enjoyed considerable support from the UK government, with one report in The Times suggesting that went all the way to the top and prime minister Boris Johnson. In any case, the quarantine rules have been relaxed for arrivals from many countries.

"One, the government recognises that the motorsport industry is important to UK PLC and it is not lost on them what Formula 1 itself brings to the economy of Great Britain and in particular this part of the country," says Pringle.

"And secondly, from an elite sporting event point of view, with so many of the big summer crown jewels cancelled there was a very clear will in the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) to see the British Grand Prix run, or grands prix run. They wanted a major UK international sporting event, '100million eyeballs around the world, etc'."

And so, the 'new normal' F1 circus will arrive at Silverstone this week, with the testing regime of COVID-19 swabs, temperature checks and mandatory face masks set up at the track. Silverstone's vast ex-airfield nature helps here too, as the Formula 2, Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup support teams can be accommodated in the National pits. And one of the car parks at the track's main entrance has been dedicated to the coronavirus testing area.

Although Pringle mischievously didn't initially shut down suggestions that the second F1 race could use one of Silverstone's alternative layouts - or even reverse the GP track entirely - such talk was never a serious consideration. Both the British and 70th Anniversary races will be running on the same 3.661-mile layout that has been in operation since 2011 (a year after the track's modern layout was first used at 3.667 miles).

Costs are under extra consideration for all F1 stakeholders right now, and the timing of the lockdown - as with any business relying heavily on seasonal trade - was terrible for Silverstone. The track had just gone through the quiet winter and early spring months when everything was forced to shut down and, although restrictions have since eased - and it used the time to make 24 improvements to surface drainage - there will be an inevitable hit on income in 2020.

"I can say that Silverstone is not at risk, but it's not pretty," says Pringle. "We are having a torrid time. We have a business which is working very deliberately towards trying to diversify itself so it has much less of a reliance on a real peak in the middle of the summer. But we're not there yet.

"This virus turned up about two years too early for us as far as our diversification plan goes, and we're still way too reliant on big public events in summer. And we have been denied those.

The track says 70% of people who bought a ticket for this year's event have asked for it to be rolled over to next year, which translates as 40% of Silverstone's capacity for 2021

"It's like a big game of snakes and ladders. We've been crawling up a very long ladder - and it's been getting very tiring - but we're now going all the way back down the snake. And it's going to set our business back about five years in terms of balance-sheet positions.

"But we're still in the game. The bank understands it and supports us and bought into our strategy and vision. And the membership of the British Racing Drivers' Club [which owns Silverstone] is similarly supportive, albeit desperately sad that the progress they've seen made with their prized possession has taken a turn for the worse for no reason of its own making."

The plan remains the same for the track's long-term health - to make Silverstone a leisure and business destination inspired by motorsport. A hotel opposite the International paddock pits is under construction to increase the value of the Wing as a conference and exhibition space, Aston Martin now has its test and development centre at the track and the Silverstone Experience is open for visitors even while the racing is currently closed to spectators (although only for those with pre-booked tickets given the restrictions in place around the track during F1's elongated stay).

F1 of course remains a central part of the plan, with Silverstone having a deal that runs until the end of 2024. And a crucial part of the track's immediate future concerns the tickets it had sold for the originally planned 2020 event and the hoped-for return to normality in 2021. The track says 70% of people who bought a ticket for this year's event have asked for it to be rolled over to next year, which translates as 40% of Silverstone's capacity for 2021.

But what delighted Silverstone even further was a surge in interest when tickets for next year's expected race were put back on sale on 9 July, which resulted in what Pringle says was "the third highest volume of tickets on the opening day that we've ever sold".

"We went through a process of offering everybody the chance to have a refund if that is what they preferred," he says of the 2020 ticket holders.

"I'm delighted to say just how grateful we are for the support of the fans who have rolled their bookings over. It makes a huge difference to our business because it means that we don't have to take the cash out to refund them at a time where we've got no revenue coming through the business. It's very helpful not to have to reduce the balance further."

A surge in interest for 2021 tickets is noteworthy, because Pringle acknowledges the 70% are the "hardcore" fans. So, it seems the cabin fever induced by lockdown, as well as the ongoing but necessary restrictions on normal social life, may not be quelling the desire to see live sporting action as some - including FIA president Jean Todt - initially feared.

How that plays out remains to be seen, and indeed the world needs to be vastly different if a 2021 British GP can take place in 'normal' circumstances. But that remains the hope and target for F1, the track, and the drivers that benefit from fan support.

"Once the helmet is on nothing really changes," says Williams driver George Russell of this year's fan-less Silverstone events. But what he misses next is exactly what F1 must remember and look forward to returning.

"You've always got a bit of an extra gear when you go to your home race because you've got that home support. It's such an amazing feeling, driving into the paddock, seeing everybody cheering your name."

How the pandemic has impacted the rest of Silverstone's calendar

In a normal year, Silverstone would be hosting a varied calendar of events - from the headline British Grand Prix, to British Touring Cars, the World Endurance Championship and the Silverstone Classic, as well as many club events.

While smaller national races can be rearranged within Motorsport UK's restart plans - behind closed doors for the time being - rescheduling the larger championships is more difficult. Two of the circuit's highest-profile events - the WEC round that had been due to start the 2020-21 season and the 2020 Silverstone round of MotoGP - have been cancelled.

But British Superbikes, British GT and the BTCC will be having races at the track this year, although in the case of the latter series - which is now missing the scheduled second visit to Silverstone to use the International layout - the possibility of some spectators attending remains tentative.

"We cannot afford to compound our situation for the sake of one weekend, however much our hearts would like to see that" Stuart Pringle

"At the moment, fans cannot be present [for any events]," says Pringle. "But we can run behind closed doors and frankly, the club scene is effectively behind closed doors anyway in this country. But those can still take place and Motorsport UK are to be commended in the way that they've brought the sport back to life quickly.

"But touring cars we're keeping under review - that's a possibility. Of course, if we can, we can do it - but we have to look at not just the cost of opening for the weekend or for one race, but what standing the venue up for one weekend means for the year as a whole. We cannot afford to compound our situation for the sake of one weekend, however much our hearts would like to see that."

On MotoGP, Pringle explains, "What worked very much in our favour with F1" - having most of the teams based nearby - "was the equal and opposite with MotoGP".

"Dorna [commercial rights holder for MotoGP] was just trying to get together a calendar that they could deliver, and we couldn't offer at the time what they needed to make their decisions," he adds. "There was absolutely no way we could give them any certainty we'd be in a position to deliver it [when the decision was taken in May]."