Grapevine: Donington Denies Bid to Host British GP

Donington Park have denied that they are bidding to host the British Grand Prix in place of Silverstone and said that their focus is on motorcycling.

The Midlands circuit was said to be ready to step in to host the Formula One Grand Prix as part of a £50 million (pounds) development plan, with Silverstone struggling to raise funds for vital work.

But Robert Fernall, CEO at Donington, insisted that the circuit is focusing all efforts on extending its contract to stage MotoGP until 2009 rather than bring Formula One back.

"I cannot see why Donington would be linked as a venue (for the British Grand Prix)," Fernall said. "Our big situation is to extend the contract to run the British Motorcycle Grand Prix at Donington. The existing five-year contract expires in 2004 and we are in negotiations to extend that to 2009.

"Our focus is on that. At this stage, we have gone a long way towards development to ensure we can keep the standards which are required by MotoGP. That is not comparable to the standards required for Formula One.

"Redevelopment to fit for Formula One does not make sense because those requirements and the ones for MotoGP are so far removed that we would have to demolish our developments to make the circuit acceptable for Formula One."

Donington has not hosted Formula One since 1993 when it was the scene of one of Ayrton Senna's greatest wins in the European Grand Prix. Silverstone has been told to raise funds to make improvements by the end of August or risk the British Grand Prix being omitted from the 2004 calendar.

But Fernall insists talk of the prestigious event being moved to Donington is wide of the mark.

"It was a surprise to us," he said of the rumours. "We have not looked at the Formula One issue since investigations took place in 1999-2000. We are concentrating on two wheels and other grade two races internationally.

"We came out of F1 as soon as Interpublic advised us they had done a deal with the BRDC. There was a planning application with a feasibility study for a Tilke design in 2000 when Interpublic were talking about moving the contract to Donington."