BRDC considers unofficial GP

On Wednesday Ecclestone broke off negotiations with the BRDC - owners of the Silverstone circuit - after failing to reach agreement on the length of the commitment and the financial terms.

The BRDC is not willing to give up hope altogether, though, and the board is set to meet today (Thursday) to consider its options, one of which, Hooten says, could be the staging of a non-championship event.

"That would have attractions as we wouldn't have to pay the fees to Formula One, but there is nothing definite," he told BBC Radio Five Live. "We have a board meeting today. It is a normally scheduled one but we will be discussing the grand prix at the top of the agenda.

"We will have a progress report to see whether we can continue discussions which were ongoing yesterday. I'm not sure he [Ecclestone] doesn't want to hold a British Grand Prix. All we can do is make the circuit available and offer a fee that is affordable to ourselves and make improvements here that can assure the long-term future of the grand prix at Silverstone."

Ecclestone has called a meeting of the 10 team bosses on Friday morning at Sao Paulo, host of this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix, the final race of the season, to hear their thoughts on Silverstone not being on the 2005 calendar.