British GP consortium fights on

The British consortium group, backed by former world champion Nigel Mansell, has told the BBC that it has the financial clout to ensure the British Grand Prix's future and is urging Silverstone's owners, the BRDC, to consider its proposal.

"It's a fully funded proposal the BRDC members should a chance to see," said the group's principal Kim Cockburn, who claims to have an agreement in place with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. "All we ask is that our proposal is taken seriously."

Cockburn, a property developer and motor racing enthusiast who claims to have the backing of Quintain Estates and Development, met with the BRDC last week and proposed to invest £200m in Silverstone in exchange for a 135-year lease of the BRDC's land and facilities.

"The plan is to set up a new company if which the BRDC has a part," she said. "We then masterplan the whole Silvestone site and we deliver restaurants, shops, hotels etc. It will turn Silverstone into a massive motor racing, leisure, entertainment destination right in the middle of England."

The BRDC is believed to have offered Bernie Ecclestone the US$13m required to promote the 2005 GP. But the club only wants a two-year deal and hopes to negotiate a further five year term once it has finalised development plans for Silverstone's surrounding areas with funding from the government's East Midland Development Agency.

Ecclestone has stated that he wants the BRDC to accept a one-year deal with a six-year option and that an agreement must be concluded imminently.