The political manoeuvring behind F1's return to British GP normality

The final circumstances of Lewis Hamilton’s 2020 British Grand Prix triumph must surely go down as the most dramatic of his seven Formula 1 career wins at the event. But, his punctured last lap was missing something massive: the roar of the fans.

How many would have urged the home hero to the flag on effectively three wheels, and how many also would have cheered on Max Verstappen in his sudden chance to steal the race right at the finish? We can imagine, but we’ll never know.

The COVID-19 pandemic has stolen so much – and so much more important than normally-arranged sporting fixtures. Because of course, our current global nightmare and the resulting social restrictions were the combined reasons why the 2020 British GP and the following 70th Anniversary race were held behind closed doors.

But sport does matter. Even though it’s ultimately trivial, it matters for moments such as Hamilton’s last-lap heroics – because of the feeling it generates in those that want and need the escapism it provides. Plus, there’s those that can put their talents and knowledge to work for reward. Many people’s livelihoods depend on sport.

So many crave a return to the way we lived our lives before the pandemic. And, in one small way in the grand scheme of things, a piece of normality is coming back this weekend: the 2021 British GP will be a full-capacity event, with fans back in attendance.

“It will feel normal,” says Silverstone’s managing director, Stuart Pringle. “This is designed to feel like 2019 and before.”

Race winner Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 celebrates in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

So, expect to see the usual catering areas, merchandise outlets and of course, packed grandstands. This weekend’s event should be fizzing with humanity once again, nearly a year on from a pair of races that felt – away from the TV spectacle that nevertheless provided the usual exciting showcase – like bizarre mid-season tests.

The sun shone fiercely on Silverstone last August, the teams and drivers battled as ferociously as ever, but in front of painfully empty grandstands. Such circumstances were common in F1’s remarkable 2020 season, but they were accompanied by thoughts forward to the next campaign and things hopefully being different, and indeed back to the way they are supposed to be.

But, for the British GP at least, that was far from guaranteed, and it was thanks again to the ongoing challenges the pandemic poses.

The sun shone fiercely on Silverstone last August, the teams and drivers battled as ferociously as ever, but in front of painfully empty grandstands

The 2021 F1 calendar was revealed last November, and it looked largely as would be expected had life continued from 2019 unchallenged by the present awfulness. It has had to change a fair bit since then as F1, the FIA and many other racing stakeholders work flexibly to ensure the show continues. But at the time, with the first COVID vaccines being deployed and the promise of normal life returning as a wonderful result, there was reason to hope that many of 2020’s economic dangers had passed for motorsport entities such as Silverstone.

But as we know now, the process of unlocking societies is gradual and remains fraught with peril. In the UK, sport had been able to continue within a set of strict exemptions because the government recognised its morale-boosting nature and economic value. But stadiums won’t be allowed to reach full capacity again until after 19 July, when the remaining legal limits on such numbers are removed.

That is one day after the 2021 British GP will take place. Of course, the final stage in the UK’s unlocking was supposed to occur a month earlier, before being delayed by the surge in coronavirus cases fuelled by the Delta variant. But such events take months of planning and arranging anyway, and in Silverstone’s case fans just had to be back – and back in large numbers.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W10, passes a grandstand full of support

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“You don't need to be the biggest student of Formula 1 to know that the British Grand Prix is essentially paid for by the fans and their tickets,” explains Pringle. “So, if they could not be there, or they could not be there in the numbers necessary, then our ability to pay the fee [to F1 has part of Silverstone’s race-hosting contract] would have been extremely heavily compromised. And that would've been very difficult for Silverstone to deal with.”

Pringle has had“a lot” of meetings with the UK government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since the pandemic began, as Silverstone worked to understand how it could balance the remaining restrictions with its contractual obligations with F1. The result was this weekend’s British GP gaining a place on the government’s Event Research Programme.

The ERP has been a series of pilot events in typical mass-gathering settings, where attendees are required to present a negative test result (or in some circumstances full vaccination). The aim is to build up evidence of how such events impact COVID case numbers and inform decisions such as the roadmaps out of lockdowns. Silverstone will be one of the final test events and running at full capacity will conclude the graduated expansion of ERP event numbers.

“As part of the ERP, the restrictions are disapplied,” Pringle explains. “So, we are legally allowed to run a normal looking and feeling event. Because that's the purpose of the research. To see what happens, to learn the lessons.

“What the government is seeking to do is to have a weapon in its armoury that it can deploy later in the year - particularly in the winter, when one might expect a resurgence of a virus - in order to keep sports events running. Particularly football this winter. Because of what it means to the country, because of what it means to the sports economy and the local economies.

“So, it's entirely logical that they should want to at the end of the restriction period – having done a series of different test events at ever increasing scale – trial a large event at full scale.”

But it is understood that initial talks about allowing fans back to the British GP initially involved far lower numbers, in the region of 25% capacity. This would’ve been a major problem for Silverstone because its margins on the F1 contract are fine. The track signed up to the agreement because it backed itself – in normal circumstances – to attract the numbers required, aided by a home hero racking up F1 records.

Stuart Pringle, MD of Silverstone

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Discussions continued over many months, with Pringle also signing Silverstone up as one of several UK sporting entities that backed the introduction of so called ‘COVID passports’ if it meant possibly being able to run as normal. In the end, it got its wish as the UK government – apparently with the importance of motorsport to the country’s economy a consideration – added Silverstone to the ERP and allowed a full-capacity event.

There is another political element at work too, which could be detected throughout the month just gone at Euro 2020. The UK government is keen to hold the traditional ‘Great British Sporting Summer’ as normally as possible in 2021 to tout the success of its vaccination programme – especially in comparison to some of its European neighbours against the backdrop of Brexit.

That is ‘soft power’ at work, which is another reminder that the argument for sport and politics never mixing is always incorrect – they are indelibly linked. But there remains the element of sport’s power to help and heal – just look at what the England men’s football team achieved in Euro 2020, even as their quest for glory fell agonisingly short.

The pandemic is not over and there is likely to be more pain to come, but it will end one day

And so, for British F1 fans – and those watching around the world, as it is understood that approximately 80 million viewers will tune in to follow the British GP on TV, hence the optics power it provides – this weekend’s race will hopefully signal the longed-for return to normality. The pandemic is not over and there is likely to be more pain to come, but it will end one day.

For Silverstone, despite the financial dangers COVID continues to pose, there is cause for optimism. The track was able to weather the initial financial pressure aided by 70% of 2020 British GP ticketholders rolling their bookings over to this year and not asking for a refund. Pringle instructed his staff to make no quibbles on any bookings that did need to change though, as Silverstone is naturally keen retain is customers who “saved us” for the coming years too.

The track has also worked to address a structural imbalance in its events calendar – relying less on the success of the British GP each July. Examples of this include new events such as its ‘Lap of Lights’ driving experience added at Christmas, and the Silverstone Experience museum attracting visitors throughout the year.

“I think we're going to bounce back – like many other sectors of the economy," concludes Pringle. "It's all waiting to get going. [The rest of 2021 for Silverstone] will look very normal. In fact, it might even look slightly abnormal in that I think the one area that will still take time to come back is international travel. And so, if international travel is taking time to come back, we may be the beneficiary at events.

“So, motorcycle fans might choose to come to MotoGP because they haven't had a holiday. That would be great. The Classic is just two weeks after the British Grand Prix and it's just a fantastic weekend – if you haven't got a holiday to go to the bring your tent to Silverstone and just get stuck in. So, I think 2021 is going look at least normal and perhaps even slightly abnormal in a positive way.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1, 1st position, celebrates by crowd surfing over fans

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images