Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Silverstone, 2018

Silverstone rubbishes report of £30 million offer to Liberty Media

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: The British Racing Drivers Club, which organises the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, has rubbished reports claiming it offered to pay Liberty Media the £30 million it receives in ticket money from the race in exchange for a subsidy to cover the cost of holding the race.

What they say

BRDC chairman John Grant told RaceFans:

As previously stated, we have no intention of talking about the British Grand Prix contract negotiation in public. The Pitpass and Mail on Sunday articles are pure fiction and spurious speculation.

As has been made clear recently by Stuart Pringle, Silverstone’s managing director, we have consistently said that we would like to maintain the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, but only on terms that are commercially viable and, obviously, that means a deal that is also commercially acceptable to Formula 1. We have agreed with F1 to keep these discussions private and will continue to do so.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Social media

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Snapshot

Grand Prix of South America, 2018
Grand Prix of South America, 2018

Juan Manuel Fangio’s son Oscar gave the signal to start the inaugural re-running of the Grand Prix of South America. Now a historic rally, the original event was a gruelling 10,000-kilometre trek through Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

The revived rally was won by Andrew Davies and Paul Dilley in a 1929 Chrysler 75.

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Comment of the day

Should Alonso appear higher than fourth in this year’s F1 Driver Rankings?

In terms of Alonso, I can’t see how he can be rated behind Leclerc. I don’t see any kind of criticism here – in fact, from what I can tell from this article Alonso didn’t let a single point get to waste this season.

I think he’s been absolutely phenomenal, and the stuff he pulled off in Azerbaijan or maybe even Singapore should be stuff of legends. Leclerc was pretty fantastic this year no doubt, but he did have a lacklustre first three races, and just like with Verstappen that shouldn’t be discounted.

Alonso easily gets my number two spot.
PeterPegasus

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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26 comments on “Silverstone rubbishes report of £30 million offer to Liberty Media”

  1. Alonso had some pretty bad races when he was out of the points. The moment he wishes Vettel has damage was telling…

  2. Well we can likely disregard any “news” from the Mail?
    I’ve been to Stevenage many times. It’s a bit rough around the edges in places but it’s not the worst by any means.

    1. Stevenage became New Town around 1946.
      If he lived in one of those terraced council estates, like I did in Hemel Hempstead in the 60’s, unless they’ve rebuilt them, slum would be an appropriate word. (I’ve used far worse)
      Best a day of my life was when my parents moved us out of that hellhole, to a nice place nearby in the country.

      @Best Stevenage memory ? The Kinks at the Locarno :)

    2. Lewis has been to slums in India and the Philippines, so he knows it’s no slum.

    3. As a schoolboy I lived in East Lancashire, home of the cotton industry, and in the 90’s I did a 3 month contract in Stevenage. I know which place I prefer and it is not Stevenage.

    4. My memories of Stevenage are from the mid-1980’s. It was a mixed area but parts were very run down and depressed. I would not have used the word slum (and Hamilton retracted that word immediately) but it was definitely on that path. I’ve seen slum areas in other parts of the world, and although the severity of the social problem was worse in places like Venezuela, Malaysia and Hong Kong, the “feel” was the same. Desperation, people trapped by (relative) poverty and a lack of opportunities. Don’t get me wrong though, I really liked Venezuela (and Colombia), Malaysia and Hong Kong. In each of them the difference between luxury and slum was astonishing.

  3. I didn’t know they revived the Grand Prix of South America. The “Buenos Aires-Caracas” as it’s also known was a ridiculous race even by the standards of the day. Fangio nearly died after rolling over… And Onofre Marimon’s father, Domingo won it after Juan Galvez (THE star in argentinean racing back then) was penalized because a spectator assisted his broken car when he was meters away from the finishing line.

    It took them 112 hours to race the 10000 kms of special stages. In Chevrolets and Ford cupes modified by a handful of people in workshops all around Argentina with finantial support from neightbours or clubs (“peñas” as they were called). My grandfather worked in one of those workshops later on, on Carlos Menditeguy’s car.

    1. Nice bit of motorracing history @fer-no65!

      1. @bosyber argentinean racing of that era has ridiculous stories like those. I assume Grand Prix racing felt like child’s play for Fangio, Froilan and the lot…

  4. I keep getting confused between DragonSpeed racing (owned by Elton Julian) and Dragon racing (owned by Penske heir Jay). My heart skipped a beat at the prospect of seeing a father-son battle in IndyCar, at least team owners-wise.

    1. Dragon racing was an IndyCar team at least until 2014. Sebastian Bourdais was the driver.

  5. It would certainly be interesting if Alonso tested the MCL34. It would give McLaren someone to compare the 2019 and 2018 cars, but it would also enable them to evaluate the performance of their drivers with a known benchmark.

    And as for Hamilton, people really are making a controversy out of nothing. This doesn’t even surprise me anymore. But maybe Hamilton could refrain from mentioning his rags to riches story so often. He didn’t come from a privileged place, and he is now the best driver in F1, and it really is an inspirational story, but it just feels like it’s mentioned a lot, even from when he joined F1 for the first time. Unless I’m very much mistaken, Esteban Ocon came from a similar background (his parents had to sell their house and live in a caravan just to support his karting), and I don’t remember it really being mentioned by anyone.

    1. @mashiat – we know the Hamilton story well but many do not. Most people in the world haven’t a clue about F1. As a simplified yet inspirational potted history, I guess it has its uses and will continue to be used. It’s just not aimed at us – we’re the “F1 illuminati” after all. When Esteban becomes a focus of attention outside F1 I’m sure he will use a similarly concise “origin story” many times. Leclerc also has a nice backstory. Stroll is out of luck with that one.

      1. @tribaltalker You do certainly have a point. Sometimes we get so caught up in this F1 bubble, that we forget that there are many who have no idea what F1 is, or who Lewis Hamilton is. But even then, I personally do think that maybe he should dial it back somewhat. He used to mention it a lot more when he was battling against Rosberg, I think perhaps to garner more sympathy and play the protagonist.

  6. 😱😱😱 LEWIS!!!?
    I’m triggered.. I’m now going to rage all over the internet in order for someone to notice my struggles and hardship… and maybe, just maybe somebody might pay me a compliment!

  7. Does she not have more important things to do than coming out with this fake outrage?

    He’s talking about his lived experience that she nor anyone who’s chomping at the bits to lash out at him, has no experience of.

    I’ve seen the BBC put out the same story with the headline, “Lewis at war with Stevenage council” …… at WAR!!

    Let it go

    1. Let it go

      1. I must say, you are persistent.

        1. No, it’s “can’t hold it back anymore”.

          1. You joining in too? Ok, the more the merrier.

        2. He was singing the theme song from Frozen with you

          1. I know that.

            My comment relates to something else.

          2. Turn away and slam the door

          3. The cold never bothered me anyway

            (Blows hair away from forehead)

  8. £30 million, LOL.
    – People are always eager to make a fuss out of the smallest of things.
    – I agree with Webber and I also partially agree with the COTD. Yes, FA could’ve been ranked higher than 4th, but I don’t feel 4th is too unjustified either.

  9. Michael, do you keep fighting?

Comments are closed.