Damon Hill, pictured here while racing for Jordan, says Silverstone's owners will fund the tracks revamp themselves. Photo / Reuters
LONDON - Silverstone's owners plan to revamp the British Formula One Grand Prix track with their own means and hope to approve a masterplan by the end of July, said Damon Hill.
The president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, owners of the former World War Two airfield
with a contract to host the race to 2009, told reporters however that they would not throw cash at the project just to satisfy Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
"Our view is that the BRDC can afford to develop Silverstone using its own means, so that we don't constantly need to badger government," he said.
"We think we can stand on our own two feet and manage the assets."
Ecclestone has made clear that Silverstone must make improvements or risk losing its place on the calendar, despite its history as host of the first championship grand prix in 1950.
Hill said the new plan would cost the BRDC more than 20 million pounds ($NZ52.2 million), with some land sold to finance the improvements, compared with hundreds of millions spent in places like China or Bahrain.
The 1996 Formula One champion said the government endorsed the programme and BRDC members were expected to vote on it at the end of July. Planning permission had been sought.
A previous attempt by the BRDC to secure the race's future after 2009 via a development deal failed last year. That would have seen property firm St Modwen take on a 150-year lease of the land with plans to build houses and hotels on some of it.
"There are examples of Formula One venues around the world that perhaps are too extreme and too ambitious for the markets that they are in and they are not sustainable," Hill said.
"We don't want to fall into that trap and I don't think we should be expected to."
Hill expected Ecclestone to keep the pressure on and rejected suggestions that McLaren's British rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton could make it hard for the race to be axed if he won the title.
"We should not be complacent," he said. "We should take his (Ecclestone's) threats seriously."
- REUTERS
