Hill: Not Bernie’s job to give British GP a break

The subtle dance that is negotiating (in public) with Bernie Ecclestone continues. The latest move is Damon Hill’s to the BBC’s Radio 5.

Hill paints a pretty somber picture, emphasizing that Formula 1 can go other places than Great Britain and make more money:

Former Formula 1 champion Damon Hill says the future of next year’s British Grand Prix is far from certain because of competition from around the world.

With contracted venue Donington Park struggling to find the cash to redevelop its circuit, Hill is trying to move the event to Silverstone.

But he fears F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone may look elsewhere.

“F1 can go anywhere in the world and get a huge amount of money,” Hill told BBC Radio 5 live.

“That’s what Bernie’s wrestling with. But it’s not his job to give a discounted job to the UK.”

[snip]

“There’s a whole load of reasons why it should happen here,” Hill added. “But ultimately you are competing against countries which are able to inject public money into their infrastructure and into the contract of the grand prix. And that seems to be the stumbling block here.”

[snip]

“He [Ecclestone] can get a value globally that is far in excess of what he can get for the UK,” Hill said. “We can respect that it is a difficult position for him to be in. He has to answer to his shareholders.

“There are options on the table. There are discussions taking place and I’m hopeful something can be sorted out.”

As Todd is always quick to point out — and as he did on podcast #130 — this is pretty much how these things go. Bernie calls a track trash and outdated and not up to F1 standards. Some more money gets tossed into upkeep and — shocker! — Bernie’s pocket. And, voila!, we have a race.

Still, we also have seen Bernie pull races off the calendar — Hi all our Canadian and even U.S. readers! — if his demands are not met.

So we probably can continue to file the 2010 British GP in the “hold your breath” file.

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