Silverstone keeps hoping.
Silverstone bosses have admitted that they still hold out hopes that the British Grand Prix will stay at the Northampton circuit after the contract passes to Brands Hatch.
Chief executive Denys Rohan confirmed that the circuit would continue to prepare as a grand prix venue even as the 2002 deadline for Brands Hatch to take over looms. According to Silverstone, its Kent rival's bid is still stalled by red tape at the planning stage, and may yet fall through.
Silverstone bosses have admitted that they still hold out hopes that the British Grand Prix will stay at the Northampton circuit after the contract passes to Brands Hatch.
Chief executive Denys Rohan confirmed that the circuit would continue to prepare as a grand prix venue even as the 2002 deadline for Brands Hatch to take over looms. According to Silverstone, its Kent rival's bid is still stalled by red tape at the planning stage, and may yet fall through.
''[Silverstone] is still the most viable venue,'' Rohan insisted, ''and we would love to stage [the grand prix], but only if we get it on the right commercial terms. Brands Hatch has the contract to stage the race, but doesn't have the venue to stage it. If they don't get planning permission, then the contract will lapse.''
McLaren boss Ron Dennis, meanwhile, has called on those BRDC members prepared to cash in on Brands Hatch's offer to 'buy' the grand prix from Silverstone to be thrown out of the exclusive club.
''To see the club squeezed as it was by [former Brands boss] Nicola Foulston, and still by some BRDC members, is fundamentally wrong,'' he told Britain's Motoring News, ''If I was the BRDC president, I would identify the people, and take away their memberships, because they are not acting in the club's interests.''
Dennis, Rohan, Sir Frank Williams and Martin Brundle head up a BRDC action committee trying to resolve the future of the grand prix on behalf of the club, which is based at Silverstone.
