Silverstone hits back at 'pure fiction' British GP reports

Silverstone has responded to a report suggesting it has offered Formula 1's commercial rights holder, Liberty Media, all of its profits from hosting the British Grand Prix in order to keep the race beyond 2019 as "pure fiction."

Silverstone triggered a break clause in its F1 contract last year that allowed it to stop staging the British Grand Prix after 2019, in a bid to try and negotiate better terms with Liberty Media to make hosting the race more viable.

Talks between Silverstone and F1 officials have been running for some time to try and secure a fresh deal for the British Grand Prix, with the circuit warning earlier this month it would not pay "any price" just to keep the race.

A recent report in The Mail on Sunday claimed Silverstone had made an offer to "give all the profit it makes from the race to F1 in return for enough money to cover the costs of hosting the event" in a bid to save the British Grand Prix.

However, the circuit has denied such an offer has been made, calling it "pure fiction and spurious speculation."

“As previously stated, we have no intention of talking about the British Grand Prix contract negotiation in public," BRDC chairman John Grant said.

"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."

F1 CEO and chairman Chase Carey said last month the sport had "an array of options" to keep the British Grand Prix on the F1 calendar if a deal with Silverstone could not be agreed upon.