Hamilton warns Liberty against Silverstone axe
Lewis Hamilton has warned Liberty Media that dropping Silverstone would be a very bad idea.
Historic Silverstone, the scene of the first ever world championship race, is in danger of losing the British grand prix after cancelling its contract post-2019 for financial reasons.
World champion Hamilton praised Liberty for concluding new race deals in Vietnam and Zandvoort, but warned the F1 owner that it must also be "careful".
Referring obviously to Zandvoort, where support for Max Verstappen will be huge, the Mercedes driver said: "A great place and a big fan base there, but the race isn't going to be great.
"There are already some really awesome circuits and Silverstone is one of those," Hamilton added.
"The UK is the foundation of what this sport is and if you start taking away the legendary races and it's all just new ones, you lose all the history and all the culture which is what Formula 1 is.
"It is one of biggest turnouts of all season and you can't turn your back on that," he said.
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Fully agree with Lewis! I just wish all team bosses will more "openly" show their support & put some pressure on Liberty Media.
Silverstone is a great race venue. Liberty need to ensure that it's not only about economics or there will be no great races left. If we need to replace some lets be sensible about it and remove the boring ones.
Yeah, like remove Austria. What perfect Teutonic precision with no mystique, no ambience.
Historic Silverstone in danger of losing its exciting race while Paul Ricard keeps it procession. Madness.
After 60 years of following F1, if Liberty does not continue with Silverstone for 2020 onwards I’m out, done with, no more! What does that say wrt all the other millions of UK fans?
Most teams are based in Great Britain and as such there must a British GP and Silverstone is a such special place where great races are held and without it there will be far less interest in F1 and nobody wants this track to be excluded from F1calendar. So Liberty Media needs to do their work in order to save Silverstone F1! Perhaps they need to engage drivers to negotiate the deal if they are not able to do it themselves.I just have a feeling that Liberty is not approaching the track owners with a right attitude and certainly they seem to ignore the wishes of drivers and thousand of fans who have been following the sport for a long time.
To lose Silverstone in favor of a street course is NUTZ ! Who is the idiot and yes they’d be idiots to lose one of the greatest F1 venues especially to a concrete canyon street race it’s also much more dangerous to have a street race ! Fuck the bean counters @ Liberty!!!
Liberty media is a company that was sold a PUP by Bernie they are bleeding money and have no idea how best to stop the rot.New circuits will pay the price asked as they will be partly funded by the host government.silverstone is a private company .The main reason for this mess is the one and only Bernie Ecclestone.So ask him to foot the bill
Don't be surprised if there's an auction for race locations each year. It's clear that Liberty wants to inject more dynamics into the existing framework to make more money. Some of the new rules will need older circuits to make changes they can only bear with guarantees of long term patronage from Liberty.
I appreciate F1 history more than most, but 'stone always has been and always will be nothing more than a fast gymkhana course on a airport runway. Live with it, Brits. Brands Hatch should have been chosen as the darling decades ago. More fun to drive, more fun to spectate and a real race track.
CORRECT on all points But,Silverstone was cheaper by the acre and that's why it was chosen .
Not for racing but for cost.