Ecclestone: We Can Never Go Back to Silverstone

President and CEO of F1 Administration and Management Bernie Ecclestone stated that the British GP will be hosted at Donington Park or else it will cease to exist on the F1 calendar at all. The F1 chief executive is expecting that Donington Park race circuit will be available for hosting the race next year.

"We left there because I'm trying to improve facilities throughout the world," said Ecclestone, "and when I get people to build new circuits to the standard which we're trying to reach, how can we go back to Silverstone?” argued the F1 supreme in an interview for British newspaper The Guardian.

Ecclestone signed a 10-year contract with Donington Park but if the British venue will not upgrade its facility in order to support an F1 race next year, F1 will probably look elsewhere for a new host, probably in South Korea or India, which Ecclestone keeps as a backup plan.

"I negotiated a deal for them many years ago to give them enough money to build what we wanted. They didn't build it," added Ecclestone.

Three-time F1 champion Sir Jackie Stewart strongly argued, earlier last month, that if the contract with Donington Park falls apart, the race should be hosted by default at Silverstone, the classic home of British Grand Prix. However, Eccelstone's decision seems to be undeterred, at the expense of turning some of the British GP champions against him.

The rumors of the British F1 moving back to Silverstone appeared once the debts, reaching £66.7 millions for the year 2008, according to the Daily Mail report, of Donington Park emerged in the British media. Simon Gillet, the owner of the Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd., denied the newspaper's report.

“Our 2008 financial report has not been filed with Companies House, which leaves me confused as to where certain publications have sourced their 'facts' and figures from. We have always maintained we will reveal details of our financial package for the grand prix in quarter one of this year” claimed Gillet.