F1 talks up Silverstone's ‘forever' future before Starmer meeting

The Herald

2 days ago

The meeting at Downing Street is billed as an informal celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first F1 championship race at Silverstone, but is also a chance to raise issues the sport wants addressed.
Domenicali said he would highlight how much the "F1 ecosystem" contributes to Britain as the beating heart of a global sport, and the risk of losing that primacy due to restrictions on staff and movement.
Formula One figures calculate the sport brings £12bn (R290,826,680,000) annually to the UK economy with 6,000 people directly employed and a further 41,000 working in a supply chain of 4,500 companies.
The Italian said visa issues post-Brexit had affected the deployment of staff from race to race around Europe, while costly and time-consuming paperwork had complicated logistics and made it harder to draw up the race calendar.
"It is impossible to think in the short term that the teams will move out from the UK because of the limitation, but the teams will maybe organise themselves in a different way," he warned.
"What we are asking is not to change the decision your country has taken, because it's not our mandate and our role, but to facilitate things that are having a burden on the economical side.
"Also in terms of possibility to be, as a country, more attractive for keeping the central part of F1 in the country."