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Formula 1 is in need of a British Grand Prix, says Claire Williams, deputy team principal of Williams. Earlier this week the British Racing Drivers' Club announced that they had activated its release clause, meaning that as of now, there will be no British GP from 2020 onwards.
There is an estimated 40,000 people working in F1 that are settled in the UK, something that Williams thinks shows the love affair for motorsport's pinnacle in the UK: "Most of our teams are based in the UK, our employees are based here. It employs tens of thousands of people through teams and the supply chain," Williams told Sky Sports News HQ.
"The contribution to the UK economy over a race weekend is significant and shouldn't be underestimated. And to not have a British GP would be criminal. It would be extremely difficult for the teams who can't then bring all their other personnel that don't get to go to every race to a Grand Prix. It's one of the classic races on the circuit and you look at the British fans, they are some of the best in the world."
BRDC's Derek Warwick admits that they have been working for the last number of years on a solution to secure the future of the race. Liberty Media also gave them an extension to delay the announcement of activating the release clause, but Warwick says nothing would have changed.
"We've obviously been trying hard the last few months and also years to find a way of the Grand prix to survive at Silverstone without losing the kind of money we've been losing the last two years," Warwick said.
"So we had no option but to break the clause because as much as we've been trying to negotiate before Liberty with Bernie [Ecclestone], and now with Liberty, we've not got to a situation where financially we have the confidence to take the grand prix forward to 2026.
"We legally had to break the clause before Friday. We did have an extension from Liberty, but because we were so far apart in how to drive this forward we thought it's best to get it over it and make sure the fans understand we've tried the best we can over these few years and it's not been possible to put together.
"To be honest, to delay it another four weeks only changes the position for Liberty I think. We don't want any bad feelings or any bad publicity going into the British GP this weekend, but let's try to separate the two."
Fergal Walsh
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