BRDC President Derek Warwick is expecting the British Grand Prix to be postponed because of the coronavirus.
The UK has currently seen the sixth biggest COVID-19 outbreak globally, with almost 85,000 cases and over 10,000 deaths linked to the virus while the peak is only expected to arrive later this month.
Silverstone has already said a decision on whether the Formula 1 race takes place as scheduled on July 19 must be made by the end of April.
But Warwick doesn’t see the situation improving sufficiently to give the Grand Prix the green light.
“It’s going to be tough for Silverstone if we cancel and you have to say that we’re not looking like we’re going to be on top of this thing by the middle of July, so it will for sure, I think, be postponed hopefully for a later date,” he said speaking to RaceFans.
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The loss of the F1 race would be a big blow to Silverstone as, despite the rising costs, it is easily their biggest single source of revenue during the year.
RaceFans also noted that, unlike the Wimbledon tennis championships which has already been cancelled, Silverstone isn’t insured against such scenarios like a pandemic.
“It’s going to hurt them financially,” Warwick admitted. “They’re not insured for this virus, that’s for sure. So there will be a loss. How big that loss is I have no idea.”
The Briton is much more confident the BRDC and Silverstone are in a stronger position now to cope with the fallout than they would have been in the not-too-distant past.
“If this had happened, probably five years ago but certainly 10 years ago, could the club have handled it then? No. Has the club come a long way in the last five years? Absolutely,” he said.
“It’s actually got cash in the bank and it can do a good job, but you wouldn’t want this to go on too long and if we can run the Grand Prix at a later date, we will get a lot of money back that otherwise, we’d have lost, I suspect.
“As a BRDC member, I can only have praise for the board and for [managing director] Stuart Pringle who has done an amazing job this last five, 10 years,” Warwick added.
“When I was on the board and also as president, I very much admired the people I was working with.