NOVEMBER 9, 2004

British and French Grands Prix are on

The 2005 British and French Grands Prix will be on the Formula 1 calendar. Nine of the 10 Formula 1 team bosses met with Bernie Ecclestone in London today and agreed a commercial deal for the races to go ahead. The only thing that now needs to be done is to get the agreement of the FIA and Ferrari but this is unlikely to be a problem as neither wish to be seen to be torpedoing the two historic events.

This mean that there will be 19 races next year although it is not clear where Ecclestone is going to get the money for the 18th and 19th races. There is a deal in place for each team to get $500,000 for the 17th race and last year the 18th race meant a pay-out of $3m for the four big teams, $2m to the middle order and $1m for the small fry. Teams made it clear that they would be looking at similar payments for more races although the proximity of the French and British races to most of the team bases means that the costs will not be astronomical.

All that is now needed is for Ecclestone to come up with a deal with the British Racing Drivers' Club and the British GP will go ahead as planned as it seems that a deal is already place in France.