For the last three months, the Commission has been investigating whether Octagon is monopolising British motor sport and preventing other promoters from hosting the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Today, the report will be handed to Patricia Hewitt, the UK’s trade and industry secretary.
Dr Peter Crowther, a specialist in competition law at Rosenblatt Solitcitors, a London-based law firm that represents Octagon, said Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone might axe the British Grand Prix altogether if Octagon fails to hold onto Silverstone.
He told sportbusiness.com: “It is rumoured that the Austrian Grand Prix may go to allow Russia to hold a Grand Prix but if the Competition Commission decides against Octagon then it may well be the British Grand Prix that goes instead. This case is not just about the future of Silverstone but about the whole UK motor sport industry.”
The British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) signed a deal with Octagon Motorsports last year to ensure that the British Grand Prix stays at Silverstone for the next 15 years.
But Octagon owns four other UK racing circuits and the last trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers, said that the deal with the BRDC might therefore be unfair to other circuits. He also voiced concern over Octagon’s increased shareholding in the British Motorsports Promotors (BMP), a promoter of national championships, might be anti-competitive.
Octagon had originally planed to hold the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch racing circuit. But delays in obtaining planning permission at the Kent-based track caused a re-think culminating in the deal with the BRDC.
Octagon is adamant that it will still be able to run the British Grand Prix at Silverstone because it is willing, in partnership with the BRDC and Bernie Eccelstone, to invest £42m ($60m/ B68m) in improvements to the circuit over the next five years. Octagon’s chief executive believes that no rival circuit in the UK could comply with the very strict standards set by the FIA, motor sport’s world governing body, for the staging of the Grand Prix.
Last week sportbusiness.com reported that the FIA has demanded an official response as to why promised improvements to traffic at Silverstone were not rectified in time for this year’s Grand Prix following last year’s mud bath at the circuit.
The British Formula One Grand Prix at Silverstone could be scrapped if the Competition Commission rules today that Octagon Motorsports’ acquisition of the circuit’s lease is against the public interest.
