Boris Johnson in 11th-hour bid to save British Grand Prix at Silverstone

The Government is in urgent talks with Formula One to save this year’s British Grand Prix, with Silverstone officials prepared to delay hosting two races until late August as anxieties mount over strict UK quarantine regulations. While the Prime Minister has approved legislation that compels all incoming team personnel to self-isolate for 14 days after June 8, he is keen that a solution is found to restore the events as the premier spectacles of the country’s ravaged sporting summer.

With the intervention of No10, the Silverstone double-header could yet go ahead on the preferred dates of July 26 and August 2, although track officials are offering to hold reserve dates throughout August if restrictions on those travelling to the UK are extended. The problem is that F1 cannot wait indefinitely for an answer. On July 5, a much-delayed season will begin with the first of two grands prix in Austria, with further races in Hungary, Spain and Belgium to be confirmed imminently.

Silverstone is the one glaring hole in the sport’s European calendar, and F1 chiefs are unlikely to wait until June 29, when the quarantine rules are subject to their first three-weekly review, before finalising the schedule. The track generates up to £30 million annually from its signature race. It has been in positive dialogue with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in recent days, with a view to convincing Boris Johnson that the races should go ahead as planned. If negotiations are successful, it will embolden other sports potentially affected under the quarantine system – not least British football clubs still involved in European competition – to press their cases.

Hockenheim, the German circuit that was not even included on the original roster for 2020, has been lined up as an alternative to Silverstone. The potential switch is one that David Richards, the chairman of Motorsport UK, claims would be a “terrible loss”. As such, Stuart Pringle, Silverstone’s managing director, explained that the track was ready to draw up contingencies.

“We have our original dates in mid- to late July, but actually we have a degree of flexibility through August as well,” he said. “I don’t think that finding a date for F1 is going to be a problem, or indeed two dates. What we need is the green light from the Government, and that will take time.

“It is a relatively short period that we need to stand the venue up. Everything runs out of a fixed infrastructure. We’ve got two permanent paddock blocks, so we’re not talking about putting up too many marquees or fan areas, or anything like that. But there needs to be a lot of planning to account for the Covid-19 implications, and that’s uncharted territory for us.”

The quarantine rules come into force on June 8 and will then be reviewed at three-week intervals by the Home Office. After June 29, there is an option for the exemption list – which initially applies only to hauliers, essential agriculture workers, and those researching coronavirus – to be expanded to sports. This would enable all F1 staff in Austria for the season curtain-raisers to head straight to Silverstone and avoid any necessity for self-isolation. While Pringle is prepared to accommodate an August date to salvage the two British races, he is conscious that F1 is ratcheting up the pressure for a resolution.

Renewing an appeal for the dispensation that has so far been denied to the sport, he said: “I think F1 as a championship needs that exemption, because they’ve got to plan. It’s a huge logistical operation and they have to knit together a series of dates, forming a freight plan that works and understanding what the impact on the personnel is. That requires some clarity.

“There is cause for optimism that if we were to go further into the calendar, then it would make things easier. For Silverstone to move into August would give more certainty. But it’s probably essential that there’s clarity on the quarantine situation in advance of that. F1 needs to know sooner rather than later that teams can come back and forth, and that seven of them can return to their bases between races.”