‘Lot harder with Red Bull dominating’ – Silverstone boss points to Max Verstappen as British GP tickets remain

Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle has said Max Verstappen’s dominance has made it “a lot harder” to sell tickets quickly for this year’s British GP.

While estimates are still setting weekend attendance at a huge 465,000-470,000 fans at Silverstone this year, that is slightly down from the 488,000 at last year’s race weekend – with a deliberate slight reduction in capacity and Verstappen and Red Bull’s dominance cited as reasons behind slower ticket sales.

British GP ticket sales ‘a lot harder with Red Bull dominating’

Verstappen won 19 of the 22 races last season in Formula 1, and has won six of the nine races so far this year as he leads the World Championship by 56 points from Charles Leclerc.

With tickets for the past two years having sold out quickly, that has not been the case this time around, with a handful of tickets for the British GP still being available a fortnight away from the UK’s blue riband motorsport event.

While there was a surge in popularity of sporting events after the Covid-19 pandemic prevented people from attending in person, the cost of living crisis in the UK in particular has forced the majority of people to be more selective in the events they do attend.

Pringle explained that the dominance of Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone in previous years was not as preventative to ticket sales in the same way as now, given his home driver status in Britain, with the one-driver, one-team dominance of Verstappen removing the “jeopardy” from the racing, which in turn has made selling tickets a tougher proposition.

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“Historically we’ve always had to promote up until the end, but definitely there was a discernible bounce post-Covid,” Pringle told Autosport.

“That wasn’t unique to motorsport or Formula 1. Indeed, it was seen in other sports and entertainment events.

“But if there is a strong likelihood of the same winner, and the jeopardy is taken out of sport, it does take the edge off it. Last year was very repetitive in terms of one team dominated and they set off this season in the same vein.

“Things may be changing now, and I do recognise that we had several years of a British driver dominating the championship, and we didn’t mind that so much as a British promoter! But it’s certainly been a lot harder with Red Bull dominating.

“Also, as a promoter, you have to get your ticket pricing strategy correct. You could make these things go quicker if you reduce price.

“But we have got expensive bills to pay, not less the promoter fee, so it’s about hitting a strategy and making sure it works, which we’re pretty comfortable with.”

“I think society generally is booking things later,” Pringle added. “I’ve spoken to other promoters who are saying the same thing.

“People are used to instant gratification these days: I want to do this so I’m going to book it now. They don’t think about booking things a year in advance.”

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