LONDON (AFP) - The British Grand Prix at Silverstone is finally dead after Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One promoter, decided he could do nothing more to save the nation's biggest auto race.
Silverstones inability to react to the fast pace of modern business means that it has lost out to one of the nations clamouring to climb on to the sports calendar of increasingly exotic locations, the Times newspaper said.
It is thought that Ecclestone is negotiating terms for a new grand prix in the United States, it added.
Ecclestone refused to be drawn on the venue, but said that he had to end the talks on Silverstone to guarantee the new event, for which promoters were ready and willing to meet his terms, the daily said.
The decision will be a body-blow to the hundreds of thousands of Formula One enthusiasts in Britain who have been making Silverstone their motor racing Mecca for the past 54 years, it said.
Ecclestone told The Times he finally had to give up attempts to save the race, after the longest talks of his reign as Formula Ones promoter, because he had a new offer on the table from a consortium that needs an answer immediately.
"What could I do?" he said. "I have got an offer from another country who are looking to build a lovely venue and invest a lot of money in Formula One and they will pay the going rate."
"I have to give them a year's notice to go ahead. If I miss that because I am still messing about with the BRDC, I would be keeping out a country that desperately wants to be in the Formula One World Championship."
What started as an argument over price boiled down to what Ecclestone said was a series of nit-picking disputes with his terms, the newspaper said.