Bernie Ecclestone and the Motorcycle Lady: A Troubling Echo

So, for whatever reason, Bernie Ecclestone falls out with Silverstone, and he does a deal for the British Grand Prix to be run at a different circuit for five years.

The new circuit agrees to pay Bernie's Formula One Group (FOG) US$18M in the first year, increasing by 6 percent annually.

So in the fifth year, the fee for the privilege of staging the British Grand Prix will be $22.72M, and the total FOG will receive under the deal is $101.5M.

One-hundred-and-one-point-five million dollars; even if you say it quickly it's still a lot of money, and it was worth even more back in 1999, almost 10 years ago.

For the deal I write of has nothing to do with Donnington Park.

The motorcycle lady in the title photo is Nicola Foulston, daughter of computer tycoon and amateur race driver John Foulston, who was killed in 1987 while testing an old McLaren Indycar in preparation for a historic race.

John Foulston had been the owner of Brands Hatch and several other motor circuits, and Nicola became boss of Brands Hatch Leisure, as the company was named in 1990.

Nicola, just 23 at the time she became Managing Director, made a huge success of the job. She brought major events to Brands Hatch, and in 1999 it was she who announced the five-year deal with Formula One I summarised above.

The deal was to have started in 2002, but readers will no doubt be aware that Silverstone hosted the British Grand Prix in that year and every year since.

So what went wrong?

As part of their deal with Formula One, Brands Hatch Leisure agreed to "a £20 million overhaul and revision of the circuit"

The improvements were to include "a state-of-the-art pit and paddock facility" and "a new 15,000-seater grandstand" in addition to "new service roads, guard rails, kerbing and extended gravel traps."

Clearly, someone was going to have to pump a lot of money into Brands Hatch. Further, planning permission was going to be needed in record time, and construction work begun immediately if there was to be any chance of being ready for 2002.

Within weeks of the F1 deal being announced, Brands Hatch was sold to Octagon Motorsport. In January 2000, Nicola Foulston quit her remaining roles with Brands Hatch and departed; she had received £35M as her share of the Brands Hatch sale. She has remained successful, and is now a wealthy resident of Switzerland.

By the end of 2000, the grand plans for Brands Hatch becoming an F1 venue again had been abandoned. In December of that year, 13 months after Nicola Foulston's great announcement, Jackie Stewart, President of Silverstone, owners of the British Racing Drivers' Club, confirmed the British Grand Prix would be staying at Silverstone.

Now, coming to the end of 2008, we are led to believe that from 2010 the British Grand Prix will take place at Donnington Park. Of course, that circuit will need a lot of costly improvements, large-scale investment will be required, and planning permission, and construction at an amazing pace...

We've been here before.