Lewis Hamilton says Red Bull cannot be blamed for the high number of unsold tickets for this year’s British Grand Prix. Around 470,000 fans are expected to descend on Silverstone later this month but there are still plenty of tickets available despite the event usually selling out.
A quick look at the Silverstone website confirms that day, weekend and enclosure tickets can still be purchased despite the British Grand Prix being less than a fortnight away. Stuart Pringle, the venue’s managing director, recently suggested that Red Bull’s dominance was putting fans off buying tickets.
“If there is a strong likelihood of the same winner and the jeopardy is taken out of the sport, it does take the edge off it,” he told Motorsport.com. “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.”
Hamilton, meanwhile, believes event organisers are to blame for the unsold tickets as a result of setting prices too high. Tickets for the British Grand Prix are among the most expensive on the F1 calendar, with general admission prices starting at nearly £350.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton said: “So many fans come and have a great weekend. The only thing I would ever say is that we have to watch ticket prices. I think they’re continuing to rise and the cost of living nowadays, I think it’s too high.
“The sport won’t like that I’m saying that, but I’m just thinking from the perspective of fans and their families. It’s hugely expensive, so I think it’s looking into ways where you can make better accessibility for people.”
Silverstone faced criticism last year for its ‘dynamic pricing’ of tickets, which saw prices increase according to demand and the number of people online at the time. It resulted in some tickets being sold for well over four figures, leading to concerns that many fans were being priced out of attending.
Pringle recently defended Silverstone’s decision to persist with their dynamic pricing, referring to pubs as an example. He said: “One of the pub chains prices its pints differently on a Friday evening and Saturday evening compared to the rest of the week. We’re a promoter. We need to incentivise people to part with their money.
“We need cash in the business. We need to know that we’re going to be able to pay our bills. So, I have no problem at all with incentivising people and rewarding them for booking early.”
