For many years the finest comestible one could look forward to at the British Grand Prix was a greasy bacon sandwich.
The home of the first world championship race spent a long time running on the fumes of former glories, slipping ever further behind the times, arguably reaching its nadir in PR terms in 2002 when low cloud prevented commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone’s helicopter from landing and his driver got lost on his way in.
“It’s a country fair masquerading as a world championship event,” Ecclestone thundered once he finally arrived. “If our contract with them was up next year I wouldn’t be too excited about keeping it…”
Silverstone has transformed its spectator offering in the interim, enabling it to retain its place on the Formula 1 calendar while making the British GP financially sustainable – a process which, as one can imagine, is fundamentally interlinked.
Under the leadership of current chief executive Stuart Pringle (recently given an OBE for services to motorsport in the King’s New Year Honours), the circuit has added concerts to the British GP weekend timetable, making it part race, part music festival, and developed the real estate around the perimeter to include hotels and conference centres as well as a museum.
The hospitality offering is also constantly evolving along with F1’s ever more diverse audience. It’s fitting, perhaps, that one of the recent arrivals has been the Pop-Up Hotel, the glamping enterprise which has been providing a luxury option for Glastonbury Festival-goers since 2011.
Silverstone
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
This year guests of the Pop-Up Hotel can enjoy a swimming pool overlooking the Hangar Straight, as well as personal appearances from the likes of world champions Nigel Mansell and Jenson Button. It may not be quite the scope and scale of the giant MSC Cruises-branded ziggurat which will grace the Miami Grand Prix at the beginning of next month, but it’s very much in tune with the changing expectations of people who visit live events.
“I think the interesting thing about Miami and Vegas in particular is that they want F1 to attract other people to their destination – whereas F1 is built into Silverstone, it’s in its DNA, so it’s a slightly different thing,” said Pop-Up Hotel founder Mark Sorrill.
“So I guess we’re trying to bring a bit of a touch of the glamour from Monaco, from Miami, from Vegas to Silverstone. Like it or loathe it or somewhere in between, that is now part of F1 and it does make it more democratic, it does make it more diverse, it does make it appealing to a wider section of the audience. It [the fanbase] was hardcore, incredibly passionate, and there’s still that passion in F1 but it’s not just that.
“There’s fashion, there’s lifestyle, and that is mirrored in the cross-section of our guests. They’re not all Instagrammer lifestyle people and they’re not all hardcore petrolheads, but there are elements of both there and they co-exist very happily, which is great.”
Where the Pop-Up Hotel is differentiated from other in-circuit options at Silverstone is that it offers accommodation as well as entertainment and a trackside view. This is another layer of diversification from the traditional hospitality model, particularly at the long-standing venues in out-of-town locations.
Under Liberty Media’s ownership of the commercial rights, the F1 calendar has expanded aggressively, including two new venues in the US. Its focus on ‘the show’, as well as the growth in the global audience facilitated by F1’s exposure on the Netflix series Drive to Survive, has had a profound effect on the demographic mix of those buying tickets to attend events in person.
Hangar Straight
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
This is very much a pivot from the Ecclestone era, where the needs of the TV audience was prioritised over those of paying spectators, and the trackside hospitality offering was generally for corporate guests only. It was also effectively a FOM monopoly, run for many years by Paddy McNally – previously a grand prix reporter for Autosport, albeit the only staffer who has ever arrived for work in a Ferrari.
VIP offerings now target a much broader audience than corporate guests and offer a variety of experiences, a growth process chiefly driven by the new US races but one which other venues are keen to follow.
“I think competition in any business is a very good thing because it drives you all to be better,” said Sorrill. “If you’ve got a good thing going and you’re not really being challenged, it doesn’t drive you forward to create something better.
“The team at Silverstone are doing a phenomenal job. I think they’re not often given the praise that they should be. There is competition from some of the new kids on the block and obviously there are some other great races like Monaco and Monza, and there have always been competitive options for guests.
“It’s difficult with the great British weather. We don’t get that in Miami where you’ve got sun every day, or Vegas, where you’ve got incredible hotel stock. Silverstone hasn’t had that toolbox to play with whereas Vegas has that built in, so does Miami.
“They have the weather, they have the glamour and the palm trees, but I do think that Silverstone has incredible hospitality options. Three-quarters of our guests actually take hospitality around the circuit, obviously you can watch from the terraces and from our space but there’s so much diversity.
“You’ve got hardcore fans who will go and sit in a certain grandstand at a certain corner and that’s what they’ve always done – now they’ve made a bit more money they can afford to come and stay in the centre of the circuit, but they’re still in that grandstand with some of the guys who might be staying in a campsite down the road and have done for the last 20 years.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
