British GP still chasing sell-out as Red Bull F1 dominance takes its toll

After recent record-breaking years with sell-outs and bumper attendances, British Grand Prix promoters are facing a last-minute push to find buyers for the final Formula 1 tickets.

But while there is no alarm that some seats may remain empty next month – and estimates of a weekend crowd of 465,000-470,000 are still something other venues would be jealous of – it marks an interesting reflection point on F1’s fan popularity after its recent boom.

The post-Covid bounce helped lift the popularity of all events to new levels – be it sport, music or anything that took place in the great outdoors – but F1 appeared to be enjoying the uplift longer than most.

In 2022, Silverstone enjoyed its fastest ever sell-out – with 142,000 tickets snapped up for race day shortly after being put on sale. Last year, it boasted an attendance of 480,000 across the weekend, and there seemed little sign of waning interest.

But that record-breaking figure looks likely to have been a peak – for two reasons.

First, Silverstone has deliberately moved to reduce capacity this year because it felt that the customer experience would benefit from it not being so crammed to the rafters. At some point, after all, a venue can get too busy that it ruins things for everyone.

Then, despite cutting back on the number of tickets up for sale, Silverstone has also not had a repeat of the rapid sell-out of last year – and has joined other races in seeing ticket sales run right up until the doors open.

Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle is not overly concerned by how things are playing out though.

Instead, he sees the non-sell-out as a return to norm for the British Grand Prix – and probably one fuelled by there not (yet) being a British driver properly in the championship hunt amid the stranglehold that Max Verstappen and Red Bull have had on F1 over the past 12 months.

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

“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…