Managing director of Silverstone, Stuart Pringle, has apologised to Formula 1 fans for the farcical ticketing system used for next year’s British Grand Prix.
In previous years, Silverstone has adopted a set pricing system; general admission was the cheapest, and the prices went up for grandstand seating and VIP access.
This year, to deal with unprecedented demand, they decided to go with a “dynamic” pricing structure, that would see the cost of tickets rise every 90 seconds.
Early access to 2023 tickets cost fans £99, and those at the front of the queue got their tickets at a similar rate to last year.
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However, as more and more tickets sold, they got more and more expensive, so two different people with general admission tickets next year, for example, will find that they will have paid very different prices for them, despite obtaining them through the official channels.
Silverstone has been fighting to compete with new and wealthy venues, whose interest has been peaked by the increased demographic as a result of the Drive to Survive docuseries on Netflix.
Its contract runs until 2024, at which point it will likely have to pay more to retain its place on the calendar, which is why they need to increase their prices.
This led to anger from many fans when they saw how expensive tickets were, and some even suggested that it might be worth reporting the circuit to Trading Standards.
Pringle could only apologise for the chaotic mess than ensued as a result of the changed ticketing structure this year.
“I am extremely sorry for the frustration, upset, disappointment and anger this has caused. We are going to do a root and branch review on all of this,” he said, per the Express.
“I am not closing the door on doing anything differently next year, we will consider anything and everything.
“Nothing is off the table, we have learned a lot of lessons and we can’t have a repeat of this year.”
There is more demand for tickets than ever before, so Silverstone’s answer to that, inadvertently, was to price some fans out of attending the race.
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“In light of what we know now, can we use our historic model given the current popularity of F1?” pondered Pringle.
“We have to look at that. It’s wonderful we have had such a demand but it is utterly regrettable that our fans have been subject to these challenges. We have to sort it out and we will sort it out.”
Next year’s race in Britain will form the 12th round of a 24-race season, and will take place on the weekend of the 7-9 July.