Domenicali to tell Starmer how vital F1 is to UK

Formula 1 president Stefano Domenicali will meet Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday and emphasise the importance of the sport to the United Kingdom’s economy.

Domenicali, who is meeting Sir Keir at 10 Downing Street along with several drivers and team principals as part of an event to mark the 75th anniversary of F1, described the UK as “the heart and rock and roll of this business”.

The Italian will raise some of the logistical issues faced by F1 as a result of the restrictions imposed on travel by Brexit, while painting the sport as an industry essential to the UK.

“For the first time, we’re going to have this opportunity to present the F1 ecosystem to your government,” Domenicali said. “It is important to remind to everyone how this country is really the heart and rock and roll of this business.

“Because everything started here in 1950, the first race, and the offices of this business are here in the centre of London. The vast majority of the teams and the ecosystem is here in the UK. “

Domenicali said that the F1 industry is worth £12bn annually to the UK economy, employs more than 6,000 people and has a supply chain involving 4,500 companies.

Seven of the 10 teams are based in the UK, and 10 of the 11 teams that will be in F1 next year – when Cadillac enters – will have bases in the country.

In addition to mentioning the difficulties post-Brexit restrictions create for staff moving between Europe and the UK with regard to visas, Domenicali will also press F1’s sustainability credentials.

Next year, as part of a plan to be net-zero carbon by 2030, F1 is introducing new engines that produce 50% of their total power output from the electrical part of the engine, and use fully sustainable fuels.

F1 believes that sustainable fuels – petrol replacements that are manufactured either from biomass or carbon capture using industrial processes – can play an important role in reducing the carbon emissions created by transport.

Domenicali said: “There are things that we need to solve in terms of facilitating the tie-down with Brexit.

“There are complications for the movement, there are complications for the visas for people.

“And I’m saying that because it’s relevant to give the possibility for people to be attracted to work here. Because if you lose that link, then immediately the centre could be moving to other places. “

However, he emphasised: “I don’t want to see this as a threat. But I think it’s a matter of respect of what we represent for this country to consider in the right way what could be the limiting factor of development of this industry in this country.

Domenicali said he expected this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone to have an all-time record crowd across the four days of about 500,000 people.

But he said Silverstone had a responsibility to ensure it could manage the ingress and egress of that amount of spectators without causing major traffic problems.

These had been consigned to the past, but became a major concern again at Silverstone last year.

Domenicali said it was “important” for British GP organisers to create a network to minimise the “bottleneck” of people at the event.

He added: “This is the most important element, which we’re going to push them, to keep developing their plan.

“That is not only how they commercialise their packages, in terms of offers for the fans, but also how the fans can arrive in the right way. “

Domenicali said F1 had “a plan” in case the conflict between Israel and Iran affected the season-closing races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

He would not say what that plan was, but intimated that there were contingency arrangements in place to hold races elsewhere if necessary.

“I don’t want to even think about it,” he said. “But mainly because of the bigger picture. “

He said the promoters of the two races were “very serious”.

Domenicali added: “We are not worried at all that this will have an effect.

“Hopefully, from here to the end of the year, the situation will ease down and there will be no problem.