British GP tickets 3rd most expensive in 2013 F1 calendar

With the season-opening Australian Grand Prix beginning Friday, the British Grand Prix, slated for June 30 this year will have the third-most expensive tickets in this years' Formula 1 calendar.

In a report published in BBC Sport, the cheapest race day ticket for upcoming the Melbourne Grand Prix costs  £66 compared to £145 for the Silverstone circuit. Only Grands Prix in Brazil and Abu Dhabi are costlier than Britain.

Malaysian GP ticket is cheapest at £13 (INR 1053). Strangely, a race-day ticket to one of the most glamorous races, the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo is worth just £30 (INR 2430).

Just the race-day ticket for the race at Silverstone this year costs £41 (INR 3321) more than the equivalent ticket for the Spanish GP, £60 (INR 4860) more than the German Grand Prix and nearly double that of the race in Italy at Monza.

Among the various sporting showpiece events in the 2013 in Britain, the only-race ticket is the costliest. Even the Wimbledon men's final (£130, INR 10530), UEFA Champions League final at Wembley (£60, INR 4860), the Open final day (£65, INR 5265) are the cheaper than a ticket to the British GP.

Interestingly, the final day of the first Ashes Test ticket costs just £20 (INR 1620).

Managing director of Silverstone, Richard Phillips defended the race's ticket prices, saying: "While not cheap, I believe British Grand Prix tickets are competitively priced and offer good value for money. It frustrates me when people compare the cost of a ticket to watch a 90-minute football match or 80-minute rugby match with a ticket for the British Grand Prix.

"For example, a ticket to watch Arsenal play a category 'A' game at The Emirates - one of 38, 90-minute league matches that they will play this season - can cost as much as £126 (INR 10206).

"To come to Silverstone on the Sunday of the British Grand Prix - a World Championship event that only takes place once a year in the UK - tickets are available for £145 (INR 11745) for a whole day of world class entertainment, both on and off the track."

Phillips stresses that any F1 event must be commercially viable and not be influenced by other races.
"When you combine ticket packages, entertainment packages, commercial agreements, government support - or lack of in Silverstone's case - attendance figures, crowd management and the number of days fans attend the event; no two Grands Prix experiences are the same," he said.

"While the overwhelming majority of venues around the world rely on government funding to cover all, or part of the fee to host Formula 1, the British Grand Prix remains one of the few privately funded events on the calendar.

"The future of the British Grand Prix is solely reliant on the BRDC [British Racing Drivers' Club] and Silverstone from a commercial point of view.

"Over the three days, the British Grand Prix attracts a bigger crowd than any other event on the F1 calendar, so the value is obviously appreciated by fans."

The report also said that at Albert Park, Australian Grand Prix organisers have put on four days of track action - more than any other - with practice sessions for the V8 Supercars on Thursday, ahead of the first practice on Friday, leading to the qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday (March 17).