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Formula 1's British Grand Prix ticket sales are not quite enjoying the success of recent years, but the weekend is still expected to draw between 465,000 and 470,000 motorsport fans.
According to a report from Motorsport.com, tickets for the F1 race in just over two weeks (July 7) have yet to sell out. This follows two record-breaking years for attendance, with Silverstone enjoying its fastest-ever sell-out in 2022.
This year’s grand prix will deliberately welcome fewer fans thanks to a reduced capacity courtesy of the organisers. It was felt that a lower capacity would improve the customer experience.
Despite cutting down the number of tickets available, the article added that Silverstone has not witnessed a repeat of the rapid sell-out ahead of last year’s event. Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle added that this is more likely to do with the event returning to a post-COVID norm, as well as the dominant success of one team taking a little bit of excitement out of the sport.
“Historically we’ve always had to promote up until the end, but definitely there was a discernible bounce post-COVID,” Pringle told Motorsport.com.
“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 dominating and they set off this season in the same vein.
“Things may be changing now, and I do recognise that we had several years of a British driver dominating the championship, and we didn’t mind that so much as a British promoter! But it’s certainly been a lot harder with Red Bull dominating.
“Also, as a promoter, you have to get your ticket pricing strategy correct. You could make these things go quicker if you reduce the price. But we have got expensive bills to pay, not less than the promoter fee, so it’s about hitting a strategy and making sure it works, which we’re pretty comfortable with.”
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