Giok, running Silverstone as a private members' club is a farce. Where else but in Britain. And I can't see the point of slagging Ecclestone. Surely he's an inevitable product of the obscene industry over which he presides.

HuwG, there is very little basis for comparison with those other activities you mentioned. Cities like Birmingham and Glasgow, not to mention those like Moscow and Dresden in Warsaw Pact days, have shown the value of sponsoring cultural development. But there is very little of cultural value in F1. F1 could be about developing fuel efficiency or alternative fuels, but it is interested only in lines of development that are completely at odds with the needs of the planet. It could be an exciting competitor sport like the Isle of Man TT or track athletics, but instead it is a circus extravaganza, in which the participants parade in the order of their wealth, repelling spectators and TV viewers in their thousands.

As Mr Red pointed out, you would get more thrills, spills and sheer excitement from one day at Donington than you'd get from a month of F1 Sundays at Silverstone.