Silverstone's friends in high places

Silverstone's future is secure - for now

BBC motorsport correspondent Jonathan Legard reflects on the decision to give the green light to the 2002 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The power of a Prime Minister's pen.

A week ago, the 2002 British Grand Prix looked a dead duck, a race without World Championship status and crippled by traffic chaos, real or otherwise.

Then a letter from Tony Blair arrives on the desk of Max Mosley, the all-powerful president of motorsport's governing body, the FIA.

Sports Minister Richard Caborn also calls for talks while the local councils hurry through planning permission for a £10m road development, including a new dual carriageway and car parking for 15,000 at the circuit.

Blair's intervention helped Silverstone

And the police in Northamptonshire and Thames Valley promise new measures to eliminate the curse of congestion.

Within half an hour of the crucial world council meeting in Monaco, item one on the agenda has been settled.

Rob Bain, chief executive of Octagon Motorsports, Grand Prix rights holders, emerges into the gilded splendour of the lobby in the Hotel d'Paris in Monaco's Casino Square to announce the provisional 7 July date has become a guaranteed race day.

A $5m performance bond that binds Octagon to the completion of the new road sweetened the FIA.

But failure to deliver will cost Silverstone that money.

And, according to Formula One power broker Bernie Ecclestone, who sat next to Bain as he argued his circuit's case, it will mean the end of the road for the British Grand Prix.

Extraordinary turnaround or calculated sabre rattling by the FIA president?

Given the continental criticism Mosley received alleging British bias, he had nothing to lose by questioning its place on the calendar.

If Silverstone responded positively by gathering supporters in a show of strength, he had made his point and prepared the ground to go after other sub-standard F1 tracks.

Ecclestone has a big say in the future of the race

But if Silverstone officials spluttered in disbelief, cried foul and did nothing, his apparent persecution of the former World War Two air base also looked entirely justified.

Mosley still holds the whip hand.

In little over 6 months, Octagon must oversee a massive programme of road construction, otherwise it's curtains after 2002.

The sports ministers personal pledge to have regular monthly progress reports raises an intriguing question - who will take the blame for any failure to meet the July deadline?

Answers on the back of a Pickett's Lock postcard, please.

At least the government can draw heart from Bernie Ecclestone's assertion that funding for the full £90m overhaul of Silverstone should not be found from the public purse - contrary to the wishes of Sir Jackie Stewart president of the British Racing Drivers' Club.

While we wait to see if that financial muscle will involve Ecclestone, we can rejoice that the British Grand Prix has survived another crisis.

The next summer will reveal if the stay of execution is temporary or permanent.