F1: Fans face £300 fee for British Grand Prix

The British Grand Prix has become the most expensive event of the country’s sporting ‘crown jewels’.

Formula One fans will have to fork out a staggering £300 for a grandstand seat at Silverstone for next year’s race on July 7 - £230 more than for a ticket at the FA Cup final.

Prices have risen at the Northamptonshire circuit by £100 as race organisers have been forced to cut spectator capacity by 30,000 in an effort to save the event.

Motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, threatened to axe the British Grand Prix from the Formula One calendar next season unless improvements were made to ease congestion around the track.

Rob Bain, chief executive of promoters Octagon Motorsports Limited, believes fans will enjoy ‘‘an enhanced quality experience".

But that means enthusiasts having to pay huge prices for a race which lasts, in dry conditions, for just 80 minutes.

Bain is convinced fans are getting ‘‘good value for money’’, but in comparison to many of Britain’s major attractions, those who follow other sports are onto a winner.

The most expensive tickets for last season’s FA Cup final between Liverpool and Arsenal at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff were £70, while for England’s vital World Cup qualifier against Greece at Old Trafford, they were £42.

Centre court tickets for the thrill-a-minute Wimbledon men’s singles final in July between Pat Rafter and Goran Ivanisevic were only £66, with the women’s final six pounds cheaper.