It is well known that when a ship sinks, the rats leave it as quickly as possible. The sinking of the building Silverstone who took on water in a British Grand Prix which ended up sinking is unfortunately no exception to the rule. Circuit director Stuart Pringle, the same one who claimed that the crashes at the end of Saturday's FP4 were not due to poor track drainage, but rather to " biblical downpour », kicks in while he is under the constant fire of criticism...
It will be recalled that after postponing the race from 12:30 p.m. to 17:00 p.m., the MotoGP riders and organizers finally decided to abandon the event for safety reasons due to the stagnant water on the new asphalt which had caused a series of accidents on Saturday. With the major consequence of Tito Rabat seriously injured one leg.
On the events of this calamitous Sunday, Stuart Pringle comments: “ we have not decided to cancel the race. It was a sporting matter which was not within the control of Silverstone. First and most importantly, I would like to apologize to all the fans for these most difficult days at Silverstone. I'm really sorry this happened. If I had known that fans would have to wait six hours in these conditions with this result, I would have made the decision to cancel the event at middayi”.
« We were prepared to cancel the race much early but I was assured by Dorna that the teams were ready to race if conditions improved. I am very aware of the amount of money people spent on this event. We will contact all customers next week to explain what we will do about this cancellation.we ".
« No one is more disappointed with this Sunday's result than me and the incredibly dedicated team at Silverstone, who did everything they could to make the race happen. It was not our decision to cancel the race. “This was a sporting matter not controlled by Silverstone and a decision taken by the riders and Dorna, as well as the Safety Commission and Race Direction.”
“A plan was drawn up at midday today in consultation with Dorna and Race Direction. We took a close look at the weather forecasts provided by the Met Office with whom we were in regular contact throughout the afternoon. The additional delay this afternoon was due to the forecast of rain, but the final decision was made without our knowledge. We kept the decision to race in good faith.”
“All the work we have done here to make Silverstone a better place for motorcycle racing has been done with the best intentions. We will be carrying out further investigations into this matter immediately following the holiday to understand whether our newly resurfaced track has played a role in the current inability to hold races. We will look at all the data we have and gather more. In conjunction with contractor Aggregate Industries, a full investigation will be carried out.”
“Once again my sincere personal apologies for today’s events. Can I also thank and thank all the marshals, doctors, security, catering, track and everyone who participated in the event this weekend for their work and dedication ».
