Motor sport News: The British Grand Prix is expected to be given a provisional date in next season's formula one world championship when the FIA publishes its draft calendar today, but in the background the tantalising prospect of a race around the streets of central London is still firing imaginations.
Silverstone's place in the calendar will be provisional pending finalisation of commercial contracts with Bernie Ecclestone, but the Formula One commercial rights holder is among those who are enthusiastic at the thought of Michael Schumacher racing down the Mall at 175mph before powering his Ferrari through a chicane outside the front gates of Buckingham Palace.
Supporters of a London grand prix do not wish to replace Silverstone and, given the huge practical problems involved, may never get the chance, but the impetus remains from the success of the Regent Street formula one demonstration in July that saw the West End jammed with over 200,000 spectators.
"I think it is a wonderful idea, but really there is no possibility, in my view," said Stirling Moss, once Britain's best-known grand prix driver. "Of all the ideas for the route for a London grand prix, I certainly think that Hyde Park is the best. I think it would be a fabulous thing, but I don't really believe it is feasible today."
Terence O'Rourke, an architect and environmental consultant with much motorsport design experience, can see the attractions of the Hyde Park concept, particularly as Park Lane West could be set up to be used as the pit lane and two-way road traffic could continue on the eastern carriageway while the track was being built. But O'Rourke, whose company planned the Rolls-Royce factory at Goodwood and Jonathan Palmer's autodrome in Bedford, is attracted to a more imaginative plan.
"Down the Mall, round in front of Buckingham Palace, where there could be a chicane, up Birdcage Walk to Hyde Park Corner and then back along Piccadilly," he said.
"Then you could perhaps spear down Haymarket, round Trafalgar Square and back down the Mall. There would be plenty of room for grandstands on this section, but I'm struggling a bit to find a place for the pits."
Clive Bowen, a motorsport consultant who worked on the new Dubai circuit that hosted a round of the FIA GT Championship last week as its first international race, thinks that consideration for a London grand prix circuit should be given to the East End.
"I just shudder at the prospect of all the resurfacing work and run-off areas which would have to be carried out in the Park Lane area," he said.
"It's a spectacular concept, but with the regeneration of the area between the Lee Valley and the Millennium Dome area being earmarked for London's Olympic bid, it would be more logical to use the new roads in that area of the city as the basis for a circuit."
Today's draft calendar is likely to hand provisional dates to Silverstone and two other circuits, Italy's Imola and France's Magny Cours also facing uncertain futures. However, Turkey, where a circuit is being constructed near Istanbul, is likely to feature for the first time.
