Silverstone support grows

Formula One team owners yesterday rallied round to back the British Grand Prix in the face of continued fears over the event's future.

The race at Silverstone was dropped from the provisional Formula One calendar for 2005 last week, but there are still hopes that it will go ahead.

BAR-Honda's David Richards said: "I am very confident there will be a solution found and we will be racing at Silverstone next year." Minardi's owner, Paul Stoddart, said: "Sometimes facilities are used as an argument but I don't think that washes with most people. I think most people know the circuits that have good facilities and the circuits that have bad facilities and most certainly Silverstone does not feature at either end of that scale."