Dennis among Donington skeptics

Ron Dennis

(GMM) Ron Dennis has admitted he is "concerned" chiefs of the Donington Park circuit will fail in their task to organize the 2010 British grand prix.

The venue, located in North West Leicestershire, has won a 10-year-old contract to move the race away from Silverstone, and this week gained local planning approval for 110m euro renovations.

But there remains skepticism that Donington can succeed from a financial point of view, particularly in the midst of the new world economic crisis.

"I applaud anybody coming into grand prix racing and creating competition but I really do struggle to understand how the economics of Donington will work," Dennis, boss of the McLaren team, said at the Autosport International show in Birmingham.

"They've had a 25 per cent swing in the (US) dollar and the contract will be a dollar based contract. (They will have to make) a massive investment into infrastructure," he added.

"So I'm concerned that they'll go down this path and the economic model won't work," said Dennis, who said the UK government should realize it can play a role in helping Britain to stay on the F1 calendar.

Dennis said he was also concerned about aspects such as access into and out of the track, which was last the host of a grand prix in 1993.