30 countries want to take Silverstone race

With 30 cities wanting an F1 race, Bratches (L) can easily tell Silverstone to go pound sand

One day after Silverstone's owners announced they will terminate their British Grand Prix contract, Formula One's new leadership said Wednesday they had been inundated with interest from around 30 places looking to stage races.

Liberty Media has spent its first six months in charge of F1 trying to exploit the commercial opportunities it believes were not being seized on toward the end of Bernie Ecclestone's control of the motorsport series.

"Since I've been here, probably 30 countries, municipalities, principalities have reached out to me about interest in bringing Formula One to their cities, their countries," Sean Bratches, F1's managing director for commercial operations, told The Associated Press. "So we are in a unique spot. We have an abundance of opportunities and we are going to have to figure out where we go and again at the center of that decision is, 'What is the best thing for our fans?'"

Bratches was speaking next to Trafalgar Square in London where F1 cars were stationed on Wednesday for a fan event featuring an evening concert.

However, Britain could be losing its only race. The owners of Silverstone, which staged its first F1 race in 1948, told Liberty on Tuesday that the hosting fee has become too prohibitive and the losses cannot be sustained.