F1 to permit capacity crowds in both Austria and UK

Formula 1 will allow full-capacity crowds at the Austrian Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix, the first time it has been able to do so since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

While this weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix will have limited capacity, next week’s second race at the Red Bull Ring -- on what was the original date of the Austrian Grand Prix -- will be the first to take place in front of a full house, with up to 60,000 people attending on race day.

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That will now be followed by an even bigger crowd at Silverstone, where race organizers have been given the green light to run as a pilot scheme as part of the UK Government’s Events Research Program (ERP), which will see it host more than double the Austria number. While it will be the second capacity crowd of the year, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says it is particularly important given the fact it will see the first sprint event being tried on the Saturday.

“It is fantastic news that Silverstone will be a full-capacity event and it will be an incredible weekend with hundreds of thousands of fans being there to see our first ever Sprint event on the Saturday and the main event on Sunday,” Domenicali said.

“I want to express my huge appreciation to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, Secretaries of State, Oliver Dowden and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove and Silverstone’s Managing Director, Stuart Pringle for their tireless work to achieve this great outcome. All of the drivers and the teams are hugely looking forward to Silverstone and we can’t wait to be there in July.”

RACER also understand the United States Grand Prix at Austin's Circuit of The Americas in October has already sold out for a capacity crowd of more than 100,000, with race organizers evaluating the possibility of adding further grandstands to increase spectator numbers.