Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s commercial rights holder, told The Times yesterday that the advent of Lewis Hamilton into the sport makes no difference to his determination to cut Silverstone out of the Grand Prix calendar after 2009 if it fails radically to upgrade its facilities.

As Silverstone prepares for a wet weekend in Northamptonshire for the British Grand Prix, Ecclestone spoke despairingly of a circuit and its owners, the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC), which he says has had five or six years to get its act together and has done nothing.

Asked if his heart was softening on the issue in the light of Hamilton’s achievements, Ecclestone said: “No, not at all. I am a realist. I travel the world and get people to try to build nice circuits and good facilities for the press, the public and everybody else and we are tolerating what we have at Silverstone and it’s not going to happen. They [the BRDC] have known for five or six years what they need to do and they’ve done absolutely nothing.”

A week ago, Damon Hill, the president of the BRDC, said he hoped a £25 million development plan would be approved by the membership this month, and expressed the hope that the BRDC and Ecclestone could “bury the hatchet” and reach an agreement.

Ecclestone, however, was having none of it. “I don’t have a hatchet to bury,” he said. “They should do what should have been done five years ago. I feel sorry for the public that here we are at the British Grand Prix again and we’ve got a third-rate circuit.”