With Jenson Button set to face Lewis Hamilton at McLaren Mercedes next season, fans of British motor racing have rarely been offered a tastier dish to relish in Formula One.

Yet even as Button was explaining the reasons behind his bold move to abandon Mercedes Grand Prix, formerly Brawn GP, for Hamilton’s team yesterday, Bernie Ecclestone was warning that he is ready to remove the British Grand Prix from next year’s calendar.

Button was talking about needing a new challenge in facing Hamilton but the Formula One commercial rights-holder was talking about contracts and the failure of the owners of the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire to sign a document that could guarantee the British Grand Prix for the next 17 years.

Ecclestone told The Times last night that he has been in regular contact with the circuit and believes that Silverstone’s owners are trying to source additional funding to help them to settle the deal. But he believes that at the next meeting of the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council, in Paris on December 11, he will have to remove next year’s race from the calendar.

“The World Council will meet and we will just pull it off — we will have to,” Ecclestone said. “We’ll have no other choice, if we don’t have a contract. We shouldn’t have anything on the calendar unless we have a contract in place.”

Ecclestone said the race would be scrapped initially for only one year and no other grand prix would be scheduled in place of it next season, reducing the 2010 championship to 18 rounds. He added that he and Silverstone are close in negotiating terms but he is not convinced a deal will happen in time.

“They are close and they know they are close,” he said. “It’s not the terms and conditions so much as whether the investors are prepared to bankroll them and take the risk.”

When asked whether losing the race was something he would regret, the 79-year-old billionaire said: “Of course we want a British Grand Prix. I’ve been spending an awful lot of time trying make sure it does happen, but there is no chance of an exceptional contract for Silverstone. Why should there be?”

Ecclestone’s view that the two sides are close was echoed by Damon Hill, the president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, which owns Silverstone. He said the negotiations were coming down to a fine line between taking the risk of signing a contract that could break Silverstone financially in the long term or taking a more prudent view. It is believed the contract requires Silverstone to pay an annual fee of £12 million, subject to an annual escalator originally set by Ecclestone at 7 per cent, to stage the race.

“The club does not want to sign up for something that puts it in peril,” said Hill, who believes the FIA should step in to ensure that an arrangement is arrived at that safeguards the race. “Bernie doesn’t care whether you lose your shirt or not — he wants to deal with someone who can take a chance. We saw what happened with Donington [the Leicestershire circuit that had planned to stage the race but the leaseholders of which are now in administration], and so there is a point at which it becomes a fine line between signing a contract or not.”

Button, meanwhile, explained the reasons for his move to McLaren. “It was 100 per cent my choice,” he said. “For me, the move is because it’s going to be a huge challenge to go up against Lewis in his environment. My goal since I was eight years old has been to win the world title and I’ve done that now. Now I feel I need a new challenge.”

Button confirmed that McLaren will pay him less per season than Mercedes Grand Prix were offering — unconfirmed reports suggest he will earn £6 million next year, but could have received £8 million if he had stayed at his former team.

“I’m earning less than I would have at Brawn,” Button said. “I didn’t move for the money and everyone knows it. It’s something new for me. I’ll have to work very hard in the situation I’ve put myself in and I intend to do it. Of course, it’s not going to be easy, but I’m very excited about the challenge.”