New Silverstone managing director Patrick Allen is attempting to lower the cost of attending the British grand prix, with the price of a ticket currently at £155.

In a bid to raise the attendance numbers at the Northamptonshire circuit while still putting on a spectacular show, Allen feels the current pricing set-up is too steep.

Even with steady crowds of 100,000 during the past few years, a drop in prices starting from 2016 could hopefully see an increase in attendance.

Allen — who was appointed earlier this month due to his sales and marketing background — is hoping to make Silverstone the “ultimate entertainment venue.

“Generally speaking, to get more people here every year, you don’t do that by putting the ticket prices up.

“We are desperately trying to bring the ticket price down. We need to drive cost out of the delivery of the grand prix event and that’s what I’ll be focusing on — but not to the detriment of the customer experience.

“So if we can get to a place where going to the British grand prix is a fabulous event, is not price-prohibitive and everybody has a great time and walks out of the gate thinking ‘Fantastic! I’m going to book my ticket tomorrow for next year,’ that’s where we want to be.”

The downside for Allen is that Silverstone’s contract with Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management includes an escalator clause whereby the cost to the track for hosting the race rises each year.

Despite that, Allen said: “We have headroom in capacity, so the volume aspect will cover the inflationary aspect of the grand prix escalator.

“We have other parts of the business, when the grand prix isn’t on, we can make money out of.

“So I’m looking at the business as a whole, and not just one event per year, and it’s the whole that helps deliver customer value.

“That is what we need to think about — not a discrete event.”