The British motor sport landscape is suddenly and unexpectedly about to shift, both metaphorically and physically. By assuming command of Donington's activities, Jonathan Palmer's MSV organisation has not only helped secure the future of a historically significant venue but also, I wouldn't mind betting, triggered quiet research into shifting enough earth to one day make the East Midlands track capable of staging the British Grand Prix.
If Donington was deemed barely suitable to hold its one and only round of F1 World Championship on that wet Easter Sunday in 1993, it falls a couple of million quid short by today's standards. No one will be more aware of that than Palmer, one of the most astute businessmen on the motor sport scene. His company, Motor Sport Vision, is aptly named judging by the clever planning and meticulous implementation that has raised the standards at Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park, Oulton Park and Snetterton.
Palmer's first task, of course, will be to apply the same business model to Donington and ensure this popular circuit not only meets MSV's exacting standards but also washes its financial face. Whether he admits it or not, Palmer will also be applying his active mind to the longer term prospect of perhaps hosting Britain's round of the F1 World Championship.
The chances of bringing the race back to Brands Hatch have long since been scuppered by physical and planning limitations, never mind the F1 hosting fee upsetting a profitable motor sport venue. In 2014, when discussing Silverstone's struggle to make ends meet, Palmer referred to "the burden of the Grand Prix and the delicate financial model once the rights have been paid [to F1]."
That's the crux, of course. Silverstone is not alone among classic European tracks crippled from the get-go by demands to fund F1's excesses. These fees, exacerbated by an outrageous five per cent escalator, recently prompted the British Racing Drivers' Club (owners of Silverstone) to consider initiating a break clause and walk away from the British Grand Prix after 2019.
This has been said before, of course. There is no doubt that Silverstone could live without the potential threat of what the BRDC refer to as 'a couple of bad years' should attendances fall in a similar disastrous manner to Hockenheim.
But it's probably fair to say that the latest threat is actually the laying down of a marker for the benefit of Liberty Media in the knowledge that F1's new owner seems very aware of the importance of the sport's classic events. It's also a handy precursor to talks with the UK Government over a subsidy (not that help, if any, will ever come to much). Silverstone could also afford to rattle its sabre given that there is no rival, a viable venue at the Circuit of Wales seemingly as remote as the proposed location and Donington's MD, Christopher Tate, categorically ruling out interest in the Grand Prix. But that was last week.
This week the landscape, as mentioned, has shifted thanks to MSV's 21-year deal with Donington. Before a sod is turned, however, there needs to the promise of a reduction in F1's demands when asked to bring their circus to town; a requirement that could be met following the welcome departure of former owners, CVC 'Stuff You' Capital Partners. If MSV hasn't given this a modicum of thought then Jonathan Palmer is not the man who has a handy habit of making a silk purse out of a racing sow's ear.