The only thing surprising about the BRDC and the British Grand Prix break clause is that anyone is surprised. I mean, talk about a news story you could see coming down the line.
For Liberty Media to claim this is "posturing" is either naïve or they did not read the contract that said, if the break clause was going to be invoked, it had to be done before the coming weekend. F1's new owners, so far, have handled everything superbly but an understanding of how media PR works appears to be outside their present scope. The comment seems particularly inappropriate from a company that has rightly been critical of F1's damaging habit of sniping in public.
Liberty has more important things to worry about, of course. Top of the list must be how to deal with the tricky problem of looking after the so-called classic races (Monaco, Silverstone, Spa and Monza being the only current Grands Prix that were on the original championship calendar in 1950) while coping with contracts extracted in race organisers' blood by a certain Mr. Ecclestone. If Liberty reduces the scandalous five percent annual increase in fee for one race, you don't need to be a genius to work out who will kick down Chase Carey's door five minutes later.
In such an unlikely event, it would be amusing if Red Bull's Dietrich Mateschitz (on behalf of the Austrian GP) was among the callers - if only to make Christian Horner's recent comments seem even more misplaced than they already are.
Horner questioned the BRDC's financial ability to make the sums add up when he said, "They either shouldn't have signed it [the contract] in the first place or they got their maths wrong."
This seems strange when you consider Horner, as a team boss, really ought to be familiar with the effect of the global financial crash and the plain truth that, if the contract had not been signed in 2009, there would have been no British Grand Prix -- with immediate effect. Mr. Ecclestone would have happily made sure of that. Again, Christian should be aware of this because, of course, he and Bernie are good mates - a fact that can't possibly have had anything to do with Horner's mischief making.
There will be a lot more of the same before the weekend is out. A London Grand Prix is bound to be high on the rumour agenda but the obstacles ahead of any street race must be even greater than those currently facing the BRDC and Liberty Media.
Carey has yet to see Silverstone in all its glory. Don't get me wrong; I've been to every GP there since 1967 and it has its faults (the expensive Wing project being among them; a point over which Christian and I do agree). But I wouldn't mind betting the Liberty Media hierarchy come away from the weekend with an even better understanding of just how significant this event is for fans and F1 alike. I'd extend my hotel booking into 2020 if I was you.