Silverstone suspended its ticketing sales for the 2023 Formula 1 British Grand Prix yesterday (Thursday), due to fans encountering issues when trying to secure a spot at the event.
The racetrack and organisers were faced with anger from fans over prices, and particularly a new dynamic pricing system.
Fans also faced issues when it came to processing orders after long wait times queuing online, with payments failing and subsequently being sent back to the beginning.
In a statement, Silverstone said: “We’ve decided to suspend the 2023 Formula 1 British Grand Prix ticket sale, as we’re acutely aware a lot of fans have experienced intermittent issues in securing their tickets.
“Due to ongoing issues with our ticketing provider, Secutix, we feel the fairest thing for us to do is to temporarily pause sales and freeze all ticket prices until these are resolved.”
Tickets will be made available to purchase again today at 11:30am.
The statement added: “Once again, we sincerely apologise for the frustrating experience that many of you have had today and thank you for your support throughout this time.”
2023 Formula 1 British Grand Prix ticket update pic.twitter.com/WA0v8FePoX
— Silverstone (@SilverstoneUK) September 15, 2022
According to Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft, some 210,000 people had registered and there were 25,000 people in the queue trying to buy tickets. Croft also said that the payment issues had been fixed before Silverstone opted to suspend sales.
Croft also commented on the dynamic pricing put in place by Silverstone this year, after an original statement was put out on prices changing every 90 seconds in relation to demand. However, this statement was removed and reworded, leaving many fans confused and angry.
According to Croft, the system refreshes every 90 seconds, not the price, which is what the original statement suggested.
“Statement was removed because it was wrong. Prices only increase after a manual check, not automatically, to try and stop ticket prices spiralling quickly,” said Croft in a Tweet.
However, many fans are still angry at the prices of tickets for next year’s motorsport event.
Under the statement from Silverstone on the suspension of ticket sales, fans commented “it’s a joke how you’re increasing prices even more during a cost of living crisis” and “my ticket went up £150 when I got to check out”.
The British Grand Prix will take place next year July 7 until July 9.