The owners of Silverstone are on track to make a £46.9m profit after giving the red light to the British Grand Prix seven years early, according to the latest company filings.

The British GP, launched in 1950, is F1’s oldest race. For the past 31 years it has been held at Silverstone, which is owned by the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC), a group of 850 motorsport luminaries including Nigel Mansell and Lewis Hamilton.

In July last year it abruptly put the brakes on the race by triggering a break clause in its contract and announced that the Northants venue would drop the race after 2019 “because it is not financially viable”. The British GP has to rely on ticket sales alone to cover the running costs as well as the £16.2m hosting fee. This fuelled combined net losses of £51.7m for the BRDC over the five years to Dec 31 2016.

It explains why the BRDC announced last year that “while we would hate to lose the British GP, Silverstone will have a bright future without it”. It has now come to light how bright this will be. The BRDC’s accounts state that “approximately half of annual revenue continues to be generated by a single event, the British GP”.