Despite offering around 15,000 tickets at a discounted price for the 2015 British GP, the new Silverstone management has been suffering a backlash from fans who bought their tickets at an ‘early bird discount’ during the 2014 race weekend.

Silverstone’s facebook page has been the place where many F1 fans have chosen to vent their anger.

Michele Case: Dear me Silverstone, you really do have no idea about customer service or retaining loyal, repeat visitors to the circuit. We are Motorsport fans and we are there to watch the sport we love. We don’t care what price we paid for our tickets almost twelve months ago, and we don’t care that we’ve paid extra to watch a madness concert.

We knew what we were paying when we bought the tickets. What we do care about is the sense of unfairness surrounding the whole fiasco that encompasses ticket sales this year. A lot of people spent a lot of money buying tickets early, trusting they were getting the best deal they could get. It now appears that this is not the case and I for one feel misled.

I can only speak for myself when I say with a heavy heart that after 2015 I can’t imagine myself ever going to Silverstone again – there are plenty of other ways I can be ripped off elsewhere. It may not concern you that you’ve lost my custom, but it should concern you that your customer base no longer trust you.

Kiye Mackie May I take this opportunity to say that this year’s ticket policy for British F1 Grand Prix is disgraceful! Selling tickets at “early bird rates” only to offer same tickets £120 cheaper 3 weeks before the Grand Prix!

Aj Crisp Struggling to get excited after the ticket fiasco! Despite paying full price grandstand tickets yet still no pit walk!

Fred Burley £25 for park and ride now so the little saving on ticket is eaten up by park and ride price where’s the saving?

Silverstone are expecting 140,000 this year, and increase on the repeated sell-out crowd numbers of 125,000 for race day as reported in recent years.

Due to the remote nature of the Silverstone circuit and relatively poor public transport infrastructure, the management of the Northamptonshire circuit have in previous years placed a self-imposed limit of 125,000 race day attendees.

The incremental 15,000 fans attending the race this year will all be General admission ticket holders, so it will be interesting to see the comments of regular race goers as to how this affects vantage points when compared to previous years.

Clearly Silverstone have infuriated those who paid more for tickets having bought them well in advance – than those who have jumped in at the last minute.

Patrick Allen has responded to the criticism.

I understand that not all of our customers are happy about the recent ticket promotions which have resulted in some of the remaining grandstand seats being sold at significantly lower prices than the prime seating offered just after the 2014 event. Everyone at Silverstone values our customers and I really appreciate the loyalty that has been shown to the circuit over the years.

However it was important to address the trend of ever increasing ticket prices that was preventing the vast majority of loyal fans and their families from attending the event.

In order to determine the best value for our customers it has been necessary to trial several price points across different ticket categories to arrive at a sensible ticket model for 2016.

As we approach our 2015 event which will see a record crowd here at Silverstone our 2016 pricing is ready to be launched. The new model, resulting from our trial price points, will see tickets for the 2016 event at their lowest for many years. Additionally it is my intention to deploy an incremental pricing policy not dissimilar to the budget airline model (which I am sure everyone is familiar with) where the earlier you buy your ticket the better deal you get with the price increasing incrementally towards race day.

I can assure fans that there will be no repeat of this year’s experiment and that immediately after the 2015 race will be the best time to buy the cheapest tickets for a limited period before subsequent price increases.

All of that said I know there will be some fans out there that will understandably feel let down having bought their tickets early and in good faith that the ticket price they paid should have been the best value. Albeit you have secured the seat you wanted in the location of your choice.

We are going to put on the best show ever for all fans in what will be a record breaking event and hope that no matter what ticket price was paid it will be seen as great value for money. Next year everyone will have the opportunity for even greater value for money as we introduce our new pricing and ticketing strategy that promotes “the earlier you buy the more you save”.

I look forward to seeing you all at Silverstone and joining me in cheering Lewis on to a home Grand Prix victory”.

Whatever, the rights and wrongs of the way Silverstone have behaved, it is good to see an F1 race promoter bringing ticket prices for fans down. It could be something the Circuit de Catalunya could learn from which would see their half empty grandstands rather better populated.