Exclusive Circuit of Wales Q&A

We caught up with The Heads of the Valleys Development Company chief executive Michael Carrick to discuss the Circuit of Wales as they held their first race.

The Circuit of Wales has the rights to stage MotoGP in the UK until 2024, but with building work yet to start on the new venue, they were forced to stage their inaugural race at Silverstone at the weekend.

How have you found staging and promoting your first race?

"We obviously moved from Donington to Silverstone at the last minute so it is great that a lot of fans have turned up to support us and congratulations to Silverstone as well who have done a fantastic job.

"There are some strong lessons to be learnt for next year, but I think we have delivered terrific race this year."

Has it been useful for you to stage the GP at Silverstone, which has hosted the race before, rather than having it at your brand new venue to begin with?

"I think so. There is no doubt that there are some operational lessons to be learnt. Some of the objectives and strategies that we have around promotion and delivery are very helpful to do with a partner.

"We don't have a circuit, nor do we have an operational team, nor do we have the deliver capability or the commercial team. So working with a partner like Silverstone where they have the existing infrastructure, where they have the supporting marketing team, where we can cater for the demands of the fans and where we can learn lessons about how we would want to implement it at the Circuit of Wales has been very helpful."

What does the news from the Welsh Assembly that they are 'minded to grant the S16 application' mean for you?

"It was expected on the 28th [of August] and we got it on the 28th and that is a terrific milestone for us. We had a public enquiry into the deregistration of common land, it is a technical enquiry, but it gives objectors a chance to express their concerns over the scheme and an independent inspector then to recommend to the government whether the scheme goes ahead or not.

"The decision by the planning minister is that she was minded to give consent. She can't give it immediately, because there are conditions which we explained in our application about the deregistration of common land, about the mitigation strategies that we have agreed, they need to be documented, contractualised and put in place.

"So the outstanding news is that the Welsh ministers are on hand to make this project happen. We as a delivery team are more relieved than anything else, it is another green light for the Circuit of Wales and we look forward to hosting MotoGP and other events in the future.

"There is a lot of work now for us as a delivery team, we have got construction, we've got detailed design, we've got conditions of discharge, not just relating to the deregistration, but also to the planning conditions, to the financing conditions, to the operating conditions and the policing and event conditions. There is an awful lot has to happen to deliver a major piece of recreational infrastructure and a major piece of improvement in our sporting calendar. So busy times ahead."

How close are you now to starting construction work?

"We are pretty close, we will start this year – subject to us getting the necessary conditions to discharge – we are looking to get onsite. We have been doing things over the last year or so to prepare environmentally, we have had a significant amount of the design and development work done and behind the scenes we have done a lot on the financing and the support packages. We haven't just been waiting, but this has been a significant step in the progress of the circuit."

And the track will only be built to Category 1T with the FIA?

"It is, which is not an F1 track, we don't have permission for F1, but we don't have a contract for F1 so there is no point in designing a track for F1. We can upgrade it if that ever is a possibility in the future."

It wouldn't take too much of a step to go from Category 1T to Category 1, would staging a second race in the UK interest you, or perhaps even going for the British GP itself?

"It is an interesting question, but it is not in our business plan, it is not our objective and it is not a decision a circuit can do on its own. Protecting the British GP in Britain is our priority. Will it happen in the future? I don't know, the question isn't one for the circuit operator to answer. We certainly have designed in flexibility for any eventuality, we are going to run this thing for 120 years, so the reality is you've got to be bullet proof.

"But at the moment we don't have that contract, it sits at Silverstone and is incredibly popular at that venue and we wish it every success."

Taking it back to a race you do have then, five years with the option of a further five takes the MotoGP through to 2024 - when would you like to have the race in Wales?

"Ideally we'd like it now, but the reality is we've been held up for two-and-a-half years on planning and process and frustrations. Our design when we opened the project was that it would be this year, so we are late, but we have the support of Dorna, we want to be the home of Dorna in the UK for the foreseeable future and certainly beyond 10 years. Our expectation is we'll be hosting our first event in 2017."