Taking the chequered flag in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday will save Lewis Hamilton from a lifetime of regret.

But a win for the nation's new driving hero won't necessarily save the world's most historic Formula One race.

That was the stark warning sounded today by former world champion Damon Hill, who sped to an emotional victory at Silverstone in 1994 and who now leads the fight to save the British Grand Prix from extinction.

Silverstone's contract with F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone expires after next year's event and Hill, president of the British Racing Drivers' Club which owns the circuit, puts it at only 50-50 that the former wartime bomber base straddling the border of Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire will get a new deal.

Indeed, unless Ecclestone's demands for a huge investment in modern facilities for the teams and spectators are met, Britain's place in the world championship calendar will be lost to Russia or one of the nations in the Far East and Asia, whose bids for a Grand Prix are financially backed by governments eager to exploit the global exposure the glamorous sport can bring.

There are no viable alternative venues. Neither Brands Hatch nor Donington, despite speculative claims to the contrary, have the infrastructure or the money to achieve the standards required to host a Grand Prix.

And fanciful dreams of a race around the streets of London will remain just that unless mayor Boris Johnson can be persuaded to pump millions of taxpayers' money into the project.

Silverstone's plight is giving Hill a far bigger headache than the one he faced when Michael Schumacher was his principle rival in the British Grand Prix 14 years ago.

But the enormity of a triumph secured in front of his home supporters only weeks after the death of team-mate Ayrton Senna gives him a unique perspective on what victory on Sunday would mean to Hamilton.

Hill said: "The alternative for a British driver never to win a British Grand Prix is unthinkable. It's the one thing you don't want to contemplate.

"When I took the chequered flag in 1994 I just thought it was brilliant. As with Lewis now, I felt everyone wanted me to do it. Stress and worry goes with that, but when it happens you think, 'Bloody hell, that's great.' I was very privileged to experience it."

What worries Hill, now 47, is that other British drivers are going to be denied the opportunity.

Negotiations with Ecclestone are at a delicate stage - an agreement must be reached before Christmas - with the F1 czar sticking to his demand for a new pits and paddock facility plus a sizeable increase in the annual rights fee Silverstone must pay for staging the race.

The BRDC does have planning consent for a state-of-the art pits complex costing £30million, and they can source the money by selling off land for a business park, two hotels, a sport and leisure centre and possibly a university campus.

But the BRDC won't commit to the project without the guarantee of a longterm Grand Prix contract, and Ecclestone won't offer that contract unless the BRDC guarantees the building of the new facilities and paying that £12m

annual rights fee. Hill said: "We're in a cyclical situation whereby, in order to get our plans implemented, we need to have a Grand Prix contract, and in order to get the Grand Prix contract we have to have our plans guaranteed. It's going round in circles, but the circles are getting smaller."

Logic suggests that a Hamilton victory on Sunday, followed by on-going success for the 23-year-old McLaren driver, would ensure that Silverstone could rely on future lucrative three-day sell-outs; the last ticket for this weekend was snapped up last month.

Not so, according to Hill, who said: "For any Grand Prix to have a home-grown hero is going to make a difference to the event but I would not presume that, because we have Lewis contending for the world championship, that guarantees the future of the British Grand Prix."

Hill is also sufficiently realistic to accept that direct financial assistance from the government is not going to happen, even though the motor racing industry makes a significant contribution to the British economy.

Mindful of the scandal surrounding Ecclestone's £1m contribution to the Labour Party in 1997, he acknowledged: "There is a political problem in investing in an organisation that is apparently as well off as F1, and which is owned by a private equity company. I think there would be outrage."

Surely Ecclestone has an appreciation of motor racing tradition and the fact that Silverstone staged the first ever world championship Grand Prix in 1950, and is currently celebrating 60 years of high-speed action, deserves consideration?

Hill accepts that history does not have a column on Ecclestone's balance sheet.

He said: "Bernie drives the marketing of F1 and he knows he's got a product which has a market value in the world. Negotiations between us will be ongoing, but I don't expect them to come to a conclusion until the final hour."

Five races that thrilled fans at Silverstone

1950: Glory for Farina in first F1 race
With a track marked out by straw bales and oil drums Silverstone hosts the first round of the inaugural Formula One world championship. Victory goes to Alfa Romeo's Giuseppe Farina, an Italian famed for his straight-arm driving style who went on to take three of that season's seven Grands Prix to become world champion.

1965: Four in a row for Jim Clark
This was Jim Clark's fourth straight win in the British Grand Prix and his fourth win of the season as the great Scotsman raced towards his second world title. Remarkably, British drivers filled the first five places with Graham Hill, John Surtees, Mike Spence and Jackie Oliver following Clark across the line.

1973: Woodcote pile up causes chaos
The year the British Grand Prix took on the guise of a destruction derby, as Jody Scheckter spun out of fourth place at the end of the first lap. With his McLaren stationary broadside across the track, chaos ensued with 11 cars crashing. Following a restart, American Peter Revson went on to claim his maiden Formula One victory.

1987: Fans go wild as Mansell pips Piquet
Mansell Mania comes to Silverstone. The race was a straight fight between the British driver and Williams team-mate Nelson Piquet, of Brazil, who led with two laps to go. Mansell then pulled off one of the great overtaking manoeuvres at close on 200mph to claim a close-run win - on the slowing down lap his car ran out of fuel.

1994: Hill is crowned as sport mourns ace
Two months after his Williams team-mate Ayrton Senna was killed at Imola, Damon Hill claimed an emotional win from pole position. Arch rival Michael Schumacher overtook Hill on the parade lap and after initially refusing to come in for a penalty stop the German was disqualified from second place.