Bernie Ecclestone is adamant that there is no going back on his decision to omit Silverstone from the 2005 Grand Prix calendar.

In an interview with Silverstone's local radio station, BBC Radio Northampton, Ecclestone said there was no going back on his decision to drop Silverstone in 2005, and that there would not be a change of heart before the schedule is officially ratified next month.

"I put the calendar together and that's it," he said. "The deadline for contracts to be submitted was 30 September and they didn't submit. We've got to assume from that that they didn't want to have an event."

The F1 supremo fiercely denies that he is to blame for Britain losing its most important motorsport event of the year, bringing a 54-year tradition to an end.

"There's a product here that's for sale," he said. "If I walk into a shop and I don't want to pay what they're asking I can't say it's their greed because I couldn't afford it."

He also denied claims that a personal feud with Jackie Stewart, president of the BRDC, is at the heart of the issue: "I'm good friends with Jackie," he said. "He's the chairman of the club and he's doing the best he can.

"The problem is that it's a club," he continued, "not a commercial operation, so they look at things a little bit differently to maybe how a commercial person would look at it."

Despite the fact that it looks as though Silverstone will be without a Grand Prix in 2005, Ecclestone offered the BRDC a ray of hope for the future.

"If they want to take a couple of years off and rebuild the circuit and if they can make it work we're happy to come back again," he said. "I didn't want to leave."