Sir Jackie Stewart has warned Bernie Ecclestone he may have caused "irrecoverable" damage to Britain's motorsport future.

Ecclestone has dropped the British Grand Prix from Formula One's provisional 2005 calendar after Silverstone owners the British Racing Drivers' Club, of which Stewart is president, failed to match his financial demands.

Most of Britain's multi-billion-pound motorsport industry is located around Silverstone and Stewart believes that is now in jeopardy after the country's showpiece event was axed.

British motorsport has thrived on the country's unbroken run on the Formula One calendar, with the majority of teams basing themselves on these shores. But without a grand prix, Stewart feels that kind of commitment and investment could be hard to find in the future. He is also angry that a dispute over money prompted the decision when former rights holders Interpublic paid over £50m to Ecclestone this year to end its Formula One obligations in Britain.

He said: "It is damaging to this country that Mr Ecclestone has acted to cancel next year's grand prix when he has already been paid for next years' race through the contractual exit of Interpublic and when the BRDC made a generous offer to promote the race which would produce no profit for the club.

"It is sad when new entry countries like Bahrain and China are celebrating their new grand prix and their importance to their countries' interests that here in the UK, where we hosted the first grand prix at Silverstone in 1950, we have been taken off the international calendar.

"It will inflict serious damage to the pre-eminence of the sport and industry in the United Kingdom which may be irrecoverable.

"Foreigners looking at this debacle from afar will be staring in amazement and wondering why this has been allowed to happen."

Stewart is keen to stress the BRDC did all they could in their capacity as a non-profit members club to retain the race. But with Ecclestone demanding nearly £9m annually for the rights to a race which lost around £10m even with a sell-out 100,000 crowd this year, they were unwilling to bankrupt themselves. Stewart said: "The BRDC, a not-for-profit club with limited finances, have made the best offer we can to maintain the grand prix in the United Kingdom at Silverstone. "The BRDC's offer to promote the race is at a price which at best will break even and in a poor year will lose the club a considerable amount of money."