For the first time since 1960, there won’t be a German F1 Grand Prix. Both the Nurburgring and Hockenheimring have thrown in the towel in regards to any negotiation with the Formula One Group and their leader, Bernie Ecclestone. On Tuesday Hockenheim made the announcement that they were no longer pursuing the Grand Prix after coming to the conclusion that there wasn’t enough time to prepare and sell tickets, with Hockenheim boss Georg Seiler telling German newspaper Bild that “”The time to stage a race here is over. The quality would have suffered.” On Thursday the Nurburgring, the originally scheduled location for this year’s race, cited “timing, organizational and financial reasons” for backing out of negotiations. Pietro Nuvoloni, the spokesman for the track, told the DPA news agency, “We have reached the decision that it makes no more sense to wait any longer for timing, organising and economic reasons”.
Meanwhile, Formula One doesn’t seem too bothered by the loss. Ecclestone has simply said that the German Grand Prix “is dead at the moment”. With that being that, the F1 calendar is knocked down to 19 races for the 2015 year. Will the German Grand Prix return? Don’t bank on it yet. Ecclestone has been creating new Grand Prix races in such locations as Azerbaijan. Additionally, the money isn’t there anymore: Asking Hockenheimring to sell a F1 race with four month’s notice was a huge request from a track that could barely sell the last race it had with full warning.
(Courtesy: World Car Fans)
“Hockenheimring” is the location.
No … Hockenheimring is the venue ! Hockenheim is the location . The word … Ring … being the clue … 😉
I was like pointing out the misspelling in the title…”Hockenhemiring”.
Although, “Hocken hemi ring” don´t sound bad.
Gotcha ! Mea culpa for the misunderstanding 😉
So hey … did you happen notice maics post and link below ? Ha ! Looks like Hemi Ring is actually quite appropriate ! 😉
Oh dear … the fun we could have with this one ! One Freudian slip by Bryan … a fact or two .. and off we go ……
….. but hold on to it …. the Italian GP may be next to fall …. and there\’s at least two in the wings considering it .
Such is the cost of the excessively high cost of F1 . Attendance is down . The FIA fees are sky high . Everybody\’s losing money … with many rapidly coming to their senses .
As I said on a prominent F1 site ;
F1 is poised to become the automotive equivalent of Polo . Irrelevant .. unapproachable and a sport for the excessively wealthy only that no one else will give a damn about
PS; Two thumbs up Bryan for reporting this … keeping BS a complete GearHead site 😉
Ecclestone is checking his bank account……he needs the money to
support his daughter.
BTW, they hold drag races there too,”NitrOlympX”.
http://www.hockenheimring.de/en/nitrolympx
So who needs F1 ?
\” So who needs F1 ? \”
Had you said that even five years ago ? I\’d be reaming you a new one ! Saying that today though ? Well … suffice it to say we are in agreement * …. unfortunately . Todays F1 … nobody needs … not even the decades long fans such as myself [ since 1964 ]
* Partially because I know full well part of the purchase price of my Benz is financing their participation … despite the fact that Daimler Benzs board and investors want out due to the excessively high cost with minimal if at all benefits .
It’s time that stupid old bastard retired before F1 is retired
It should be considered that:
a. Bernie still has lawyer fees to pay for defending him on the German bribery charges.
b. I tend to think the general motorsport opinion in Germany, (if not most of Europe), is that they can survive without having to pay Bernie’s $ 10M fee to hold a race at their track.
c. Whether Bernie will ever admit it, the end of the current F1 way of doing business is coming to it’s conclusion. Between Red Bull & Ferrari threating to pull out, the price of Bernie’s fees, and the ridiculous price of fielding a current F1 car……….the whole thing has spiraled out of control. Bernie still thinks money grows on trees. But considering the price of oil hurting even the middle eastern/gulf region he won’t be holding 19-20 races per season for very long.
Bad news for f1 is great news for us drag racers. F1 insists on the drag strip being “cleaned” of all prep before they have the race at Hockenheimring, leaving no time to repair the track for the Nitrolypx drag race, which from what I understand is a bigger money maker for the track.
Agreed, I went to the Nitro Olympix last year and the track team had no time to get the track ready for 8 sec cars let alone top fuelers, it was a peddle fest!
F1 is a farce.
We went to the Nitrolympix last year and were looking forward to a better track this year, knowing the circus would be back at the Nurburgring.
Then, when we heard they were talking with Hockenheim at the beginning of the year, we shelved our trip to the Nitrolympix.
This is fantastic news and we’re back to Hockenheim now. Tickets all book already.
Bernie can take his overpaid muppets and play with his new arab buddies in the desert. They are obviously still very impressed by the little greedy twat.