Hockenheim gave up. No F1 race in Germany. It has happened.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by 954Stealth

"the old contract was a disaster for us from a commercial point of view, I don't think there will be 'another contract., so it's bye bye after 2016'"
-- Bernie

What contract is he talking about here now? Monza, Italy. He wants to double his billing to the track ownders from 12 to 22 million Euros. The ability to fund this is coming from the government and their Parliament. So will it be approved? Only if Parliament approves it. That's the only way Monza can come up with the funds to pay Bernie.

and that's the only track for F1 in italy. So what would that mean to the vast numbers of Italian race fans? What would that mean to Ferrari?

Well that ruined my morning. Monza is one of maybe four or five tracks I still care about in F1. F1 isn't F1 without a Monza race, it has to be on the calendar. I still miss Imola greatly, I love that track.

[954Stealth]

Sad news for the German Formula 1 fans!

Hockenheim gives up on German GP
Tuesday, 17 March 2015

http://www.bild.de/sport/motorsport/...3326.bild.html

Hockenheim boss Georg Seiler says his track has given up hope of hosting Formula 1's German Grand Prix this year.

Despite months of uncertainty about the future of the race, there remained a chance that Hockenheim and Formula 1 promoter Bernie Ecclestone could reach some sort of compromise to keep it on the calendar.

But speaking to German newspaper Bild on Tuesday, Seiler made it clear that time had run out - and he has abandoned the idea of his circuit hosting the race.

"We have no more hope that the Formula 1 race takes place here," he told Bild.

"We did everything we could in the last few years to make the fans happy.
"Time has run out to organise the race here. Otherwise, [there was a risk that] the quality of the event would have suffered."

The German GP was originally scheduled to take place at the Nurburgring on July 19, but talks with the track's new owners collapsed over the winter.
Ecclestone said in January that he expected to close a deal with Hockenheim but those discussions have also come to nothing.
If Hockenheim no longer wants a deal, then Ecclestone will have to inform the FIA that the race is off so they can formally cancel it.

THREE-MONTH RULE

Making a decision to not hold the race as soon as possible was important for Hockenheim because there would have been a risk of the event permanently falling off the calendar if it held out too long to try to keep it.

Article 5.6 of F1's Sporting Regulations states: "An event which is cancelled with less than three months written notice to the FIA will not be considered for inclusion in the following year's championship unless the FIA judges the cancellation to have been due to force majeure."

It means that if the 2015 event was not cancelled by the end of next month, then the German GP would not have been able to return until 2017 at the earliest.

***************************

Hockenheim -Boss Georg Seiler IMAGE confirmed that a GP at Hockenheim-Ring (scheduled for July 19) has burst.

Seiler: "We have no more hope that the Formula 1 takes place here. We have done in the last few years everything to make the fans happy. "
No Germany GP this year!

Seiler continues: "The time has expired, to organize a race here. Otherwise, the quality of the event would have suffered. "

The problem is that the ticket sales had been only enabled if the race had been confirmed. It was important time for the ticket lost, eg during the Christmas season.

Georg Seiler: "We had agreed to host the Formula 1 representative of the Nürburgring. For this purpose, we would have been under no contractual obligation. "

F1 boss Ecclestone had the Nürburgring revoked earlier this year the race because of financial problem.

Seiler: "There were discussions with third parties on an assumption of risk, but that did not lead to success." It was around 12 million euros.

Back in January, had been speculation that Germany Formula 1 loses.
Since Michael Schumacher retired from racing the audience numbers declined steadily at the Hockenheimring - there were some concerns. F1 boss Ecclestone at the time: "That surprises me. Perhaps it is because the Germans have always supported Michael, were accustomed to him and miss him now. "

Last year, only 52,000 fans came to the track on race Sunday 2013 were even only 44 000 spectators at the Nurburgring.

Now, in 2015, none of these races will be held in Germany ...

[954Stealth]

So, Ecclestone had the Nürburgring revoked earlier this year the race because of financial problems and Hockenheim has given up has given up.

Truly a sad day for the sport

[954Stealth]

Niki Lauda has described the official demise of Mercedes' home race this year as "sad".

The F1 legend and Mercedes team chairman confirmed reports that the German carmaker made efforts to save the July 19 race, as circuit promoters and Bernie Ecclestone ultimately failed to agree.

"This is just sad," Lauda told the German broadcaster RTL.

However, he refused to blame Ecclestone, even though Mercedes reportedly made an offer to promote the German grand prix this year and pay half the financial loss.

"Mercedes tried to help," said Lauda, "but it was not accepted.

"But the conditions are the same everywhere in the world. If there is no promoter in Germany that can do what the other countries manage to do to run a grand prix, then this is how it is," the plain-speaking Austrian added.

Less forgiving is fellow former F1 driver Christian Danner, who said Friday's news from the Geneva meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council was "a slap in the face for all motor sport fans in Germany".

"I find it very unfortunate that there was no institution that could have prevented this," he added.

However, spectator numbers as well as television ratings have been sharply declining within Germany in the past years.

For the 2015 season opener in Melbourne, only 1.8 million Germans tuned in to RTL's free-to-air coverage, compared with 3.1 million exactly a year ago.

The demise of the 2015 German grand prix could now hurt ratings even more.

"As the broadcasting network, we are obviously disappointed about this cancellation," said RTL Sport's Manfred Loppe.

"The German grand prix was a highlight of the racing calendar for us, so we hope strongly that this is just a one-off."

[Chihuahua]

I am convinced that Bernie is such an ego-maniac that he wants to take F1 to the grave with him. No, I am not making a joke.

[954Stealth]

Originally Posted by Kyle B

I am convinced that Bernie is such an ego-maniac that he wants to take F1 to the grave with him. No, I am not making a joke.

This is probably more true than we know!

[E90SLAM]

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/04/0...could-be-next/

On the F1 grid today Germany is represented by a championship-winning team, a four-times champions driver and another multiple race-winner.

Germany has also held more rounds of the world championship than any country apart from Italy, Yet despite that it has lost its place on the Formula One calendar this year.

And there are now concerns Italy could be the next venue to lose its F1 race as Formula One continues to leave traditional venues behind – and move races further away from its exclusively Europe-based teams.

Is the championship is broadening its horizons – or losing its identity?

At present no country holds more than one round of the championship. However in the past F1 has taken advantage of surges of popularity in particular regions to put on extra races.

For a long time Italy had a second race dubbed the San Marino Grand Prix which was held at Imola, some 80 kilometres outside of the tiny republic. In the eighties the USA held up to three races per season under a variety of names. More recently the European Grand Prix was held in Britain, Spain and, most frequently, Germany.

The popularity of Michael Schumacher sustained Germany’s two rounds of the championship at the Hockenheimring and Nurburgring. But from 2007, the year after Schumacher’s first retirement, the two circuits began hosting a single Germany round on an alternating basis.

However the Nurburgring’s recent financial problems, which led to its sale to Capricorn Development last year, cast doubt on its future as a grand prix venue. Among the rival bids turned down was one from Bernie Ecclestone, who faced a bribery trial in Germany in 2014 which was concluded by a settlement.

Ecclestone entered talks to move this year’s race to the Hockenheimring. But despite Mercedes offering to cover some of the losses the circuit might incur, having been disappointed by the poor turn-out at last year’s race, no deal was reached for the race to continue this year.

Despite losing its F1 race the Nurburgring is set to hold its first round of the re-formed World Endurance Championship, where both Audi and Porsche compete, and will also be visited by the DTM where Mercedes alse compete alongside Audi and BMW.

The success of a major local manufacturer – not to mention Sebastian Vettel’s four consecutive drivers’ championship titles – was not enough to sustain Germany’s round of the championship. But surely the same could not happen in the backyard of Formula One’s most famous team?

The Gran Premio d’Italia is one of only two races which has never been absent from the world championship calendar – the other being the British Grand Prix. And no circuit has held more F1 races than Monza – it’s only missed one since the championship was inaugurated.
But for all the passion of the Ferrari tifosi, the heritage of one of the world’s oldest permanent racing circuits, and even agreements within F1 intended to protect historic events on the calendar, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza is in jeopardy.

Although a healthy crowd of feverish fans assembles beneath Monza’s superb podium every year, they are part of a gradually declining race day crowd. Rising ticket prices, Italy’s economic torpor and the relatively poor showing by the home favourites in recent years are among the factors considered responsible.

When it comes to negotiating prices for future races Ecclestone likes to play one venue off against another, and for a while a rumoured grand prix on a street circuit in Rome provided that service. But that’s been off the table since 2011. Now Monza’s centenary approaching in 2022, and the promoters’ obvious desire to have a race that year may be Ecclestone’s best bargaining chip when they seek to extend the current deal which expires after next year’s race.

The simple fact is heritage, local interest or even the quality of a circuit’s layout have zero bearing on who gets to hold a grand prix. If a promoter is willing to pay Ecclestone’s prices, little else matters.

His views on the likelihood of European promoters being able to foot his bills have been clear for some time. “People should worry about our economy and the fact that in 10 years’ time Europe will be a third world region, taken over by Asia and Latin America,” said Ecclestone in 2004 (a claim he repeated recently).

He was speaking at a time when the proportion of races in Europe had just fallen from 62.5% to 55.5%. Today European races account for 36.8%.

How much further can that figure fall? And how much longer can Formula One’s struggling teams afford to participate in a calendar where almost two-thirds of the races are a long-haul flight away?