The German Grand Prix "has been dropped from this year’s Formula One calendar," according to the PA. The race "had been in doubt owing to questions over which circuit would host the race, which has been shared between Hockenheim and Nürburgring in recent seasons." A short FIA statement said that "no agreement could be reached with Bernie Ecclestone, the commercial rights holder." The statement said, "The German Grand Prix has been withdrawn as the CRH and promoter did not reach agreement."
The decision "means the 2015 season will be shortened to 19 races" (PA, 3/20). In London, Paul Weaver reported Mercedes offered to pay 50% "of any potential loss in a vain attempt to save the German Grand Prix." The team "also undertook to promote the race, in what would have resulted in a total outlay of several million euros." A Mercedes spokesperson said, "The German GP is a core race on the Formula 1 calendar and we have a significant interest in this race taking place. Mercedes-Benz has participated in discussions and offered a significant contribution to support a successful German GP, at the Hockenheimring, in 2015. This offer was, unfortunately, not accepted" (GUARDIAN, 3/21). The DPA's Christian Hollmann reported the decision means F1 "will be without a German race for the first time in 55 years." Mercedes Non-Exec Chair Niki Lauda said, "It's just sad." Mercedes said that "it regretted developments while also indicating it had been reluctant to get involved." A Mercedes spokesperson said, "We don't believe it is the task of participating teams to provide financial support to individual race promoters." Lauda "had previously criticized German organizers inability to pull together behind a race in Germany and had demanded more pressure for a German Grand Prix." Lauda:
"The standards are the same all over the world. But if there are no organizers in Germany who can manage to pull together a Grand Prix like they do in other countries, then that's the way it is" (DPA, 3/20).
GERMAN HERITAGE: The BBC's Andrew Benson opined the last time Germany "disappeared from the calendar was in 1955." Only Belgium and Italy "have held races for longer."
Oh, and France, but "it lost its race seven years ago and has next to no hope of a return."
France "is where motor racing started." It "held the first grand prix in 1906." And yet when the country "could not come up with a financial deal to sate the ever-increasing demands" of Ecclestone,
F1's tsar "had no compunction about cutting it free." So much for "the value of heritage and history." Many within F1 believe Ecclestone's priorities "are out of whack, that too much focus is given to profit and not enough to what is good for the sport." After all, F1's "soul is in Europe, as well as much of its television audience."
Yet because the circuits struggle to make the races work on financial grounds, Lewis Hamilton & Co. "increasingly race in the likes of Bahrain and, from next year, Azerbaijan."
But who, honestly, "thinks it is better to have a race in an oil-rich Caspian state with a questionable human rights record than in the biggest economy in Europe?"
