Enjoy it while you can because this years Grand Prix at Hockenheim will likely be the last. Despite relatively recently having the greatest F1 driver (statistically) in the history of the sport in Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel a four time world champion plus Mercedes who are the most dominant team ever- all being German. Yet the GP’s there have struggled to sell tickets in recent years and this year is no different with a lack of demand for tickets at the upcoming Hockenheim circuit casting doubt over the future of the event on the Formula 1 calendar.
Traditionally Hockenheim and Nurburgring rotate their hosting of the German GP but last year the race was removed from the F1 calendar as Nurburgring refused to hold the event despite it being their turn due to a sharply increased hosting fee demanded by one Mr E.
So far just 46,000 tickets have been sold for the upcoming race in Hockenheim, which is scheduled to take place on July 31 but the circuit organisers are rather optimistically declaring that the number will rise to around 60,000. Great but that will be only 4,000 more than the 2014 race which attracted much criticism due to the lack of commercial success.
Rather worryingly for fans in Germany, a spokesperson for Hockenheim was very uncertain when asked if they’d step in to save the German GP when Nurburgring are unable to pay the fee yet again in 2017 saying.
“It would be Nurburgring’s turn to host the event in 2017, and we would only intervene and host the event if we could exclude any financial risk”
Right now the most likely outcome with Germany’s contract ending 2018 is that both circuits will likely to find it impossible to do anything but walk away from the calendar.
Strange. Camping at the German grand prix was a massive party. Why would all those people decide not to come anymore?
Could it be that it nearly costs as much as a vacation of two weeks? No that’s surely not it.. could it be because the championship isn’t exciting anymore? No that can’t be it either. Very strange. Who would know answers to these questions? #WhatWouldJesusDo
#IchBinEinBerliner #IsSchumiReallyTheGreatest
A damn sad state of affairs when and if we lose another host GP. Germany has always had a strong motor sport heritage plus some absolutely devoted fans but they are no fools and won’t be held hostage by MrE’s hosting fee. As we have seen before with BTCC,WEC,Dtm and V8 there are other race events that can offer the thrill of F1 for a fraction of the price,when will they learn?
Sadly they cut the balls of Hockenheim before they decided to have enough.
They do that with most decent tracks…yep it was a tad long but it had so much to offer, I have to say that hockenheim is my least favourite old track after the cull but is still head and shoulders above most of the sandbox racing travesties.
I always liked it. Very challenging. Especially with rain. Forest giving the water spray no chance of escaping. But I agree. If I had to choose it would be imola in a heartbeat.
And the odd cape wearing nut job lol
Maybe twittering fans should alert sponsors like @heineken about the State of the sport. Whatever the reasons, there seems to be momentum to change things.
I suspect many are waiting with trepidation for Bernard to give up the ghost… That’s when change will storm in. Given past form, however, the wait may be long.