The German Grand Prix has been riddled with difficulties for the last several years. The years of massive turnout and excitement waned when Michael Schumacher left the sport and the price of hoisting a race became untenable.
The challenge was met by rotating the race from. Hockenheim to Nurburgring every other year but even that strategy placed too much of a burden on promoters. It’s on again, off again status on the Formula 1 calendar has made it even less of a feature race in recent years but it now seems that the Germans could be more attractive as a stop-gap race in 2020.
“I can confirm that we are in talks,” Hockenheim CEO Jorn Teske told Autosport.
“We were and are in contact with our colleagues from Formula 1 from time to time anyway. After so many years of partnership, it is quite normal to ask each other what the respective status is.
“We are in dialogue regarding these topics. And we have also talked about the uncertainties of the race calendar in Formula 1.”
The promoters for both race tracks in Germany have been very forthright in their position that they aren’t interested in hosting a race if it isn’t profitable and who can blame them? Now, with F1 reeling from Covid-19 and trying to assembled a compressed and hurried European race schedule of closed-door races, Hockenheim feels it may be interested in hosting.
“We talked about whether such a thing is possible, how it would take place. We exchanged ideas casually,” Teske said.
“But not about dates, conditions, contract set-ups, which are absolutely necessary in order to be able to seriously examine something like this. It didn’t go that far.”
As we mentioned on this week’s podcast, what a strange time to be living through when race tracks can host races and be profitable with no fans in the seats. F1 is working with circuit owners and promoters about how this can happen.
People talk about changes to life, and in this case, sport, after Covid-19 and one thing that may be interesting is how the model may be impacted for Formula 1 and the price tag of hosting a race or at the very least, how they might discover new business models and arrangements with circuit owners/promoters.
Hat Tip: Autosport
