The Nurburgring has now joined Hockenheim in confirming that it will not host a German GP in 2015 – a year that sees Mercedes as reigning World Champions, Nico Rosberg fighting for the title, and Sebastian Vettel racing for Ferrari.
Bernie Ecclestone, who said last week that the event was “dead,” had been negotiating for weeks with both venues. He had clearly been hoping that Mercedes would step forward and underwrite the race – the company has always brought a lot of guests to its home race – but Toto Wolff made it clear in Melbourne that it would not happen.
Nurburgring spokesman Pietro Nuvoloni told SID: “Due to time constraints, organisational and economic reasons, it makes no sense at this stage to stage the race.”
He added that the track had “submitted a very detailed offer and also underlined in this willingness to wear a manageable possible financial loss. Because so far no agreement could be reached, we have now closed the window. We regret that very much.”
Earlier this week Hockenheim said that there was no chance of a race. In any case even had a deal been reached, at this stage it would have been impossible for either of the tracks to properly market tickets.
The German GP has figured in every World Championship except in 1955 and 1960.
Adam Cooper F1 
No German GP in the 1950 WDC either.
Conclusive proof that F1 finances are ridiculous and Bernie only cares about his bank account.
Bernie won’t accept less money because that then threatens his future contract negotiations every where else.
But the whole of the race contracting model is just crazy. Venues are providing these world class facilities and they have to pay £millions for the priviledge. A more logical scenario would be that Bernie pays the circuit to host the race and he then keeps the ticketing revenue
Whether Bernie is in charge or not is irrelevant. The next person to do his job will answer to the same people. They are not in the game as custodians of the sport, they only give a toss about their own bottom line.
True. But who created their expectation?
I’m with you 100%, but that is a % of F1 you can kiss goodbye to forever. Its a balance sheet item to a hedge fund, and will likely be sold to another.
Thats the problem with private owners in sports. You have people f’ing with something that means nothing to them, but the world to others.
Seriously, it frustrates me that Bernie has special contracts with the top 5 teams. I really wish for the better of the sport they united as one (ala FOTA) or started a new series. You can go just as fast for a fraction of the cost, and can cut out the middle man in the process.
The cause of most problems, as well as the main obstacle to progress in the sport does lie with who owns it.
So true. Pretty soon the Aussie, British, Canadian, US & Japanese GP’s will go by the wayside, too, and the only races will be where a country gov’t pays the fee like Bahrain, Malayasia, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, etc.
This rests on Bernie’s shoulders.
Gutted. And Monza is being axed next year. Two great circuits in two years
I’m not sure that you will get anyone of substance to follow Bernie. As is often the case it will be the person that comes after the next guy that will be the person to take F1 forward.They will have to pretty bloody special to keep this lot together. In all the history of racing series, there has been no championships that survived when the partisipants wrote the rules and that’s what we now have!
Mercedes wins the manufacturer’s title, with a German driver nearly winning the driver’s …… and there will be NO race in Germany this year? That is so wrong on so many levels.
Don, You’re right it’s a travesty. But, in truth, it’s a British car with a British engine and a British driver winning the championship; LOL.
And technically Nico is only half German – he is officially a Finnish-German dual national and only defined as German by the FIA because his superlicence is issued in Germany. After all, Grosjean is classified as a French driver by the FIA, even though officially he is a Franco-Swiss dual national and was born in Geneva.
Besides, why should the German public identify with the team as a German entity? The team is based in the UK, has a predominantly British workforce and, in reality, is German in name only.
Red Bull, officially, is an Austrian team and Force India are officially Indian, but neither outfit has any real connection to their supposed home nation beyond the nationality of their owners, so it’s not surprising that Mercedes is thought of in the same way.
Regardless of where it’s made that big 3 pointed star identifies it as a German car.