Following in the wheeltracks of Magny-Cours, Hockenheim could be the next venue to disappear off the
Formula 1 calendar in 2010.
The Baden-Württemberg circuit will hold the German Grand Prix this year for the 31st time in July – but, managing director Karl Josef Schmidt warns, it could also be the last. Schmidt insisted the local state must begin to contribute to the now bi-annual race.
“The Baden-Württemberg state must get involved financially, otherwise there will be no Formula 1 in Germany after 2010,” he told German newspaper
Stuttgarter Nachrichten.
According to
pitpass.com, the Hockenheimring is counting debts of more than €34m (£27m), with interest payments as a result of the track's renovations six years ago having led to even greater losses. Having invested €15m (£11.9m) in those improvements, the state – which owns 94 per cent of the circuit – is seemingly not willing to stump up any more, and indeed is considering selling off a large chunk of its shares in the track, sources in Germany claim.
A spokesman for the state's ministry of economic affairs insisted that it was ‘not the task' of the public to fund events at the Hockenheimring. Industry monitor
Formula Money estimates the fee to hold a Formula 1 event to be in the region of $21.5m (£11m).
It was recently decided to alternate Germany's annual date on the grand prix calendar between Hockenheim and the Nürburgring, set to return to the schedule in 2009 after hosting the European Grand Prix last July.
