No German GP for the first time since 1960

THE F1 calendar will be reduced to 19 races this year as the FIA announced on Friday that there would be no German GP this year.

The writing was on the wall in January when Bernie Ecclestone said that the Nurburgring circuit could not host the race this year due to the fact that: “There’s nobody there.”

Hockenheim and the Nurburgring have in recent years shared the responsibility of staging the race in order to ease the financial burden, and this year it was Nurburg´s turn.

But the final confirmation that a deal could not be reached came on Friday after a meeting of the governing body’s World Motor Sport Council. And apparently it’s too late for Hockenheim to step in and cover for them this year.

Even ahead of the Melbourne GP, Ecclestone told The Independent, “The German Grand Prix is dead at the moment. It won’t get replaced if it doesn’t happen. As with any race, if it is cancelled it is cancelled. There’s not much we can do.”