Former motorsport country is “lost”
Ex-F1 boss Ecclestone worries about Germany
03/01/2023 09:37 am
Formula 1 races past Germany again this year. The land of car manufacturers is no longer really moving. “Germany has lost its importance as a Formula 1 country,” says Bernie Ecclestone. Norbert Haug is also worried about Germany as a location.
Bernie Ecclestone sees Germany at a low point in enthusiasm for Formula 1. “I wonder: what’s going on with Germany? The country had so many world champions. But the public seems to have lost interest in Formula 1. Germany has its Lost importance as a Formula 1 country,” said 92-year-old Ecclestone ahead of the start of the season this weekend in Bahrain. The Brit had been Formula 1’s chief marketer for around 40 years before he was dismissed in 2017.
“We had such great races there in front of such a great crowd – but it’s all gone. I’m really sorry that we lost Germany for Formula 1. There aren’t any more races either. It looks like Germany would no longer exist for Formula 1,” Ecclestone continued.
But he was sure “that that can’t be true. I bet there is a foundation on which success can be built in Germany again,” said Ecclestone. “Maybe the organizers didn’t try hard enough. They probably organized too small, nice, local races and not international races in world champion format. They didn’t grow with them.”
Haug sobered: “The train has left”
The last time Formula 1 stopped in Germany was in 2020 – but the race at the Nürburgring only came about because of the racing calendar improvised by the corona pandemic.
After the resignation of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel at the end of the season and Mick Schumacher’s departure from the US team Haas, there is only one regular German Formula 1 driver. Nico Hulkenberg replaced Schumacher, who in turn became a reserve driver at Mercedes.
The former Mercedes Motorsport boss Norbert Haug also recognizes a loss of importance of the Formula 1 location Germany. It’s a tragedy that Germany “went back from being the Formula 1 superpower that was at the center of it to a little-noticed developing country with no races of its own and no driver with a chance to win, let alone a chance to win the title,” said the 70-year-old Haug of the “Pforzheimer Zeitung”. Interview.
He rules out the possibility of a Grand Prix taking place in Germany again in the foreseeable future. “The train has left. Germany, the former locomotive of past decades with two Formula 1 races per year and twelve driver world championship titles won between 1994 and 2016, is sitting in the last wagon, i.e. where the red lantern hangs,” said Haug .