Admin I Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024
STUTTGART – Former Mercedes head of motorsport Norbert Haug believes that Formula One won’t race again in Germany in the foreseeable future.
“If politicians worked together as constructively and purposefully as a successful racing team, then I wouldn’t be worried,” Haug, who worked at Mercedes from 1990 to 2012, told the Pforzheimer Zeitung newspaper in an interview on Saturday.
“The people who demonize the car are very few, but they make sure that potential sponsors don’t consider it opportune to support Formula 1 and then make a profit from it,” he said.
The iconic Nürburgring circuit hosted the last F1 race in Germany as part of the last-minute calendar during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Before that, both Nürburgring and Hockenheim used to be a permanent stop during the season, hosting the German Grand Prix.
However, neither course can afford the high entry fees in the double-digit million range. In other countries, the state subsidizes the events.
“If the state of Baden-Württemberg were to invest €20 million ($21.67 million) for a Grand Prix in Hockenheim, this would result in a turnover of around €50 million, with taxes of €10 to €12 million flowing back to the state.
“Many millions are quite rightly invested in the Stuttgart football stadium, for example,” Haug said based on his own calculations.
