The German GP could be returning to the Formula 1 calendar, in a move that should, on paper, please purists of the sport. Another race in Europe is never a bad thing, but it is an idea that has begun to die out since the turn of the century as the Middle and Far East rose to prominence as new locations for a coveted F1 race.
We all love a terrible thriller or horror. One where someone who has been written as a class clown gets killed off early, usually in an undignified manner – look no further than Squid Game’s first victim in Red Light/Green Light as an example. Others deserve a little more respect, however. Hockenheim, I fear, could be in for the worst fate of all: a drawn-out death that benefits no one.
But F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has confirmed that conversations to bring back the German GP are underway, though no definitive decision has been taken. The race quietly disappeared from the calendar in 2019 and has never really looked like it could make a serious comeback…until now, it seems.
But there is more to this development than meets the eye, and in a sport as commercially driven as F1, a return on investment is critical. The world has changed dramatically since Hockenheim’s heyday, and having a home driver on the grid (with the possible exception of Max Verstappen) is no longer enough to justify a place on the calendar.
It is this point that arguably led to the downfall of the German GP after 2019. Yes, it has Mercedes, a championship-winning outfit, but the glory days of multiple Germans on the grid have long since passed, and commercially it made little sense. But now, Domenicali and Liberty Media are beginning to change their attitude.
Germany an “interesting” market
Domenicali has credited the recent merger of broadcasters RTL and Sky Germany as part of the renewed interest in bringing back the race. He then explained the other commercial interests behind the revitalised discussions.
He also defined what he called “the right negotiation” for the race. However, he wanted to make a clear divergence between the markets in the UK and Italy, where Sky has an iron grip on all F1 content – with not even the live version of F1 TV allowed, such is the exclusivity of the broadcasting rights.
“Definitely RTL was an important step in our need to have more reach in that market,” said Domenicali, the Formula 1 president and CEO,” he said.
“I’m pretty sure that in the future, when it will be the right negotiation, the market with Germany will be different, for example, from what we have now in Italy or in the UK.
“There will be a digital platform or other streamer that will apply for the tender, because that’s a market that possibly will have that opportunity to put us in a situation that we need to make the right decision for the future.
“But with regard to the potential, I would say that we don’t have to forget that we have Audi that stepped into the business. We have Mercedes. We have big partners that have their home base in Germany.
“I think now Germany wants us to think in the medium-term if they can come back into the calendar, or even more important, being, as it was 20 years ago, one of the most important markets for Formula 1. I think that is the base for this discussion. “
Definitely, the new situation in Germany starts to move in the direction that I see Germany potentially in the future being a very interesting market that will have a positive effect both on the media side, but also maybe on the promoter side.
“It will not be, in that case, a short-term call, but definitely will happen, and this is very, very important to remember.”
Using Domenicali’s logic, the German GP was seen as a staple of the Grand Prix calendar and was indeed a key market 20-plus years ago. We aren’t even talking about the next few years; it’s a medium- to longer-term project. That is a heck of a lot of pressure for a race that has yet to secure its return.
But there is, of course, one nagging snag at the back of my head that I simply cannot quash about this decision. To market a product effectively, you need something or someone to market, and this is where a painful, drawn-out death could await F1’s return to Hockenheim.
We need to talk about the driver situation
Fans like to rally around drivers; Michael Schumacher (who I cannot believe I’ve got this long into this feature without referencing) remains the pinnacle of German drivers. Others were available to fans too: Heinz Harald Frentzen, Nick Heidfeld, and Ralf Schumacher all raced in the 1990s and early 2000s. Of that list, only Heidfeld failed to win a race; the rest were all in championship contention.
Then, in the late 2000s, along came Sebastian Vettel and took four world titles, with Nico Rosberg taking another in 2016, both supported by underdog Nico Hulkenberg. Success equals exposure, which increases your fan count. But, in the last nine years, that success has been severely lacking. Even Rosberg in 2014 failed to win over fans with his victory at Hockenheim; the German was nowhere near as popular as his predecessor.
Hulkenberg is, sadly, no spring chicken anymore and is in the twilight years of his F1 career. In Audi, he is unlikely to win his first race, and more relevantly, is the only active German driver on the F1 grid.
That, given the nation’s rich history of producing champions and race winners, is an utterly mad statistic. Mick Schumacher had his chance, but that did not work out, to put it mildly; given his legendary dad’s working-class background, German fans would have likely flocked to him.
So, taking Domenicali’s stance of the medium-term for Hockenheim’s return as verbatim, who do the German fans rally around once Hulkenberg retires? At present, no one. The only real German Formula 2 prospect is Red Bull junior Ollie Goethe, but Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov is the current favourite to graduate to Racing Bulls in the next couple of years. There are none in Formula 3, with the next prospect Maxim Rehm in Italian Formula 4.
A critical missing piece of the puzzle
I therefore return to the point of needing a figure for fans to centre around should the German GP make its much-vaunted return. At present this is a chasm as big as the distance between the Earth and the sun, with little chance of being filled in the short or medium term.
Supporting the likes of Mercedes and Audi is great, and they are absolutely critical to the outreach of an event, but they lack the appeal of a driver. Races exist where no driver exists for the home crowd, such as Hungary and Belgium, but these work as they are hubs for fans to gather around from multiple countries in Europe. Germany is different. It has always had a home hero at the centre of its existence, and as history tells us, once this is removed, interest can wane.
If no German driver is on the grid, and in the top ten if Hockenheim signs on the dotted line, F1 risks the indignity of a return to the sparsely filled grandstands that defined its final few races. Should this happen, the pressure of hosting the race could implode the actual weekend.
Germans love their drivers, and love powering them to success. With no figure, and no interests other than brands, fans may well stay away. That could lead to a long, drawn-out death that would put William Shatner’s rather undignified demise in Star Trek Generations to shame.
If an unexpected return is on the cards, it must be handled better than the now-infamous “somehow Palpatine returned” from the final Star Wars sequel trilogy. It cannot be lazy and ignore red flags. Let’s get those younger German drivers ready for F1 so home fans have someone to cheer from those legendary stadium grandstands…
Discussion about this post