F1 News
'German politics stop the country having a F1 Grand Prix' says Glock
The German Grand Prix was last held in 2019, with no expectation of it returning. However, by 2026 two German teams will be within the motorclass: Mercedes and Audi. Speaking to Damon Hill and Eddie Jordan on the Formula For Success podcast, former German F1 driver Timo Glock shared his insight as to whether the Grand Prix could make a return to the European country.
Since it began hosting in 1926, 75 F1 races were held in Germany across three different venues. However, the Grand Prix came to an end in 2019 after no further deals were renewed. Lewis Hamilton won four races in Germany over his career, and Max Verstappen was the last driver to take home the top prize.Asked as to why he believes the German Grand Prix is yet to return, Glock replied: "It's just a poltiical situation at the moment in Germany that the manufacturers don't want to be part of the motorsport anymore because the carbon footprint is a big part of it, and it's the political situation that the government doesn't support any F1 races anymore."
Despite the political issues, the German confirmed that the Hockenheim circuit would be keen to start racing again, if they had the support: "I have very close contact to Hockenheim, and they would love to do an F1 race, but, you know, if you run out and you do a minus of 20 million, it doesn't make sense. So they need to find a way to get the support, and unfortunately, we don't have the support in Germany at the moment from the government side and from the manufacturers at the end," Glock said.
'It's impossible at the moment'
With two German manufacturers to be in the sport by 2026, the hosts called it 'crazy' that the demand and interest is not big enough for the country to host an F1 race. For Glock, it seems that the financial backing, and suppport is just not there yet: "I think we have great facilities to do it. Now, the Hockenheim ring is sold to a private sort of, a private company, and they want to invest a lot of money into the ring and build it up again and make it more sort of attractive. But at the end, we just need financial background in Germany and financial support to host an F1 race." He concluded, "If I look back to my time, how much support I had in Germany as a young guy, now the young German kids, they don't have any support in Germany to make their way through to F1, for example. It's impossible at the moment."