24 Hours of Nurburgring 2011 - Porsche Team Manthey 27.06.2011
Set for F1 race demise
Dark clouds continue to hang over the Nurburgring.
The latest reports in Germany suggest the circuit's management is close to insolvency, raising the prospect that a German grand prix could be held only once every two years, at Hockenheim.
"At the moment there is no request," Hockenheim chief Georg Seiler told DPA news agency when asked if Hockenheim could step in for 2013 and beyond.
He said "everything would have to be right" for Hockenheim to agree a new annual contract. Its current alternating deal runs until 2018.
The Rhein Zeitung newspaper reported that a European Commission bailout of the ailing Nurburgring has been ruled out, and that a partial or complete sale is now almost "inevitable".
The newspaper said the Nurburgring's debts amount to many millions of euros.
When asked to consider the possibility that Germany only hosts one race per two years, Hockenheim's Seiler admitted: "It would not be good.
"I also think this is not in the interests of Bernie Ecclestone and the constructors."