Formula One chief crusty barnacle Bernie Ecclestone likes to charge exorbitant hosting fees for the “privilege” to host a Formula One race in a city or country. Frugal Germans do not like to pay exorbitant hosting fees to crusty barnacles, so in a completely expected development, the German Grand Prix is off the 2017 Formula One racing schedule after both the Nurburgring and Hockenheim circuits refused to host the race due to high costs of hosting and lack of interest from German fans in paying the exorbitant ticket prices and other costs associated with attending an F1 race.
The departure of the German Grand Prix is ironic since German-born Nico Rosberg won the world championship for his German team Mercedes [which has utterly dominated the last three seasons] and the country has four drivers in the typical race day lineup for various teams – more than any other country.
More distressing for Formula One, however, is that the German Grand Prix is unlikely to be on the schedule in 2018 as well – joining Malaysia and, likely, Singapore, and possibly, Montreal and Brazil – in departing from the racing schedule. The departure from this year’s schedule means there will be only 20 races [assuming Brazil signs up for their race].