Your German GP fix
As if it’s not enough to live without a French GP we’ve also had to survive this year minus a race in Germany. I suppose you could argue that France isn’t exactly a strong force in F1 at the moment – but no-one can deny the global allure of Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel and the Nicos Rosberg and Hulkenberg.True, Hockenheim is back on the calendar for 2016, but, in this of all (Mercedes) years, it does seem odd (to say the least) that we haven’t had the chance to see F1’s German stars performing in front of their home crowds…doing something, in the context of the history of our sport, that they’ve been doing since the 1920s.
In the absence of a 2015 German GP, therefore, and courtesy of AP, here are some brief reminders of what it used to like when F1 came to Germany…
peterwindsor.com 
Nice selection of races. Bring back Avus and the real ‘Ring :-). Or perhaps not?
Been chatting to a couple of casual German F1 fans and was “shocked” to find out they don’t like modern cars, “too quiet” they say, no way they’re paying for that. Kinda get it: you probably spend up to 2,000€/3 days for a small family and want to be blown away by the violence of the cars. If you’re sitting, like, 300 metres away from the track in a lousy grandstand, then you’re getting bad value for money. Surely, Nico is great, but it’s just not enough.
F1 bigwigs say power units/fuel flow regs are cool, I can dig it to a certain extent – but where’s access for the fans? Top secret, sorry, just accept PUs are cool and you’re not. Nico + Lewis = Prost + Senna has been the usual marketing formula so far. May work for some.
At least if PUs could be presented properly, I suppose zee Germans would be showing more interest. Austria was full last year, not so full in 2015. Canada’s probably more enthusiastic than ever – normal, Canadians are different animals. British GP slashed prices to fill the place. Dunno.
There are problems for European races, maybe it’s saturation, maybe it’s F1’s strategy. Mean, the teams probably don’t care deep down inside: prize muny coming in, let’s go to Mars.
Old Hockenheim was really something, I’d pay anything to go there and watch politically incorrect race cars/artists of the wheel without brake by wire and so on.
The thing with PUs, race cars are already pretty sophisticated bits of equipment by definition. It depends on how you present the series. Can pure F1 2015 technology be found on the road? No. Why did they bother? No idea.
IndyCar technology? Yes, absolutely, US-market relevant. Chevy and Honda are benefitting from it. They have some issues at Indy HQ, no doubt. But you can’t compare team/driver budgets/ROI for the sponsors (who aim at their home market obviously).
Suppose F1 must adopt IndyCar approach in Europe: this is where the sport is rooted, promote what’s natural to you.
Hmm, I go wild without visits to races. May calm down after F3 at Portimão.
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