Hockenheimring, July 30th
For reasons best known to the Automobile Club von Deutschland, the Formula One Constructors’ Association, the Formula One drivers and Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone, the German GP was once more held in the Hockenheimring concrete stadium. Reasons for not using the Nurburgring provided enormous variety. “It’s too long”, “Too dangerous”, “Too difficult to learn”, “It cannot be marshalld properly”, “Insufficient fire fighting equipment”, ·”Lauda doesn’t like . it”, “The sponsors want their cars to be seen more often than once every seven minutes”, “Too many people get in without paying” and so on, and so on. All very convincing if you believe that sort of thing.
On the face of things the AvD were in charge of things at Hockenheim, and their dignataries certainly filled the credit pages of the rather nice programme, but behind the scenes it was said to be the “Max and Bernie Show”, that Mosley and Ecclestone had more than a finger in the pie. At the Nurburgring you cannot really see the 250,000 spectators spread around the 14-mile mountainous circuit; whereas at Hockenheim the 100,000 that can be crammed into the grandstands overlooking the arena are very visible and the financial profit is clear for all to see. Whether this sight last year persuaded Ecclestone and Mosley to take a keen interest in the German GP, or whether it was for the good of the sport, we’ll never really know.
