London, England - Hockenheim will host this year's German Grand Prix in July instead of alternating with the Nurburgring.
Formula One commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone said on Thursday: “It's going to be at Hockenheim, we're in the middle of doing something with them. It can't be the Nurburgring because there's nobody there.”
Hockenheim hosted the 2014 German round under an agreement to share with the Nurburgring, an historic circuit for champion Mercedes and its 'Silver Arrows', which is under new ownership.
The 2015 season will start in Australia on 15 March but the 20-race calendar doesn’t specify a venue for German round on 19 July.
Ecclestone said: “We've got a contract in place with Hockenheim, we just have to amend the years of the contract. It was alternating with the Nurburgring so we'll just take that out.
“Providing the contract goes through as we expect it to, we'll be in good shape.”
The news, while not entirely unexpected, will be seen as a setback to the owners of a circuit that Ecclestone twice tried to buy in 2014.
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Reports on Wednesday had indicated that Nurburgring executives were hopeful of agreeing a new deal but were concerned about the costs involved.
“Formula One is welcome at the Nurburgring,” CEO Carsten Schumacher. “It provides worldwide television pictures, a positive image and would bring high sales to the region. However, Formula One has to remain affordable.”
Ecclestone said he had not discussed a deal with the Nurburgring.
“We wanted to buy the Nurburgring,” he said. “We made an offer and somebody topped us with a few dollars and bought it.
“And then they couldn't pay and it went on sale again. I said I'd be interested and then they found somebody else - so I don't know what's happening.”
Russian investor Viktor Kharitonin bought a two-thirds stake, through a holding company, in the financially troubled Nurburgring in October; the remaining third is held by GetSpeed GmbH, which is owned by a management consultant.
Kharitonin controls Russian pharmaceutical company Pharmstandard, which has a market capitalisation of more than $1.08 billion (R12.5 billion).
Capricorn and GetSpeed won a takeover battle in March to buy the track for more than €100 million (R1.34 billion), including debt, but Capricorn had trouble financing the deal.
The European Commission also ruled in 2014 that state aid given to develop the race track into a racing theme park was in breach of European Union rules and must be paid back.
Reuters