F1 at Nürburgring
January 31, 2013
Formula One world champion, Germany's Sebastian Vettel, looks set to race on the Eifel region circuit in western Germany, instead of Germany's Hockenheim track to the south this July, according to two newspapers, the Rhein Zeitung and Allgemeine Zeitung of Mainz.
Government sources in Mainz, the regional capital of Rhineland Palatinate state, also spoke of "good news" after months of wrangling between the circuit's insolvency administrator and former track-leasing proprietors.
The Rhein-Zeiting (RZ) based in Koblenz said Formula-One chief Bernie Ecclestone and "ring" administrator Karl-Josef Schmidt had reached an agreement in Cologne late Wednesday to go ahead with the race on July 7 - despite lingering insolvency proceedings.
Details would be announced at a press conference Thursday, the RZ added.
Mainz's Allgemeine Zeitung (AZ) said it understood that ticket sales would begin on Thursday.
Legal wrangles
Both newspapers said the agreement was finalized when two major German motoring organizations, the ADAC and AVD, resolved differences and agreed to share the race organization role - despite legal objections from the previous race track leaseholders.
Still unresolved was whether the race would be called the German Grand Prix or the European Grand Prix.
They said Rhineland Palatinate state had declined - contrary to past years - to contribute a sizeable subsidy for the 2013 race after controversy over a cost explosion for an amusement park at adjacent to Nürburgring's Formula One track in recent years.
The circuit's state-owned operating company had filed insolvency last July, causing embarrassment for the-then state premier Kurt Beck, a veteran Social Democrat.
His Social Democrat successor, state premier Malu Dreyer, who took office earlier this month, told the Mainz parliament on Wednesday that her cabinet was ready to learn from the past funding difficulties.
The Formula One season is due to start on March 17 with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne and finish in Brazil in November.
ipj/av (AP, AFP, sid, dpa)