Jenks on the 'Ring

Continental Notes

It looks as though there is more than meets the eye to the ‘manoeuverings’ to get the German Grand Prix away from the Nürburgring. One ‘ministry man’ involved in the Constructors’ Association is holding on to a fading document said to be “signed by all the F1 drivers” in which they unanimously agreed not to race at the Nürburgring in 1977. This was signed by those in action in Monaco in 1976. One or two like Brambilla and Regazzoni are saying they never signed any agreement. They admit to signing a paper that asked for various improvements, but refute the idea of a boycott.

More serious is the suggestion that the drivers en bloc are being used as a scapegoat for some big-business deal being manipulated behind the scenes, it being in somebody’s financial interest to get the German GP away from the Nürburgring to the Hockenheimring. How anyone can view an event on the silly concrete autodrome that is Hockenheim as a Grand Prix, let alone the “Grosser Preis von Deutschland” is beyond me. And before any readers write to say the Hockenheimring is “…a great modern facility for Formula One…” I hope they will visit both Rings and compare them. If they think the German GP should be at Hockenheim then Grand Prix is truly dead, and Formula One rules supreme. —Yours, DSJ