German Grand Prix
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The German Grand Prix (Großer Preis von Deutschland) is an annual automobile race. The Grand Prix motorcycle racing event is also called German GP but this article concentrates on the automobile GP.
As Germany was banned from taking part in international events after the World War II, the German GP became part of the Formula One World Championship in 1951. It is organized by AvD (Automobile Club of Germany) since 1926. The well-known ADAC hosts many other races, eg. since 1995 the second F1 race in Germany at the Nürburgring.
History
In 1907, Germany staged the first of the Kaiserpreis races at the Taunus Circuit, with entries limited to touring cars with engines of less than eight litres. A precursor to the German Grand Prix, the first race was won by Italian Felice Nazzaro in a Fiat.
The first national event in German Grand Prix motor racing came to the AVUS (Automobil Verkehrs und Übungs-Straße) race course in southwest Berlin in 1926 as a sports car race. It became an official Grand Prix event in 1929. The first race at the AVUS track, in heavy rain, was won by Germany's native son, Rudolf Caracciola, who would win 6 of 12 GPs before 1940.
The first 1926 race was marred by an accident involving driver Adolf Rosenberger, whose car crashed into one of the marshals' huts, killing three people. The German Grand Prix would not return to the AVUS track again, until once in 1959.
The GP moved to the new, in total 28 kilometre long track of Nürburgring after it was inaugurated on June 18, 1927 with an ADAC Eifelrennen. It would mainly stay there on the 22.8km Nordschleife version until the 1970s when the rival Hockenheimring could take over due to safety concerns.
The 1930 and 1933 German Grands Prix were both cancelled due to the country's economic problems.
Starting from 1934, there were often several races with Silver Arrows Grand Prix cars in Germany each year, eg. the Eifelrennen, the AVUS race, and several hillclimbs. Yet only the GP at the Nürburgring was the national Grande Epreuve that counted toward the European Championship from 1935 to 1939.
After Bernd Rosemeyer and Hans Stuck scored one victory each, Rudolf Caracciola took the German GP in 1937 and again in 1939, a feat that no other German driver could accomplish between 1937 and 1995, when Michael Schumacher won. Also, two upset wins were scored by foreigners Tazio Nuvolari and Richard Seaman in the late 1930s.
At that time, a new race track had been built near Dresden, called the Deutschlandring, which was intended to host the 1940 German Grand Prix which never happened for obvious reasons.
After World War 2, Germany and German drivers were banned from taking part in International contests until 1951, so the inaugural F1 Season in 1950 did not include the German GP even though this event and especially the Nürburgring deserved be part of it.
Due to the decline in attendance after the retirement of Mercedes and Juan Manuel Fangio, the AvD hosted the German GP at Berlin's AVUS in 1959. Due to the simple layout of this high speed track and several accidents, it was considered a bad move. In anticipation for the 1961 rule changes in F1, the 1960 GP was held for the Formula 2 cars of Porsche as well as the F2-Ferrari Dino of Wolfgang von Trips, which did not show up though. This GP did not count towards the World Championships, and was also held the shorter 7.7km Nürburgring Südschleife.
After the former F2 rules were declared the new F1, Porsche entered Formula 1 in 1961. Additional F1 races were held at their home town Stuttgart at the Solitude circuit. These races, joined with Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Championship events, drew an average of 288 000 spectators. There were rumors that the German GP might be moved to the more popular track, yet the opposite happened, as the Solitude races were cancelled after 1965, while the GP had returned to the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 1961.
In 1970, the drivers asked for safety improvements on short notice which could not be made, and the German GP moved to the Hockenheimring which was already modified. After a rebuilt, the Nordschleife hosted six more GPs. F1 finally declined to race there after 1976, and Niki Lauda's crash sealed this, too.
Since 1977, the Hockenheimring became the German Grand Prix's permanent home, with the exception of 1985 on the new 4.5km Nürburgring. Already back in 1984 an additional F1 race had been held at the Nürburgring following the inauguration of its modern "Grand Prix Strecke" track. Following the success of Michael Schumacher, this track went on to become the venue for a second annual F1 race in Germany, the European Grand Prix or Luxembourg Grand Prix since 1995.
As both F1 races in Germany currently lose money, both race tracks consider sharing a single German GP race in between them for the future.
Winners of the German Grand Prix
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es:Gran Premio de Alemania it:Gran Premio di Germania ja:ドイツグランプリ pl:Grand Prix Niemiec pt:Grande Prêmio da Alemanha sv:Tysklands Grand Prix