Ecclestone Insists Europe Will Still Have Power in F1

Bernie Ecclestone boosted the morale of the Hockenheim Ring officials ahead of this weekend's German Grand Prix. Facing the likelihood of the German circuit being scrapped from the Formula One calendar in 2010 due to the German government refusing to financially back the venue in the years to come, the 78-year old Brit insisted he's optimistic about the chances of safeguarding it.

Talking to Germany's Bild newspaper, the Formula One supremo talked about Hockenheim's chances of staying in the sport, as well as F1's constant policy to schedule non-European rounds in its annual calendar. If only 5 races were held outside the old continent a few years ago, now nearly a half of the 17 rounds are outside Europeans' reach.

Despite his obvious tendency towards profit – as the Middle East continues to be regarded as a good soil to sell his F1 business – Ecclestone insisted that Europe will still represent the main scene for the Great Circle show in the years to come.

“We have now two races in Spain, and I am sure that we will keep having two races in Germany. At Hockenheim and at the Nurburgring. We are negotiating now with Hockenheim,” said Ecclestone for the aforementioned publication.

As for the negotiating part, we're still not sure on how exactly that goes for the time being, given the recent Hitler saga. All we know is that Bernie will attend the Nurburgring race this weekend, whether he'll meet the German state premier Gunther Oettinger or not.