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F1: Nurburgring puts its future in Bernie Ecclestone's hands

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Khatir Soltani
Adapted from GMM

The Nurburgring aims to stay on the formula one calendar beyond 2011 by renegotiating the financial terms of its contract.

With the Rhineland-Palatinate state now run by a SPD/Green coalition, minister Eveline Lemke on Monday said that despite the contract running through 2016, this weekend's race will be the last one supported financially by the government.

"Until 2016, there will be only one formula one grand prix sponsored financially by the land, and it's 2011. That's it," Eveline Lemke told business newspaper Handelsblatt.

"The conditions at the moment generate high and no longer acceptable losses. So there will only be a continuation of the great and legendary tradition of formula one at the Nurburgring if a future contract includes economically and politically acceptable conditions," DPA news agency quotes circuit operator Jorg Lindner as saying.

And minister Lemke is quoted by the Financial Times Deutschland: "Whether this weekend's race will be the last depends on the demands of Bernie Ecclestone."

Khatir Soltani
Khatir Soltani
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