F1 cars in Hockenheim renderings: how realistic is a comeback?
Renderings of the Hockenheimring redevelopment with a Motorworld show Formula 1 cars. Officials are playing down expectations – but a return is not ruled out.
Archive image · Photo: Morio / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Renderings of the planned Hockenheimring redevelopment show Formula 1 cars racing past a redesigned main grandstand. A Motorworld is to be built there: according to the circuit, more than 28,500 square metres including showrooms and workshops, a restaurant, an event hall and a planned themed hotel with 159 rooms. Motorsport-Total.com reports the overhaul should be finished in 2029 or 2030.
Motorworld founder Andreas Dünkel pointed to the costs, saying hardly any circuit still operates without public funding. Once the Motorworld is built, he believes the conditions would be in place for talks with state and federal governments. Hockenheimring managing director Jorn Teske warned against false expectations, saying such talk "only fuels speculation" – while stressing that the circuit holds the required FIA Grade 1 licence and is, on paper, already allowed to host a Formula 1 race.
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said in August that a return to Germany was being considered "in the medium term", but would require investment. The last German Grand Prix was held at Hockenheim in 2019; Germany's most recent F1 race was the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.