F1’s 2017 calendar denies Rosberg home GP
NEWLY crowned world champion Nico Rosberg will not have the opportunity to race in front of his home fans in 2017 as the German Grand Prix is missing from next year’s Formula One calendar, motor racing’s governing body the FIA said on Wednesday.
Nuremberg is financially unable to stage the race, while 2016 host Hockenheim was not willing to take it on for two seasons back-to-back.
Nuremberg also passed up opportunity in 2015.
Rosberg will start the defence of his Formula One world title in Australia on the March 26, with Abu Dhabi again staging the season finale, on November 26.
Other tweaks see the European Grand Prix in Baku staged a week earlier in 2017 to avoid clashing with the famed Le Mans 24 Hour Race.
In a schedule reduced to 20 races, rather than the 21 of 2016, the Baku race will be staged on June 25, a week after Le Mans, which runs over June 17 and 18.
The British Grand Prix at Silverstone has been moved to a week later on July 16, the same day as the Wimbledon men’s singles final.
Brazil’s race at Interlagos in Sao Paulo is still to be officially confirmed as negotiations continue between the promoter and the sport’s ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton offered an olive branch to teammate Nico Rosberg on Wednesday, telling the German that his maiden Formula One world title was “well deserved”.
Rosberg wrapped up the 2016 championship last weekend when he finished second behind fellow Mercedes driver Hamilton at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton, however, was widely criticised for his attempts to “back-up” Rosberg into the clutches of the chasing pack as he tried to engineer his own last-gasp title lifeline.
But the three-time world champion Briton took to Twitter on Wednesday to ease any lingering tension between the two men.
“We said we’d be champions back then, now we both are! Congratulations Nico, you did everything a champion needed to do. Well deserved,” tweeted Hamilton beside a photo of the pair in their junior racing days.