21/08/2007
NEWS STORY
It looks as if Luxembourg could return to the F1 calendar in the not too distant future.
Long, long ago, in the days when Bernie Ecclestone still believed that Europe was the home of Formula One - well, 1997 and 1998 to be exact - and when countries were officially only allowed to host one round of the World Championship, the rules were cleverly circumvented in order that the sport could take full advantage of Michael Schumacher's phenomenal support.
Italy, home of Ferrari (Michael's team) already had two races, one at Monza, the other (the San Marino GP) at Imola. Therefore, Germany, was also given two events, one at Hockenheim and the other at the Nurburgring.
Such was the desire to host as many races in Europe as possible (12 out of 17 in 1997), and with the European GP title reserved for the season finale at Jerez, the Nurburgring event was given the title Luxembourg Grand Prix - even though the border of the 1,000 square mile Grand Duchy (pop. 480,000) is over 50 miles away.
In 1998, the Luxembourg Grand Prix title was retained, even though there was no European GP, for the second and final time.
Now, however, according to Pitpass' understanding, the Luxembourg GP title will be revived, most probably for the race at the Nurburgring, with the European GP heading off to Valencia.
On 3 August, Formula One Licensing (F1's intellectual property division) filed a pan-European trademark application for the Grosser Preis Von Luxemberg. This has been made in three categories covering, amongst other things, printed matter, telecoms and sporting activities.
Interestingly, some of FOL's other recent trademark applications are for Grand Prix of Europe and German Grand Prix.
It would appear that Bernie hasn't entirely given up on Europe.