The name fell out of use when F1 left the Valencia track after 2012. More recently the European Grand Prix title was used for second races in Germany during the height of Michael Schumacher’s success and in Spain after Fernando Alonso raised F1’s profile in his home nation.īut the rising cost of race hosting fees now means many European promoters cannot afford races at all, let alone one in close proximity to another in the same country. The year before the ‘Swiss’ Grand Prix was a second world championship round in France held at a time when French interest in the championship was high due to the success of Renault and a plethora of successful French drivers including Alain Prost, Rene Arnoux, Didier Pironi and others. This was the case when the European Grand Prix title was revived in 1983 for a second race in Britain. It has often happened in the case of one country being given more than one round of the championship. It isn’t unprecedented for a race to hold a title belonging to something other than the country it is held in. And while the opening round of that first season at Silverstone was named the British Grand Prix, it also held the European Grand Prix title.īut the history invested in the European Grand Prix name has less to do with why Azerbaijan has adopted it for the title of its first grand prix than other, political concerns. The title pre-dates the beginning of the world championship in 1950. Although the title ‘European Grand Prix’ was first used as the official name of a world championship round in 1983, at Brands Hatch, it had been around long before then.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |