LONDON, England - The absence of Germany from the 2015 Formula 1 calendar, confirmed on Friday, would have been utterly unthinkable a decade earlier.
When Michael Schumacher was king of the ring, adored by an army of red-shirted Ferrari fans as seven-times F1 champion, Europe's biggest economy happily hosted two races a year – one at Hockenheim and the other at the Nurburgring.
Even that was not enough for some, with Germans flocking to Hungary and Belgium and further afield to pitch their tents and watch the 'weltmeister' at work.