Monday 19 May at 11:24 : Hockenheim may only host one more formula one race after July's German grand prix before forever slipping off the calendar.

That is the warning of the circuit's managing director Karl Josef Schmidt, who said the local state Baden-Wurttemberg must begin to contribute to the financing of the bi-annual Hockenheim race.

"Otherwise there will be no more formula one races here after 2010," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten on Saturday.

A spokesman for the state's ministry of economic affairs, however, responded by insisting that it is "not the task" of the public to fund events at the Hockenheimring.

Up to 15 million euros in government funds assisted in the redevelopment of the circuit six years ago.

Germany's annual date on the F1 calendar is alternated each year between Hockenheim and the Nurburgring, which will return to the schedule in 2009 following its most recent event in the European grand prix guise last July.