Germany’s Nuerburgring circuit, which has hosted Formula One’s German Grand Prix, is to launch insolvency proceedings amid fears it could run out of cash while the European Commission considers planned government aid.

The state government in Rhineland-Palatinate, which owns financially-troubled operating company Nuerburgring GmbH, decided on the move on Wednesday, the dapd news agency reported.

State governor Kurt Beck said the reason was that the European Union’s executive commission wasn’t expected to approve planned government aid of 13 million euro ($A15.6 million) by the end of this month.

That would lead “with high probability to an insolvency at the end of the month because of a lack of liquidity,” Beck said in the state capital, Mainz. He said his government decided to pre-empt that by choosing to launch “orderly insolvency proceedings”.

The German GP has alternated in recent years between the Nuerburgring and Hockenheim circuits. This week’s race is at Hockenheim.