Nürburgring
The italic=no is a 150,000-person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long Nordschleife configuration, built in the 1920s, around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains. The north loop is long and contains more than of elevation change from its lowest to highest points. Scottish racing driver Jackie Stewart nicknamed the track "the Green Hell".
Originally, the track featured four configurations, namely the Gesamtstrecke, which in turn consisted of the then- Nordschleife, and the italic=yes. There was also a warm-up loop called Zielschleife, or Betonschleife, around the pit area. Between 1982 and 1983, the start–finish area was demolished to create a new GP-Strecke, which is now used for all major and international racing events. However, the shortened Nordschleife is still in use for racing, testing and public access.
Prior to World War II, the Nürburgring hosted 13 editions of the German Grand Prix from 1927 to 1939. In Formula One, it has hosted 42 Grands Prix, including the German, European, Luxembourg, andmost recently2020 Eifel Grand Prix; Michael Schumacher achieved the most victories at the Nürburgring, winning on five occasions between 1995 and 2006. The 1976 German Grand Prix, held on the Nordschleife, was the last F1 race ever contested on a circuit of., the venue hosts several national GT events, including the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.
History
1925–1939: The beginning of the "''Nürburg-Ring''"
In 1904, the Gordon Bennett Trophy was held on the twice-run Taunus circuit, a circuit made up of public roads starting between the towns of Wehrheim, Limburg and Saalburg, just north of Frankfurt that was long. In 1907, the Taunus circuit was re-routed and shortened to, and it was used one more time for the first Eifelrennen race, which was won by Italian racer Felice Nazzaro. In the early 1920s, ADAC Eifelrennen races were held on the twisty Nideggen public road circuit near Cologne and Bonn. Around 1925, the construction of a dedicated race track was proposed just south of the Nideggen circuit around the ancient castle of the town of Nürburg, following the examples of Italy's Monza and Targa Florio courses, and Berlin's AVUS, yet with a different character. The layout of the circuit in the mountains was similar to the Targa Florio event, one of the most important motor races at that time. The original Nürburgring was to be a showcase for German automotive engineering and racing talent. Construction of the track, designed by the Eichler Architekturbüro from Ravensburg, began in September 1925.The track was completed in the spring of 1927, and the ADAC Eifelrennen races were continued there. The first races to take place on 18 June 1927 showed motorcycles and sidecars, and were won by Toni Ulmen on an English 350cc Velocette. The cars followed a day later, and Rudolf Caracciola was the winner of the over–5000cc class in a supercharged Mercedes-Benz "K". In addition, the track was opened to the public in the evenings and on weekends, as a one-way toll road. The entire track consisted of 174 bends, and averaged in width. The fastest time ever around the full Gesamtstrecke was by Louis Chiron, at an average speed of in his Bugatti.
In 1929 the full Nürburgring was used for the last time in major racing events, as future Grands Prix would be held only on the Nordschleife. Motorcycles and minor races primarily used the shorter and safer Südschleife. Memorable pre-war races at the circuit featured the talents of early Ringmeister such as Rudolf Caracciola, Tazio Nuvolari, and Bernd Rosemeyer.
1947–1970: "The Green Hell"
After World War II, racing resumed in 1947, and in 1951, the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring again became the main venue for the German Grand Prix as part of the Formula One World Championship. A new group of Ringmeister arose to dominate the race – Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart and Jacky Ickx.On 5 August 1961, during practice for the 1961 German Grand Prix, Phil Hill became the first person to complete a lap of the Nordschleife in under 9 minutes, with a lap of 8 minutes 55.2 seconds in the Ferrari 156 "Sharknose" Formula One car. Over half a century later, even the highest performing road cars still have difficulty breaking 8 minutes without a professional race driver or one very familiar with the track. Also, several rounds of the German motorcycle Grand Prix were held, mostly on the Südschleife, but the Hockenheimring and the Solitudering were the main sites for Grand Prix motorcycle racing.
In 1953, the ADAC 1000 km Nürburgring race was introduced, an Endurance race and Sports car racing event that counted towards the World Sportscar Championship for decades. The 24 Hours Nürburgring for touring car racing was added in 1970.
By the late 1960s, the Nordschleife and many other tracks were becoming increasingly dangerous for the latest generation of F1 cars. In 1967, a chicane was added before the start/finish straight, called Hohenrain, in order to reduce speeds at the pit lane entry. This made the track longer. Even this change, however, was not enough to keep Stewart from nicknaming it "The Green Hell" following his victory in the 1968 German Grand Prix amid a driving rainstorm and thick fog. In 1970, after the fatal crash of Piers Courage at Zandvoort, the F1 drivers decided at the French Grand Prix to boycott the Nürburgring unless major changes were made, as they had done at Spa the year before. The changes were not possible on short notice, and the German GP was moved to the Hockenheimring, which had already been modified.
1971–1983: Changes
In accordance with the demands of the F1 drivers, the Nordschleife was reconstructed by taking out some bumps, smoothing out some sudden jumps, and installing Armco safety barriers. The track was made straighter, following the race line, which reduced the number of corners. The German GP could be hosted at the Nürburgring again, and was for another six years from 1971 to 1976.In 1973 the entrance into the dangerous and bumpy Kallenhard corner was made slower by adding another left-hand corner after the fast Metzgesfeld sweeping corner. Safety was improved again later on by removing the jumps on the long main straight and widening it. They also took away the bushes right next to the track at the main straight, which had made that section of the Nürburgring dangerously narrow. A second series of three more F1 races was held until 1976. However, primarily due to its length of over, and the lack of space due to its situation on the sides of the mountains, increasing demands by the F1 drivers and the FIA's CSI commission were too expensive or impossible to meet. For instance, by the 1970s the German Grand Prix required five times the marshals and medical staff as a typical F1 race, something the German organizers were unwilling to provide. Additionally, even with the 1971 modifications it was still possible for cars to become airborne off the track. The Nürburgring was also unsuitable for the burgeoning television market; its vast expanse made it almost impossible to effectively cover a race there. As a result, early in the season it was decided that the 1976 race would be the last to be held on the old circuit.
Niki Lauda, the reigning world champion and only person ever to lap the full Nordschleife in under seven minutes, proposed to the other drivers that they boycott the circuit in 1976. Lauda was not only concerned about the safety arrangements and the lack of marshals around the circuit, he also did not like the prospect of running the race in another rainstorm. Usually when that happened, some parts of the circuit were wet and other parts were dry, which is what the conditions of the circuit were for that race. The other drivers voted against the idea and the race went ahead. Lauda crashed in his Ferrari coming out of the left-hand kink before Bergwerk after a new magnesium component on his Ferrari's rear suspension failed. He was badly burned as his car was still loaded with fuel in lap 2. Lauda was saved by the combined actions of fellow drivers Arturo Merzario, Guy Edwards, Brett Lunger, Emerson Fittipaldi and Harald Ertl.
The crash also showed that the track's distances were too long for regular fire engines and ambulances, even though the "ONS-Staffel" was equipped with a Porsche 911 rescue car, marked. The old Nürburgring never hosted another F1 race again, as the German Grand Prix was moved to the Hockenheimring for 1977. The German motorcycle Grand Prix was held for the last time on the old Nürburgring in 1980, also permanently moving to Hockenheim.
By its very nature, the Nordschleife was impossible to make safe in its old configuration. It soon became apparent that it would have to be completely overhauled if there was any prospect of Formula One returning there - the Nürburgring's administration and race organizers were not willing to provide the enormous expense of providing the number of marshals needed for a Grand Prix - up to six times the amount that most other circuits needed. With this in mind, in 1981 work began on a new circuit, which was built on and around the old pit area.
At the same time, a bypass shortened the Nordschleife to, and with an additional small pit lane, this version was used for races in 1983, e.g. the 1000km Nürburgring endurance race, while construction work was going on nearby. During qualifying for that race, Stefan Bellof set a lap of 6:11.13 for the Nordschleife in his Porsche 956, or on average. This lap held the all-time record for 35 years until it was surpassed by Timo Bernhard in the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo, which ran the slightly longer version of the circuit in 5:19.546- averaging on 29 June 2018.
Meanwhile, more run-off areas were added at corners like Aremberg and Brünnchen, where originally there were just embankments protected by Armco barriers. The track surface was made safer in some spots where there had been bumps and jumps. Racing line markers were added to the corners all around the track as well. Also, bushes and hedges at the edges of corners were replaced with Armco and grass.
The former Südschleife had not been modified in 1970–1971 and was abandoned a few years later in favour of the improved Nordschleife. It is now mostly gone or converted to a normal public road, but since 2005 a vintage car event has been hosted on the old track layout, including part of the parking area.