The big, scary Nordschleife version of the Nurburgring was completed in 1927. But after eventually proving too big and too scary for F1, Niki Lauda’s 1976 horror crash in the German Grand Prix forced a re-think, with the more manageable, more modern Grand Prix circuit opened in 1984, with a star-studded roll-call of F1 drivers. The modern circuit got off the mark with the 1984 European Grand Prix and the 1985 German Grand Prix. Falling off the calendar until 1995, it then hosted various races – in German, European and Luxembourg Grand Prix guise – up until 2013, before its 2020 return.
The Nordschleife it ain’t – but then that’s probably for the best. The modern circuit utilises the start-finish straight of the old Sudschleife track, before the drivers then tackle the tight right-hander at Turn 1 (Haug-Haken) and go on an enjoyable high-speed plunge down to the Dunlop-Kehre hairpin. From there, the track shoots back uphill, with some fantastic high-speed corners leading back to the slow, Hungaroring-esque right-hander that ends the lap.
Follow us later in the afternoon for the latest updates and results from the Nurburgring circuit, as the qualifying session for the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix is about to get underway, with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc at the wheel of the SF1000.
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