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The legendary Nürburgring race course is in dire financial straits. The actual Formula 1 circuit, and the fabled Nordschleife north loop, with its mind-boggling 176 turn north ring, are riddled with debts.
Who might come to its rescue? Will the current management team come up with a viable salvage plan? Rumors about Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone buying the circuit won't go away.
Whoever winds up owning this massive infrastructure will have to: be very creative, in order to draw race fans back to the circuit, have a lot of capital to make the necessary investments, have an outstanding business and financial plan with serious financial backers.
The Nürburgring race track, with its rich history of records and legends, established by the most prestigious automakers of the planet, must be saved.
Every automaker on the planet has in its archives some publicity footage that claims to have set some record of achievement of one sort or another on the mythical Nürburgring circuit!
These records are often quite ingenious in their claims. I recently saw a commercial that said: Which automaker holds the record for the fastest lap for a production series four-door sedan? Quite accurate, huh?
It might as well ask: who will break the record for the quickest lap in a red four passenger coupe with a inducted air 2.3L engine, equipped with rear drum brakes and a spare tire?! This is a formula that every automaker can use to boast about breaking the quickest lap record.
There are a number of factors that influence the time it takes to run a lap on this 20.8 km circuit. Let's talk about the driver, who makes all the difference in the world on this long circuit, which requires at least seven to eight minutes of absolutely flawless concentration in order to register a respectable time.
Every race driver makes mistakes. A microscopic tenth-of-a-second loss due to a lapse of concentration in each corner will amount to a 15-second per lap deficit, which is huge!
We must then factor in the variations in lap times due to tires (tread, pressure and wear), weather (humidity, sunshine, barometric pressure, which all have an impact on engine output), other cars on the track that can impede progress, vehicle weight ( including the amount of fuel at the start), the time of day, etc.
In fact, there are so many factors at play, that it is hard for me to fathom how an automaker can boast in their commercials that their XYZ model has managed to humiliate rivals with their ''fastest lap ever'' at the Nürburgring course. There are way too many parameters that influence the performance of a lap for us to naively believe these claims.
In spite of all of this, I sincerely hope that someone will come to the rescue of this mythical and extremely demanding, legendary raceway.
Who might come to its rescue? Will the current management team come up with a viable salvage plan? Rumors about Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone buying the circuit won't go away.
Whoever winds up owning this massive infrastructure will have to: be very creative, in order to draw race fans back to the circuit, have a lot of capital to make the necessary investments, have an outstanding business and financial plan with serious financial backers.
The Nürburgring race track, with its rich history of records and legends, established by the most prestigious automakers of the planet, must be saved.
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| Photo: WRI2 |
Every automaker on the planet has in its archives some publicity footage that claims to have set some record of achievement of one sort or another on the mythical Nürburgring circuit!
These records are often quite ingenious in their claims. I recently saw a commercial that said: Which automaker holds the record for the fastest lap for a production series four-door sedan? Quite accurate, huh?
It might as well ask: who will break the record for the quickest lap in a red four passenger coupe with a inducted air 2.3L engine, equipped with rear drum brakes and a spare tire?! This is a formula that every automaker can use to boast about breaking the quickest lap record.
There are a number of factors that influence the time it takes to run a lap on this 20.8 km circuit. Let's talk about the driver, who makes all the difference in the world on this long circuit, which requires at least seven to eight minutes of absolutely flawless concentration in order to register a respectable time.
Every race driver makes mistakes. A microscopic tenth-of-a-second loss due to a lapse of concentration in each corner will amount to a 15-second per lap deficit, which is huge!
We must then factor in the variations in lap times due to tires (tread, pressure and wear), weather (humidity, sunshine, barometric pressure, which all have an impact on engine output), other cars on the track that can impede progress, vehicle weight ( including the amount of fuel at the start), the time of day, etc.
In fact, there are so many factors at play, that it is hard for me to fathom how an automaker can boast in their commercials that their XYZ model has managed to humiliate rivals with their ''fastest lap ever'' at the Nürburgring course. There are way too many parameters that influence the performance of a lap for us to naively believe these claims.
In spite of all of this, I sincerely hope that someone will come to the rescue of this mythical and extremely demanding, legendary raceway.