Nurburgring confirms 20,000 fans will be admitted to Eifel Grand Prix

2020 F1 season

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As many as 20,000 spectators will be allowed into the Nurburgring when the German track holds its first Formula 1 race for seven years next month.

The Eifel Grand Prix will be the 11th round of this year’s world championship. F1 will return to the modern, shortened Nurburgring which it first raced on in 1984.

Tickets for the race will go on sale tomorrow and be made available exclusively online via the circuit’s website. A race weekend ticket will cost €199 (£182).

Following the delayed start to the 2020 F1 season, circuits initially held races behind closed doors with no fans present. However in recent races small numbers of spectators have been admitted.

Ferrari invited a group of a few hundred medical professionals to the Italian Grand Prix at Monza earlier this month. Around 2,000 paying spectators were admitted to Mugello. A larger crowd will be allowed to attend this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix.

But Sebastian Vettel said fans who attend next month’s race at the Nurburgring will have to be prepared for the possibility of cold weather conditions.

“It’s called German Siberia for a reason,” said the Ferrari driver. “So we can expect anything.

“I think we can expect it to be, if we’re lucky, 20 degrees [Celsius]. But it could also be close to zero. So it will be a challenge.

“Nevertheless, I think is a great track. Obviously [I have] good memories. Last time I think we were there I won so I’m looking forward to go back.

“It’s a really interesting and nice track to drive. And with these cars especially, should be a lot of fun. For sure the weather, I think, will play a role. It would be a surprise if it didn’t.”

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21 comments on “Nurburgring confirms 20,000 fans will be admitted to Eifel Grand Prix”

  1. Dammnnnnn F1 cars in the cold? I’d pay to watch them do so! Is the tyre allocation set for this event? I imagine everyone will struggle for tyre warm up. I wonder if F1 cars could drive on snowy conditions. I’d imagine that would be almost like heavy rain conditions.

      1. @krichelle And no, they couldn’t because of not having tyres suitable for snow conditions. No worry, though, as there isn’t going to be snow on the ground in 10-15 degrees not to mentioned above 15.

    1. I think a team once did a demonstration (maybe it was BMW? Or Williams – not sure, I vaguely remember Heidfeld being in the car?) run where they used spiked tyres. I am sure they could do it, although for all we know the tarmac could be free of snow after several dozens of laps on the racing line, and covered in heaps of snow around it @krichelle!

      But yeah, the colder weather will almost certainly mean it can be tricky to get heat in and maintain the tyres at good temperature for the whole race. A safetycar might be tricky for the cars!

        1. Thanks @paulk! Although I have an image in my mind of a car driving on a race track with studs too from maybe almost 1-2 decades ago, but who knows, the mind sometimes plays tricks on one.

          1. @bascb your memories are correct, as Heidfeld did drive a demonstration run in an F1.06 back in 2007 at St.Moritz on snow tyres.

            In fact, there have been quite a few teams who have done a similar thing in the past – McLaren ran a promotional stunt where Hakkinen took his wife out in the MP4-98T, a two seater conversion of an MP4/11 chassis, on an iced over lake, there was the aforementioned promotion by BMW-Sauber in 2007 and, in 2009, Piquet Jr. drove an F1 car up an indoor ski centre in Dubai as a promotional event (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogqRK6Esn3g).

            Verstappen’s run wasn’t even the first time that Red Bull have done that stunt before – they’d already done that stunt before back in 2009 for an advert (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luBIaBXM4iU) celebrating the return of the Canadian Grand Prix to the calendar.

            As an aside, although there is no instance of a race taking place whilst snowing, there is a case of a test being disrupted due to snow. In 2005, Renault decided to shake down the R25 at Silverstone in a pre-season test – however, shaking down a car in late February in the UK was a recipe for bad weather. There is thus footage of Alonso driving the car round the track – perhaps, unsurprisingly, not especially quickly – whilst sleet and snow is falling (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm1jBUfbLV0).

          2. @anon Canadian GP wasn’t in F1 in 2009, so how could it’ve been for that purpose? It was a one-off year for the event that immediately returned for the following season.

  2. So, only Bahrain is an unclear case about whether the events would take place with or without attendees. The Abu Dhabi GP is already a 100% confirmed case of not admitting any attendees a la the first eight events of the season. BTW, only Mugello, not recent races in the plural. The Monza weekend technically still fell under the category of closed-event despite having some on a single grandstand on the S/F straight, but those weren’t general public, so not precisely the same thing as with Mugello having the general public on the stands to a limited extent.

    1. I think he was referring to Turkey, hasn’t taken place yet technically but it was announced recently that tickets would go on sale

      1. @nickthegreek The 4th paragraph definitely refers to the most recent events that have happened, not future events, a different thing.

  3. Zandvoort had to cancel an event mid-afternoon yesterday because even though they had only 4000 people around the track, a lot of them wouldn’t maintain 1,5m distance around entrances to the stands and while queueing for food and drink or merch, so I wonder how 20.000 people around the ring will fare.

    But good luck to ’em, I’ll let this one slide and watch from the safety of my own couch.

    1. Your couch, and yours only 🙄

    2. Nell (@imabouttogoham)
      22nd September 2020, 1:29

      If “COVID-safe” events will happen, mass queues around one entrance can’t happen, food and drink can’t be served, but Europe seems happy for a few more thousand to get infected to why the hell not…

  4. I’ll be at the 24 this weekend, will report back on weather and protocols

  5. 20 000! There’s plenty of space, but will still be tough to stop people congregating at beginning & end of day!

  6. Needs transporter technology. Beam them into their allocated seats, and back out again after the race. Anything else regarded as ‘safe’ is pure science fiction.

    1. Nell (@imabouttogoham)
      22nd September 2020, 1:31

      How about we give them a nice padded seat, with arm rests, four walls and a roof to keep them safe, then the spectators could watch through technology that allows them to see what is happening on the event, live!

  7. corana for everyone yey!

  8. Good to get back to reality over something less ‘deadly’ than the flu!

  9. Leave it up to people whether they want to take the risk or not.

    This virus is nothing to worry about if you’re under 80 and take sensible precautions.

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