Nurburgring Nordschleife to join 2015 calendar
- This topic has 15 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by
.
- Posts
Here’s some exciting news: The World Touring Car Championship will race on the 25 kilometre long Nurburgring Nordschleife next year.
The race will be held as part of the Nurburgring 24 Hours weekend and the current plan is for the WTCC’s normal programme of two 60 km races to be merged into one.
More details here:
http://www.fiawtcc.com/news/detail/id/3308/t/WTCC-AT-N%C3%9CRBURGRING-NORDSCHLEIFE-IN-2015
To the best of my knowledge the last major touring car event on the Nordschleife was the DTM race in 1993:
The last world championship event was the 1983 Nurburgring 1000km, part of the World Sportscar Championship. F1, of course, hasn’t raced there since 1976, the year of Niki Lauda’s famous accident.
To the best of my knowledge the last major touring car event on the Nordschleife was the DTM race in 1993
Porsche Supercup had a race on the Nordschleife three years ago.
Given that F1 stopped racing there because of saftey, how many marshals, helicopters and ambulances do they have on standby now when races are held?
@hunocsi That would be sports cars though, no?
Also, just remembered we had a fascinating comment from a reader who was at the last DTM race in 1993:
@keithcollantine Well, yes. Somehow in my mind they were always considered touring cars, maybe because the visual speed difference between them and the formula cars on the same day, and also the fact that they run quite short races. I even see DTM less of a touring car and more of a sports car race as most of the drivers rather compare them to faster categories, even Formula 1 cars.
The Porsche Supercup was just the biggest series that came to my mind.
This is definitely great news for the WTCC.
Could this be some sort of trial by the FIA to see if there are good enough conditions to have other championships racing there?
Indeed, @toiago!
How do the WTCC cars compare in speed to the old DTM? I imagine a bit slower then? If I remember correctly, the commenter was saying that ’93 was getting fast, and ’94 might have led to some dangerous crashes.
Norbert Michelisz will be stoked.. he has extensive experience of it from GPL – PB of 7:49.1. The WR is 7:43.9, so the game is about 20 seconds faster than Clark’s real life pole time of 8:04.1. Michelisz was only 5 seconds off the WR, and 10 seconds off overall (a lap of all 67 tracks, with Rouen instead of Bugatti). My PB is 8:01.1, but I really should have broken 8 minutes by now.. overall, I’m about 30 seconds off the top. Michelisz last drove it in 2004, but checked on the site briefly in 2012. Before that, 2009, by which point he was already in WTCC.
So I wonder if this will give Michelisz a slight advantage come the race?
Ι believe that the main advantage will be for Loeb. In rallying, even with the co-driver, you may well see something unexpected in a corner, and it is so difficult to remember all corners here, even for the drivers…
Has Loeb driven it though? Trust me, Michelisz has basically driven it an unlimited amount of times. To get a sub-8, you have to string 4 2-minute sectors together, so that’s basically like 4 PB laps at 4 different circuits consecutively. Loeb could have an advantage in track learning though as rally stages are all long like the Nurburgring. All Michelisz has to learn is the bumps and nuances in each corner, not the actual layout.. and by bumps I mean the little ones, not Flugplatz, Brunnchen or Stefan Bellof S.
Honestly not a really big fan of the WTCC, but I do like what a successful weekend here could mean for racing on the Ring. If this goes well, maybe the Capricorn Group could have some talks with DTM organizers and perhaps WEC too.
I can not imagine to see WEC cars on that track. LMP1 would be way too fast. But the GTEs would be nice to see. Currently there’s the 24h race going with McLarens MP4-12C on Pole and Audi R8, Mercedes SLS and BMW Z4 in Top10 positions. Not to forget some Porsches and Nissans.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.