Ask any motorsport fan to name a long track and they will mostly come back with the same answer. The Nürburgring is a ridiculous outlier when it comes to track length. But why? How come the circuit is over three times the length of Spa-Francorchamps, the longest lap in Formula 1?
The fearsome Nürburgring Nordschleife is back in the news thanks to the beginning of the Nürburgring Langstrecken Serie in March, helped by Max Verstappen’s appearance in the championship. The variation of the circuit used in the series, which combines the modern Grand Prix track with the famous Nordschleife, measures more than 25 kilometres!
One thing to note is that tracks used to be longer. Taking Spa as an example – a lap around the Belgian track was a distance of more than 14 kilometres before it was modified and stopped using public roads. The Circuit de la Sarthe in France hosts the 24 Hours of Le Mans every year, measuring 13.6 kilometres, but again, that uses roads to create more than half of its lap.
And that’s what makes the Nürburgring even more unique – it’s a 100% racetrack. No public roads. So why hasn’t it been replicated? The obvious answer is cost. The Nürburgring took 18 months to build and was completed in early 1927, and was seen as a worldwide showcase of German engineering. According to online sources, the track cost around 14 million Reichsmarks, which is equivalent to roughly $50million today.
We simply can’t build a track that long, for that cheap today. For comparison, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which opened in 2021, reportedly cost $500million, 10 times the price of the Nürburgring! Then you have to consider the running costs. The German track needs more Armco, more kerbs, more asphalt, more marshals, more equipment, so on and so on.
The next factor is safety. When there’s a crash in motorsport in this day and age, it’s incredible how fast medical personnel are on the scene. Not too difficult on a four-kilometre circuit, but on one six times that length? On a short circuit, with TV cameras covering the whole thing, it’s easy to see where the trouble is, however on the Nordschleife, which is surrounded by tall trees and with numerous blind corners, this becomes more difficult. The same goes for helicopter access, it’s simply too dangerous to land a medical helicopter on the track, leading to delayed transfer to hospitals.
Ultimately, the Nürburgring is unique and will highly likely stay that way. It’s a classic track that’s loved by millions, which is why recent reports of financial instability worried so many people. 99 years since its opening, you have to wonder if such a track could be built today. Would it get planning permission? Who would fund it? How could it possibly be profitable? Would it even be allowed to host international events? You’d probably get negative responses to all of those questions. But that doesn’t matter, because motorsport’s most one-of-a-kind track does exist, and it regularly puts on an incredible spectacle for fans across the world.