The Nurburgring Nordschleife is one of the world’s most legendary racetracks, and the cars that conquer it are equally so. It seems Red Bull must feel the same way, as they plan on taking one of their Formula 1 cars to the German track in September.
The run will come as part of a whole event during the 12h Nurburgring race weekend, which Red Bull is calling the Red Bull Formula Nurburgring. The event will feature Red Bull cars from a variety of racing series, with the goal being to “bring young motorsport talent and legendary drivers from various racing series to the season highlight of the Nürburgring Endurance Series”.
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It’s been 10 years since F1 tires last touched the Nordschleife, with the most recent occurrence being Michael Schumacher’s lap in his Mercedes F1 car before the 2013 24h Nurburgring. More famously, Nick Heidfeld took a BMW Sauber for a demo run around the circuit for in 2007, but one thing both of these runs have in common is that neither were at full race pace.
The last time F1 cars actually raced around the Nordschleife was in 1976, and Niki Lauda’s fiery, near-fatal crash in that race is exactly there hasn’t been another one since. For today’s F1 cars, there’s not enough runoff to slow an out-of-control car, the wooded landscape makes it hard to retrieve vehicles in the event of an accident, and the sheer size of the track makes it hard to fully staff with enough marshals. On top of all that, the track’s surface is simply too punishing, so you end up either putting your driver’s safety at risk, or you compromise the car’s performance with a setup that can handle the track (the result of which is slower speeds).
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That’s why this Red Bull event will, in all likelihood, not see the car running at full tilt, nor will it be run with one of their modern cars. That being said, the speeds being achieved by the car will almost certainly still be fast compared to even the fastest of street cars, and will potentially give the average race car a run for its money.
As for who will be in the cockpit for this run, nothing has been announced yet, but we’re most likely to see one of Red Bull’s regular show drivers — either David Coulthard or Liam Lawson — behind the wheel. However, there is the chance we could see the newly reappointed Daniel Ricciardo drive the car, as there won’t be an F1 race that weekend where he might have to take on reserve duties.