Nordschleife: what the track is and why F1 left it after 1976

What is the Nordschleife?

The Nordschleife is the North Loop of the Nürburgring, a racing circuit in the Eifel mountains in Germany. The Nürburgring opened on 18 June 1927. According to the circuit itself, the 20.832 km loop is the longest permanent race track in the world.

The gradients are steep: according to the Nürburgring, the climb to the Hohe Acht section reaches 18%, and the descent at the Fuchsröhre 11%. The loop’s nickname, the “Green Hell”, came from Jackie Stewart, who won the German Grand Prix here three times.

According to the circuit, every year the Nordschleife, together with the Grand Prix track, hosts the Nürburgring 24 Hours and the races of the NLS endurance series. The loop is also open for Tourist Drives, and car and component manufacturers test their vehicles and technology here.

How is the Nordschleife different from the Nürburgring?

The Nürburgring is a whole complex, and the Nordschleife is its old long loop. Next to it, since 1984, there has been the short Grand Prix circuit, where Formula 1 raced in 1984–2020.

The Nordschleife’s length and corners are from the Nürburgring, and the Grand Prix circuit’s from f1db, for its 2002–2020 layout. When it opened in 1984, the Grand Prix circuit was shorter: 4.542 km.

The new circuit took 30 months to build: work began in November 1981, and it opened on 12 May 1984 with a race in identical Mercedes-Benz 190 E cars, won by Ayrton Senna. The South Loop and the start and finish loop made way for it. The Nordschleife was shortened and got its own pit lane at Grandstand 13.

The Formula 1 lap in 1951–1976 was longer than today’s loop: according to f1db, 22.81 km until 1966 and 22.835 km from 1967. The loop became shorter when the new circuit was built. Every race at the Nürburgring, including those on the new circuit, is on the circuit page.

Which F1 Grands Prix were held on the Nordschleife?

Twenty-two German Grands Prix: in 1951–1954, 1956–1958, 1961–1969 and 1971–1976. In 1959 the race was held at AVUS in Berlin and in 1970 at Hockenheim, while in 1950, 1955 and 1960 the German Grand Prix was not part of the championship.

The races were short in laps: 18–22 laps in 1951–1957, 15 in 1958–1967 and 14 in 1968–1976, except for 1971, when 12 were run.

The most wins on the Nordschleife, three each, belong to Juan Manuel Fangio and Jackie Stewart, and Ferrari have eight. Jim Clark has the most poles, four. Three races here decided the championship: Ascari won the title in 1952, Fangio in 1957 and Clark in 1965.

Which Nordschleife races does Formula 1 rate as the greatest?

Two. In the Formula 1 website’s list of the 25 greatest races, made for the championship’s 75th anniversary, the 1957 German Grand Prix is ninth and the 1968 race fourteenth. The list is the editors’ choice; all 25 races are in the article “Best F1 races of all time”.

1957. Fangio started from pole in a Maserati. According to Formula 1, after a scheduled fuel stop on lap 11 he dropped behind the two Ferraris, and he passed them both on the penultimate lap. Fangio beat Mike Hawthorn by 3.6 s and, at 46, became champion for the fifth time. It was the last win of his career.

1968. According to Formula 1, the race was run in rain, low cloud and fog. Stewart started sixth in a Matra and beat Graham Hill by 4 minutes 3.2 seconds. By f1db, as of the end of 2025 that is the third-largest winning margin in championship history, among races where the runner-up finished on the same lap.

Lap records

Only Niki Lauda lapped the Nordschleife in under seven minutes in Formula 1: 6:58.6, his 1975 pole time on the official starting grid. All 22 Grands Prix bear this out. Before 1969 no pole was faster than eight minutes, the best being Jim Clark’s 8:04.1 in 1967, and the poles of 1969–1976 ranged from 7:42.1 to 6:58.6.

The fastest lap in a race was 7:06.4, set by Clay Regazzoni, also in 1975. The chart shows how the lap got faster: in 1951 the fastest lap of the race took almost ten minutes.

The spike in 1968 is that race in the rain and fog. The poles of 1969–1976 from the official grids:

Outside Formula 1, according to the Nürburgring, the loop’s records are these: Stefan Bellof lapped it in 6:11.13 in 1983, and Timo Bernhard did it in 5:19.55 in a Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo in 2018.

Why did F1 leave the Nordschleife?

Because of safety. In the Nürburgring’s own words, “hardly solvable safety problems and high organizational costs made the legendary track increasingly uneconomical for the racing series”.

• 1970. According to Formula 1, safety improvements had not been completed, and the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association refused to race at the Nürburgring, so the German Grand Prix was held at Hockenheim for the first time. After the boycott, according to the circuit, the track was rebuilt in stages over several years.
• 1976. The contract with Formula 1 was running out, and the race was to be the last there for the time being. Even before it, according to the Nürburgring, Lauda, among others, argued that the Nordschleife and Formula 1 were too dangerous a combination and that the race should be cancelled. On the second lap Lauda crashed at Bergwerk, the race was stopped and restarted, and James Hunt won.
• March 1977. Drivers’ representatives inspected the track and decided that no further top-flight races would be held on the Nordschleife.

After Formula 1 left, according to the Nürburgring, the future of the circuit was in question, and the answer was the new Grand Prix circuit. In 1977 the German Grand Prix moved to Hockenheim, and Formula 1 came back to the Nürburgring in 1984, on the new track, with the European Grand Prix. How Lauda returned after his crash and how the 1976 season ended is covered in a separate article.

Why doesn’t F1 race at the Nürburgring now?

Formula 1 last raced at the Nürburgring on 11 October 2020, at the Eifel Grand Prix. Before that, the last round here was in 2013, and from 2014 the German Grand Prix was held only at Hockenheim, for the last time in 2019. There have been no rounds in Germany in 2021–2026. We have not found an official explanation for this.

In September 2023 Formula 1 cars drove on the Nordschleife at a Red Bull show: in the finale Sebastian Vettel and David Coulthard went round the loop together, Coulthard in a Red Bull RB8. Which track on the calendar Formula 1 calls the toughest, and what the numbers show, is in the article “Hardest F1 track”. The longest tracks in history are in the article on track lengths.