Insight from a Nordschleife master

You'd have to be crazy to try it. 14 miles of bumpy asphalt offering various shades of not much grip, blind corners, crests, and not much in the way of run-off.

And yet the Nurburgring Nordschleife occupies a special place in the consciousness of any racing driver. In an increasingly health-and-safety obsessed world it's the ultimate challenge; no circuit like it could be built today.

Driving the Nordschleife on a simulator is one way of learning the intricacies of the layout, but even the most accurate simulator can't replicate the jarring effect of all those bumps, crests and compressions. Over the course of one lap you go through 300 metres of elevation change.

Real-world track knowledge also means having a mental map of where the grip levels are in both wet and dry conditions, because you can experience both several times over during the course of just one lap. The asphalt looks the same either way, which is why real 'Ring experts have learned almost to taste the air for moisture.

"I always say it's so nice and green here for a reason," says Ron Simons, CEO and chief instructor of the RSR Nurburg racing school. "If we did refunds in case of rain, our eight-month season would be down to four..."

A properly quick lap requires total focus and no traffic (because there are sections where you just can't overtake).

Simons reckons that track knowledge is a bigger performance differentiator than outright talent at first, so with that in mind he's given AUTOSPORT some pointers to the track's most iconic sections:

FLUGPLATZ

"Most people think of this as the jump followed by the fast double-apex single-radius right-hander. It's actually the section after this [there used to be a small landing strip nearby].

"There's a long 'almost' straight which is 'almost' flat out - certainly flat out in less powerful cars. It's high-speed so it's here where the quick cars build their lap times."

FUCHSROHRE

"Both physically for the car and mentally for the driver this is very demanding. The car bottoms out owing to the combination of the high speed and the vertical turn - and when a shock absorber is at full bump it's like there's no suspension on the car.

"The key is to do the majority of the corner before the compression. For the driver, your trust and confidence in the package must be very high - when something goes wrong here you're in for a big one."

BERGWERK

"A simple-looking late-entry turn where your focus has to be on the highest possible exit speed, because the 2km uphill stretch through Kesselchen to Klostertal follows. The braking zone is a challenge in cars without ABS.

"Heavy banking means the outside line is where the grip is in the wet - not just driving a few inches 'off-line' but fully along the outside. It's magical compared with the slimy, greasy inside of the corner."

KARUSSEL

"This is probably the best-known corner of the 'Ring, maybe even in the world. It's slow-speed and therefore not challenging from a mental point of view - just a combination of using the banking to its max, and coping with the crest in the braking zone at the corner entry and again the camber change at the corner exit.

"You can lose a lot of time and only win a little bit. Where you can win is in how quick you can drive in and how fast you get the slingshot out. The middle section is slow for everyone.

"Most important is how you exit, which takes a special technique - it's not steering out of the corner but accelerating at the right moment and right angle. It is right when you feel like you're getting a slingshot, making sure it spits you out at the right moment on to the next straight."

PFLANZGARTEN AND THE STEFAN BELLOF 'S'

"This is what the Nurburgring is all about! A high-speed, very long, big-balls roller coaster section of track. There are two jumps in between - a small one in the braking zone before the double right-hander and then the big jump over the crest going steeply downhill.

"This needs commitment, attack and full precision. It's also impossible to overtake here if there's no cooperation."

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