Green light for the start of the season: Construction work at the Nürburgring successfully completed

02.03.2022

This year's construction work at the Nürburgring is being successfully completed - just in time for the start of track operations next week. The final work is currently being completed. 2.5 kilometres of the legendary race track have been renewed over the past four months. Almost every year, Nürburgring 1927 GmbH & Co. KG uses the winter season for extensive work on the Nordschleife and Grand Prix Track. In the past few years alone, those responsible have invested 12.5 million euros in the modernisation and maintenance of the track as well as in the expansion of the safety facilities.

2.5 kilometres of race track. In less than 4 months. In the middle of winter. As always, the conditions for the construction work on the longest permanent race track in the world were challenging. New asphalt had to be laid on the seemingly endless straight, the Döttinger Höhe. Together with the following fast and demanding passages: Antoniusbuche, Tiergarten and the Hohenrain chicane.

Fresh asphalt on the now 95-year-old Nordschleife means: the track is being renewed from the ground up. Powerful machines are removing large parts of all the existing layers. The underlying soil is then reinforced. This is the only way the asphalt can withstand the extreme loads for the next 20 years.

"Continuously maintaining around 25 kilometers of race track is an enormous task," explains project manager Alexander Schnobel. He has been working for the track operator for more than 20 years and knows the requirements like no other: "It's not just about new asphalt, but also about maintaining the unique characteristics of the track."

For the track construction, the Nürburgring relies, among other things, on a particularly sustainable recycling process. The old base course is first removed, then processed by special machines and finally reinstalled as a new mixture.

Just in time for the start of March, the track is now ready: From the Döttinger Höhe up to and including the Hyundai N curve of the Grand Prix Track, there is now brand new asphalt. In addition, further safety equipment was also installed during the construction work this year: 300 metres of new FIA catch fence now stands on the Nordschleife between the Kallenhard and Wehrseifen sections.  
In total, Nürburgring 1927 GmbH & Co. KG invested a total of 2.5 million euros in the maintenance and expansion of safety this year. If you add up the measures since 2015, more than 12.5 million euros have been invested in modernisation and expansion. In this way, the operators will continue to secure the Nürburgring as a motorsport and development location in the future - with international top-class sport as well as many other usage formats such as the development drives of the industrial pool or the popular tourist drives. The latter will open the season at the Nürburgring on 12 March with the first barrier opening in 2022. One week later, from 18 to 20 March, race cars will drive over the new asphalt of the Nordschleife and Grand Prix Track for the first time during the test and set-up sessions.

Investments in the Nürburgring - 
an overview of the past years:

2015: 1 million euros

  • New asphalt in the Eschbach area 
  • Asphalt work on and next to the Grand Prix Track

2016: 1 million euros

  • New asphalt Quiddelbacher Höhe & Flugplatz
  • New FIA safety fences at Schwedenkreuz, Metzgesfeld, Stefan-Bellof-S, etc.
  • Information boards for the Nordschleife access road

2017: 1 million euros

  • New asphalt Hatzenbach, Hohe Acht, Hedwigshöhe & Brünnchen 
  • FIA catch fences at Hatzenbach & Kesselchen, among others

2018: 4 million euros

  • New asphalt Schwedenkreuz, Kallenhard, Wehrseifen & Ex-Mühle
  • Further FIA catch fences on the Nordschleife

2019: 1.3 million euros

  • Extensive digitalisation of the Grand Prix circuit
  • 4K track cameras, 17 kilometers of new fibre optic cables
  • Completely renewed race control

2020: 1 million euros

  • New asphalt AMG Arena (Grand Prix Track)
  • New construction of the Nürburgring rallycross track
  • Further infrastructure measures Müllenbachschleife

2021: 1 million euros

  • Digitalisation project for parts of the Nordschleife
  • 4K track cameras & fibre optics from Döttinger Höhe to Hohenrain chicane

2022: 2.5 million euros

  • New asphalt Döttinger Höhe (Nordschleife) to Hyundai N curve (Grand Prix Track)
  • 300 metres of new FIA catch fence between Kallenhard and Wehrseifen