The Nürburgring: Legends and Facts Behind the Green Hell of Motorsport

Motor sport lore is all about legends. But the painted truth is, the closer you get to the facts, the more those legends tend to evaporate. Except in the case of the Nürburgring where it’s all too difficult not to be overcome by an attack of the clichés describing a circuit that is a hundred times removed from today’s ‘me too’ Tilkedromes. The facts generally trump even the legends. Ever since that first meeting was held in 1927, this has been the playground of heroes, a track whose ghosts thunder through your imagination. Sir Jackie Stewart famously described it as ‘The Green Hell’ and the Eifel track does take on a decidedly Valkyrian aspect each time you conjure images of teetering pre-war titans or BMW CSL ‘Batmobiles’ flying the friendly skies. Even now this track, regardless of configuration, sorts the men from the boys and the boys from the rest of us.

Familiarity and predictability often breed the seeds of indifference but to drive the Nordschleife, even in a road car, requires a leap of faith – or a leap of madness. The sense of elation that accompanies each successful tour being of the never forgotten kind. Though not immune to changes over its 84-year history, the ’Ring hasn’t been eroded, silted and reconfigured to anything approaching the same degree as so many other classic tracks. Which is why we love it still.

While the 24 hours still takes place each year, there hasn’t been top-flight motor sport at the venue since 1983. What started as a general office discussion about the ’Ring, its legacy, and those who tamed it inevitably turned into a heated ‘best of’ debate; cue a mental stampede as 100 candidates sprang to mind. What follows is a rundown of some of the greatest drives of the Nürburgring.

1935 German Grand Prix

It was supposed to be a walkover for the Silver Arrows, a home win at the Nürburgring in front of 300,000 spectators and Nazi party brass. Except someone forgot to tell Tazio Nuvolari. His 1935 German Grand Prix win is widely touted as being the greatest upset in the sport’s history; an almost satanically brilliant drive where it’s all too difficult to separate myth from reality. While clearly outgunned aboard his Alfa Romeo P3, you couldn’t fault the Mantuan’s powers of persistence. After being swamped by the German cars and his Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Louis Chiron at the start, he was nonetheless lying second behind Mercedes’ Rudolf Caracciola by the ninth lap. His good work was then undone by a disastrous two-minute pitstop, which dropped him down to sixth place.

What happened next is beyond legendary. In one otherworldly lap he took Hans Stuck, Caracciola, Luigi Fagioli and Bernd Rosemeyer (whose Auto Union was pit-bound) to reclaim second place. By lap 12 Manfred von Brauchitsch held a lead of 1 minute 9 seconds. The German then proceeded to extend the gap, only for his tyres to wear faster than those of his pursuer. Nuvolari chased down his prey but von Brauchitsch, who had won the Eifel Grand Prix the previous season, clearly wasn’t going to give up without a fight: he managed to claw back three seconds on the penultimate tour, but the W25’s left-rear let go as he headed into Karussell
for the final time, and the supercharged Alfa swept past to claim an unlikely triumph. Nuvolari was followed home by Stuck, Caracciola and Rosemeyer.

Not expecting a red car to finish first, the organisers were caught on the hop – they only had a recording of Deutschland über Alles to hand. No matter, Nuvolari helpfully had a copy of the Marcia Reale on him.

1937 German Grand Prix

He had the intellectual capacity and the imagination to handle both the tactical and the strategic – that and a ruthlessness when it mattered. Rudolf Caracciola could deliver regardless of conditions – in the 1930s he was the accepted regenmeister (rain master). That and the embodiment of speed and consistency. All of which would explain his three European Drivers’ Championship titles.

Yet his strike rate at the Nürburgring was something else entirely. ‘Carratch’ won the inaugural race in June 1927 for Mercedes-Benz; it was the first of an incomparable nine victories from 18 starts at the Eifel circuit. Yet he had his challengers, not least arch-rival Bernd Rosemeyer whose four-wheeled career continued to rocket with three straight wins prior to the 1937 German Grand Prix. And it was the Auto Union pilot who scorched to pole for that race with Hermann Lang and von Brauchitsch alongside him on the front row. ‘Rudi’ lined up behind them.

Predictably Rosemeyer put in a string of searing laps at the start but an off on the fourth tour meant he had to pit to repair the damage and replace a wheel. Caracciola assumed the lead from von Brauchitsch, Lang and Richard Seaman. Tragically, the latter was involved in an accident with Auto Union man Ernst von Delius who later succumbed to his injuries. And while battles raged down the order, not least with the recovering Rosemeyer and Tazio Nuvolari over third, Caracciola was never headed, with von Brauchitsch following him home. It wasn’t a flamboyant drive, but it was a masterclass in cool-headed precision. It was also Caracciola’s fifth German Grand Prix triumph (four with Mercedes, one with Alfa Romeo).

That he would go on to claim a sixth German GP at the ’Ring in 1939 was entirely appropriate; it merely bookended his remarkable 13-year spell as the original – and greatest – Ringmeister. Sadly, as Europe descended into hell, it would be his final win and the last German Grand Prix for 11 years.

1957 German Grand Prix

Juan Manual Fangio was a man capable of the seemingly impossible, but even reading about his otherworldly charge in the August 1957 German Grand Prix leaves you with a knot-in-the-stomach sensation. The passing of time has done nothing to lessen the myth behind his final – and greatest – grand prix triumph, Il Maestro having left the best until last. After repeatedly breaking the lap record prior to his first pitstop after 12 laps, he and his Maserati 250F seemed to be on the same page, working in celestial alignment. After all, he had a lead of 28 seconds over the Ferraris of Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn. Then it began to go horribly wrong.

A problematic stop meant he emerged trackside almost 50 seconds down on the Ferraris. It holds true in broad outline that what followed next was one of the greatest-ever comeback drives. Fangio dug deep and uncorked a string of epic laps of unprecedented focus and intensity. The leading Britons had slackened their pace, which proved to be a costly error. Keeping the 250F in a higher gear for some of the fastest turns, Fangio took 12 seconds out of the deficit inside one lap. The Old Man would go on to circulate in a belief-beggaring 9min 17.4sec and by lap 20 he was on the tail of the lead duo.

On the approach to the North Turn, the Argentinian sliced inside Collins only to run slightly wide and momentarily lose the place. With two wheels on the grass, he reclaimed the position and tore after Hawthorn who didn’t relinquish the lead without a fight, but Fangio wasn’t to be denied: he took the chequered flag by 3.6sec. You cannot deny destiny.

1959 Nürburgring 1000Kms

For many, his 1961 German Grand Prix win was his most important ’Ring drive, yet the legend surrounding Stirling Moss’s triumph in the 1000Kms sports car classic two years earlier is hard to ignore.

At his best – which was most of the time – Moss seemed to operate on fast-forward, but his performance in the 1959 1000Kms classic was a giddying spectacle. Having already won the race twice before (in 1956 and ’58), Moss arrived in Germany knowing the factory Ferraris were going to provide stiff opposition for his works Aston Martin DBR1. Yet his opening 17-lap stint saw him break the lap record – his lap record – 16 times. Then he handed the car over to team-mate Jack Fairman. As he did so the sky became a thick slate grey, the Aston’s lead being swiftly eaten away by the pursuing Ferraris once the rain fell. Six laps into his stint, ‘Jolly Jack’ slid into a ditch near Brünchen. The 46-year-old then summoned superhuman strength and somehow manhandled the ash green sports-racer back onto all four wheels before making his way to the pits.

Cue a comeback charge of nonpareil genius. On a drying track, Moss chased down Umberto Maglioli’s Porsche 718RSK before jumping the Testa Rossas that were then running 1-2. After 33 laps, Stirling handed the DBR1 over to Fairman once again, now with a lead of almost three minutes. Phil Hill, a man capable of brilliance at the ’Ring, demolished the deficit in his factory Ferrari and assumed the lead as Fairman stopped to let Moss take over for the final 10 laps. ‘The Boy’ wasn’t to be denied and he passed Hill at Flugplatz to win by 41 seconds.

Just to rub it in, Moss claimed a hat-trick – and win number four – with 1960 honours alongside Dan Gurney in ‘Lucky’ Casner’s Maserati Tipo 61.

1963 German Grand Prix

He already packed a hefty resume but everything John Surtees had done previously on four wheels paled by comparison. The Briton’s drive in the 1963 German GP helped confirm his greatness away from motorcycles. Having already conquered the ’Ring with MV Agusta, Il Grande John followed through with victory in the ’63 1000Kms race alongside Willie Mairesse in a Ferrari 250P. It was his first win for the Scuderia, the Briton having yet to become a GP winner despite threatening to do so from the get-go. Three months later, he broke his Formula 1 duck in the best way possible.

Jim Clark had qualified his Lotus 25 on pole for the grand prix but by the time the cars reached Breidscheid for the first time it was the BRM of Richie Ginther in the lead from Bruce McLaren’s Cooper. The sainted Scot now had Surtees glued to his tail, the scarlet Ferrari 156 moving up the order until it assumed the lead on the second tour. Clark (pictured, following Surtees) had annexed the four previous grands prix and it soon became a two-way battle as he bid to make it five consecutive wins.

By half-distance Surtees led by 5.3 seconds, Clark’s Lotus by now alternating between seven and eight cylinders. When running properly the green car was clearly quicker, Surtees’ Ferrari also losing a pot for a brief moment, but this served only to give Team Lotus false hope. With 11 of the 15 laps run, Surtees had 20sec in hand; by the flag he was some 1min 17.5sec ahead to claim his maiden F1 win and the first for the Scuderia since the 1961 Italian GP. He also became the first man to secure the Grand Prix and 1000Kms in the same year. Just to rub it in, he successfully defended his German GP prize in 1964 from pole.

1968 German Grand Prix

On Sunday August 4 1968, Jackie Stewart was a man apart from the world he inhabited. His galaxy-class drive to win that season’s German Grand Prix was all the more remarkable as he had every reason to sit it out. Still suffering the effects of a broken scaphoid in his right wrist which had caused him to miss the Spanish and Monaco grands prix, he’d finished fourth on his comeback drive at Spa. He then followed through with a brilliant wet-weather victory in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort, taking full advantage of Dunlop’s latest rain tyre to come home some 93 seconds ahead of Jean-Pierre Beltoise.

Yet by the time the Nürburgring rolled around again his wrist was still causing him major concern. And on top of that, Ferrari’s Jacky Ickx had been conspicuously faster than anyone else in Friday practice before the circuit was engulfed by rain and a thick blanket of fog. Come race day it was much the same, the start being repeatedly delayed until the grand prix finally got underway mid-afternoon. Ickx made a poor start from pole, with Graham Hill’s Lotus 49 sneaking through from the second row to lead from Chris Amon and Stewart. By Schwalbenschwanz the future knight was in the lead, plumes of spray fountaining upwards from the back of his Matra. It was the last most of his rivals saw of Stewart.

The irony of this safety advocate prevailing by more than four minutes in the worst possible conditions on such a demanding circuit – and nursing an injury – was perhaps lost on the great man at the time, but as even his staunchest critic Jenks admitted: ‘Caracciola may have been the Regenmeister, Rosemeyer the Nebelmeister and Fangio the Ringmeister, but Stewart surely topped the lot this day.’