Heidfeld will run the BMW Sauber F1.07 on the Nordschleife

[ioan]

For the first time after 31 years Nick Heidfeld will be the one to drive a modern F1 car on the legendary Nordschleife track.

http://www.f1technical.net/news/5140

[Robinho]

a brave brave man, even if he takes it relatively easy!

[ioan]

I just hope we will get an in-car video of it. Should be awesome!

[zoostation]

http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/57331

BMW Sauber's F1.07 will become the first Formula One car in 31 years to tackle Nurburgring's legendary Nordschleife circuit.

German Nick Heidfeld will be doing the driving in the event, scheduled for 28th April.

Heidfeld's run around the 22-km track will be the highlight of a full day in the Eifel mountains with the BMW Motorsport racing arsenal.

"This day is our way of saying thank-you to the fans for their support," said BMW boss Mario Theissen. "BMW is a longstanding partner of the Nurburgring.


Should be a sight to see. =]

[Osella]

:up:

And that's what BMW are all about-racing! Finding a challenge, just for the hell of it (and a bit of PR ;) )

Should be one hell of a day! Interesting to see the time too...

[wmcot]

I wonder if they'll do it int the winter when it's covered with ice??? :)

Seriously now, what's the current track record and which type of car holds it?

[aryan]

Wow! I have seen so many in-car footages of Nordschleife, but I can never imagine a modern F1 car tackling that place. It is going to be fantstic, even if he takes it easy (he should, that place has killed many of the world's best drivers in far slower cars).

Looking forward to the day when I drive there myself.

[Mickey T]

think it's around the 6:50 mark with the late Stefan Bellof in a porsche 962 in qualifying for the sports car race there in either 84 or 85.

he's the only man to average more than 200km/h there.

[Viktory]

Wow! I have seen so many in-car footages of Nordschleife, but I can never imagine a modern F1 car tackling that place. It is going to be fantstic, even if he takes it easy (he should, that place has killed many of the world's best drivers in far slower cars).

Looking forward to the day when I drive there myself.

It's an amazing place. I've only been around there as a passenger with my dad driving and I can tell you, it's a mind-blowing experience. Now that I have got my driving license I am hoping that he is planning a trip to Germany soon :p

[seppefan]

:up:

And that's what BMW are all about-racing! Finding a challenge, just for the hell of it (and a bit of PR ;) )

Should be one hell of a day! Interesting to see the time too...

Fantastic news. Well done BMW. First Zanardi now this. Hats off to them as I am a Williams supporter 100% and so Mario T is not my best friend but you have to give it to him/them. Bring back the batmobile and good luck Nick on the run ( or three ) .

[ioan]

It seems that the management has decided that nick will not go full throttle around the "Green Hell".

<<But team officials have clipped Heidfeld's wings by arranging that his F1.07 is equipped only with 'demonstration' Bridgestone tyres - which are significantly slower than the real thing.
>>

<<Ultimate performance of Heidfeld's car will also be compromised by an extraordinarily high ride-height, but Theissen insisted that he thought the BMW Sauber would still reach impressive top speeds in excess of 300kph.>>

Also he won't drive on the Karussell section.

http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/070427110254.shtml

[Valve Bounce]

a brave brave man, even if he takes it relatively easy!

Common!! Bernd Rosemeyer raced the Auto Union there on skinny tyres. And when the fog shrouded the track, he continued in just slightly slower speed. Let's put this into perspective.

And yes! I have the tape. :)

[ShiftingGears]

Valve!!! You must find some way of uploading it!! :D

And for Heidfeld, kudos for him for wanting to have machinery to allow him to set the fastest time. Pity he can't have proper tyres. Also, is the high ride height that the car will have simply to slow him down or does it have some advantage over the undulating surface?
Shame about the F1 car not being able to tackle the Karussell also.

And, do any relative insiders here know whether it will be filmed onboard? Or from tv cameras, for that matter. If so, that'd be great, I'd love to see more F1 cars tackle great old school tracks like this, would make PR enjoyable :D

[Valve Bounce]

Valve!!! You must find some way of uploading it!! :D

:D
It came with a copy of MOTORSPORT some years ago. Best video in my collection. I'm going to see whether I can get it put on DVD.

[Mickey T]

Valve!!! You must find some way of uploading it!! :D
Also, is the high ride height that the car will have simply to slow him down or does it have some advantage over the undulating surface?
Shame about the F1 car not being able to tackle the Karussell also.


Yes, the higher ride height has the advantage of not spitting the undertray onto the bumpy tarmac and spearing him into the trees at 200 fast an hour.

the Karussell would shake a modern F1 car to pieces. wouldn't be pleasant for its driver.

Modern f1 cars rely on the tyre sidewalls for much of their bump absorption, but that presumes that you're running on a modern (re, billiard table) f1 track. think nick will need a chiropractor after the run.

as for skinny tyres, well, those cars were grip limited and go nowhere near approaching the cornering potential of a modern swift road car, much less a full aero F1 car. it's a whole different world.

at race pace or qualifying pace, in a fully charged F1 car, there would be a hundred places where the bumps would be just too willing to put you off the road, and there's just no run off anywhere to lessen the impact.

grip limited cars - even grip limited f1 cars - are far safer.

[Valve Bounce]

as for skinny tyres, well, those cars were grip limited and go nowhere near approaching the cornering potential of a modern swift road car, much less a full aero F1 car. it's a whole different world.

at race pace or qualifying pace, in a fully charged F1 car, there would be a hundred places where the bumps would be just too willing to put you off the road, and there's just no run off anywhere to lessen the impact.

grip limited cars - even grip limited f1 cars - are far safer.


You're not seriously suggesting that Bernd Rosemeyer's Auto Union racing at Nurnburgring was far safer than the current F1 cars I hope. :rolleyes:

[Mickey T]

no, just that life has changed tremendously and so have the cars.

cars of that era had not much lateral or braking grip (hence the need for drifting) and, by modern standards, a mountain of wheel travel.

they had more wheel travel than a modern touring car would have.

i'm just saying that the auto union was designed for this sort of track - and was as safe as they knew how to make it at the time.

since this sort of track has been bypassed by modern formula one, its technology has gone in another direction. the two are no longer compatible at race pace.

that's all i'm saying.

[Valve Bounce]

no, just that life has changed tremendously and so have the cars.

cars of that era had not much lateral or braking grip (hence the need for drifting) and, by modern standards, a mountain of wheel travel.

they had more wheel travel than a modern touring car would have.

i'm just saying that the auto union was designed for this sort of track - and was as safe as they knew how to make it at the time.

since this sort of track has been bypassed by modern formula one, its technology has gone in another direction. the two are no longer compatible at race pace.

that's all i'm saying.

OK! I do have, on tape, Bernd racing the Italian (can't think of the guy's name right now {old age} ) when the fog shrouded the track and he continued to race at almost the same lap speeds.

While I don't want to take anything away from the ability, fitness etc of our current F1 racers, safety provisions in F1 cars and F1 tracks make today's racing far, far safer than those pre-WWII years.

So drifting, sliding, yumping and whatever else of those days, I consider to be far more dangerous than the present day's F1 racing.

Under the circumstances, I think Heidfelds driving (note: not racing) the modified F1 BMW around this track is no more than a publicity stunt of little consequence, and probably demeans what this track really stood for. I mean, if the guy took Niki Lauda's Ferrari and raced that around the track I'd be a helluva lot more impressed.

[Mikeall]

You're not seriously suggesting that Bernd Rosemeyer's Auto Union racing at Nurnburgring was far safer than the current F1 cars I hope. :rolleyes:

Well the Auto Union had no wings so air wouldn't get under them to flip the car. It wouldn't bottom out over a bump and go straight on and also would be much slower round the corners. If prepared properly and driven with care a modern BMW.Sauber is undoubtedly safer but I guess there is much more to think about that to prevent situations occurring that could take the car out of the driver's control.

[ShiftingGears]

I hope he goes flat out, knowing the risks :p :

[Valve Bounce]

Well the Auto Union had no wings so air wouldn't get under them to flip the car. It wouldn't bottom out over a bump and go straight on and also would be much slower round the corners. If prepared properly and driven with care a modern BMW.Sauber is undoubtedly safer but I guess there is much more to think about that to prevent situations occurring that could take the car out of the driver's control.


Well, Nick isn't going to race the thing, is he? He is going to drive it around at a safe speed. As I said before, I'd be much more impressed if he took Niki's Ferrari around the whole track and tried to match Niki's track times.

[nigelred5]

OT, but Hell, I'd like to see current F1 cars race on a lot of the worlds less than billiard table smooth, tilke-ized, neutered tracks. I'd like to see how fast the cars are when the suspension actually has to move more than half a millimeter.

[Valve Bounce]

You'd probably have to redesign the suspension as well as the aero to race on such tracks in todays' F1 cars. Personally, I'd like to see the removal of all the wings and winglets. The rear wing can be replaced by a flat single element board to carry adverts, that's all.

But that's another story :(

[Mikeall]

You'd probably have to redesign the suspension as well as the aero to race on such tracks in todays' F1 cars. Personally, I'd like to see the removal of all the wings and winglets. The rear wing can be replaced by a flat single element board to carry adverts, that's all.

But that's another story :(

Then all the cars would look exactly the same...

[ArrowsFA1]

Heidfeld did his run yesterday and completed three laps, with a best time of 8m 34s, although that wasn't representative as he was asked to slow for photos to be taken quite a few times!!

He was impressed:
"This drive was simply incredible. I thought it would be great to drive on the Nordschleife before I started out. But it was even better than I had expected. This racing track is the best in the world."

:cool: :s mokin:

[Valve Bounce]

Then all the cars would look exactly the same...


OK! So colour them different. :rolleyes:

[Valve Bounce]

Heidfeld did his run yesterday and completed three laps, with a best time of 8m 34s, although that wasn't representative as he was asked to slow for photos to be taken quite a few times!!

He was impressed:

:cool: :s mokin:

I knew I should have gone to Germany with the camper van; I knew there was one place I wanted to go round and have the wife take pictures of me. :D

[ChrisS]

I just saw a few clips of this on Eurosport 2 they said the BMW used extra hard tyres and was setup with short gears for safety reasons

they also said 45,000 fans were there to see the BMW do the laps

[nigelred5]

There's video up in several places now. Awesome to see amodern F1 car on the Nordschleife, but I couldn't fathom seeing them actually race there now. the racing surface alone on most Tilkedromes is wider than the entire area between the guardrails in most areas of the Nordschleife.

[Viktory]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek1JUfd3R8w

Very nice! Hope that a full onboard-camera lap will be released soon

[mwr120675]

From the video he did drive the karoussell section, just not on the concrete part

[Valve Bounce]

From the video he did drive the karoussell section, just not on the concrete part


Yeah!! I could have done that in my camper van too.

[Zico]

And he uses the Karussell... ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DZ-rZwaPbE&mode=related&search=

[Valve Bounce]

And he uses the Karussell... ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DZ-rZwaPbE&mode=related&search=

Well, I draw a line on that with my campre van - the plates and glasses, not to mention my stash of wine, would have rattled all over the storage compartments. :D

[wedge]

Heading up to Flugplatz
http://www.motorsport.com/photos/f1/2007/gen/f1-2007-gen-tm-1355.jpg

Karrusell!
http://www.motorsport.com/photos/f1/2007/gen/f1-2007-gen-tm-1350.jpg

Mini-Karrussell/The Swallowtail
http://www.motorsport.com/photos/f1/2007/gen/f1-2007-gen-tm-1353.jpg

Bergwerk???
http://www.motorsport.com/photos/f1/2007/gen/f1-2007-gen-tm-1354.jpg

Brunnchen???
http://www.motorsport.com/photos/f1/2007/gen/f1-2007-gen-tm-1358.jpg

[Zsolt]

Awesome!

[edv]

It would be nice if they released a video of the REAL run.

[Viktory]

It would be nice if they released a video of the REAL run.

Do you mean a whole lap? I posted a video of the "real" run earlier in the topic, but it's not a whole lap, but it's good.

[aryan]

I hope we see more videos released. That was a great run by BMW, lots of publicity and well deserved.

I watched the video, and it is clear that Nick is taking it very very easy, but still that laptime of 8:34 is way off from the ring's record of 6:11 (set in a Porsche 956 by stefan bellof in 1983). This brings up some interesting arguments about how fast today's F1 cars are relative to super cars... in real circuits...

Speaking of the ring, one of the greatest on-board videos of the Nordschleife I have seen is by Hans Joachim Stuck in a BMW GTR. The video used to be available on Youtube etc. but apparently they have taken it down now. The only place I could find it is at http://www.kiwisport.net/blogmedia/m3_gtr_nurburgring.wmv

Get it while it's still there...

One of my life's dreams is to drive in the 'ring one day. Should have been easier when I lived in Europe...

[edv]

Do you mean a whole lap? I posted a video of the "real" run earlier in the topic, but it's not a whole lap, but it's good.

Ah yes I see now. I had clicked on the other youtube link which was a simulation.
Thanks!

[wmcot]

I watched the video, and it is clear that Nick is taking it very very easy, but still that laptime of 8:34 is way off from the ring's record of 6:11 (set in a Porsche 956 by stefan bellof in 1983). This brings up some interesting arguments about how fast today's F1 cars are relative to super cars... in real circuits...


F1 cars have never been the "fastest" on every circuit. When the CanAm cars ran in the late 60's, they held all the track records at common circuits used by both classes. Of course, they had 5, 7, or higher litre engines! That said, I think an F1 car is the "quickest" on a circuit where cornering is critical. I doubt a CanAm McLaren would have had an easy time at Monaco!

Not to mention that F1 cars no are no longer built to run on "real circuits."

The fastest F1 time I have been able to find is 7:06.4 by Clay Reggazoni in 1975.