Hatzenbach
A tight, flowing sequence of alternating left and right corners that opens the Nordschleife after the link from the GP circuit.
Flugplatz
A high-speed section on the Nordschleife named after a nearby airfield, with a series of crests that send cars momentarily airborne at speed.
Braking reference
The crest is the brake — there is no traditional braking zone. Settle the car before the rise so the unload doesn't pitch the nose.
Technique
A trust corner. The instinct is to lift over the crest; the line asks you not to. Keep the car straight, accept the brief float, and let the rear settle before any steering input on the way down.
Schwedenkreuz
A very fast left-hand kink immediately after Flugplatz, taken flat in top gear with drivers committed for an extended period through the following downhill section.
Braking reference
No braking marker — the corner is part of one continuous flat-out sequence with Flugplatz and Aremberg approach.
Technique
Don't think of this as a corner; think of it as a steering input inside a long straight. Hesitation here costs more time than any single mistake elsewhere on the Nordschleife.
Aremberg
A downhill right-hand bend that tightens at the exit, ending the high-speed run before the Fuchsröhre plunge.
Fuchsröhre
The "Fox Hole" — a steep downhill plunge into a sharp compression and climb, weaving left then right with almost no run-off; one of the fastest and most committed sections of the lap.
Adenauer Forst
A slow right into a left-right sequence in the forest; an abrupt line change that catches many drivers out.
Kallenhard
A tight downhill right-hander following the fast Metzgesfeld lefts.
Wehrseifen
A slow, technical right-left around the Adenau bridge at Breidscheid — among the slowest points on the lap.
Bergwerk
A tight, slow right-hander deep in the Nordschleife, infamous as the corner where Niki Lauda crashed in 1976. The exit feeds the long uphill climb of the Kesselchen sequence.
Often called the most notorious corner on the Nordschleife, not because of
its geometry but because of what is at stake on the exit: any time lost
here compounds across the long uphill that follows. The 1976 incident
with Lauda elevated it from a tricky corner to one of motorsport's
historical landmarks.
Braking reference
Brake hard with the car straight as the road dips away; the apex is later than the entry suggests because the corner opens uphill on exit.
Technique
The exit matters more than the entry — a perfect late apex with full throttle as early as possible buys time across the next kilometre of uphill. Don't chase entry speed here.
Karussell
A 210-degree banked left-hander where the inside lane drops into a concrete bowl, allowing the car to use the banking to rotate at low speed. One of the most recognisable corners in motorsport.
The most photographed corner on the Nordschleife. The trick is well known
but not easy — drop the inside wheels into the concrete trough and let
the banking do the work. Get it wrong and the car bounces back onto the
asphalt mid-corner, costing everything you came for.
Braking reference
Commit early to the drop — the line aims well before the visual centreline of the corner, which is the lip of the banked concrete.
Technique
Slow in, full throttle through. The banking carries the car around faster than the asphalt line ever could; trust it and don't try to steer out of the bowl until the corner releases you.
Hohe Acht
A right-hander shortly after the Karussell at the track's highest point, roughly 300 m above the valley floor at Breidscheid.
Brünnchen
A famous pair of right-handers, the second blind and uphill; the best-known spectator and incident spot on tourist days.
Pflanzgarten
A high-speed downhill section with two pronounced crests that launch the car off the surface, followed by a sequence of fast direction changes. Several fatal accidents have occurred here.
Braking reference
The first jump is the reference — land straight or the car will be sideways for the next direction change.
Technique
The car will get light. Plan the steering input for after it lands, not before. Anticipation kills more laps than commitment here.
Schwalbenschwanz
The "swallowtail" esses leading into the Kleines Karussell, a smaller, faster banked left version of the main Karussell.
Galgenkopf
The long final right-hander that feeds onto the Döttinger Höhe straight, the highest-speed stretch of the lap.
