Nick Heidfeld's Lap Of Nürburgring Nordschleife

On 28 April 2007, Nick Heidfeld drove a BMW Sauber F1.06 Formula One car around the Nordschleife, on a BMW publicity day in combination with a VLN 4h endurance race.
For safety reasons, BMW announced that the car was slowed with hard demonstration tires, maximum ride height, and 275 km/h top speed limited by the transmission. Heidfeld drove three laps on the combined Nordschleife and short GP-track, as used in VLN races, with a track length of 24.433 km.

The official lap time released by BMW Sauber was declared to be 8:34 (thus ca. 30 seconds slower than the fastest Porsche 996 turbo in VLN). The German press duly reported this lap time, yet criticized BMW. In each lap, Heidfeld slowed down once to pose for a slow video truck, at Schwedenkreuz on the first lap 1, Kesselchen in lap 2, and Döttinger Höhe in the last lap. The two time spans in between the three passes of Heidfeld were clocked by some fans around the track, first Wehrseifen to Wehrseifen in about 7:28, then 7:22 from Klostertal to Klostertal, which is over 50 seconds quicker than the fastest current Porsche 997 GT3 RSR in VLN. This translates to an average of about 200 km/h (120 mph), similar to Bellof's record, but considering the slow GP section, Heidfeld probably was faster on the Nordschleife, close to 6 minutes. Fans who respect the official record of the late Stefan Bellof settle for an "estimated 6:12".

Road & Track magazine reported Heidfeld's lap was a 5:57 or 5:58 (for the Nordschleife only), breaking the track's six-minute barrier for the first time in history. However, their times were done by measuring the speed in some corners, and then calculating a lap time, and not timing a full lap. Heidfeld has since expressed his desire to repeat the experience with less restriction.

According to formula one F1 Racing magazine of June 2006, BMW engineers had estimated that a BMW-Sauber F1.06 could lap in under 5:15.8 which equals to an average of 237 km/h (147 mph).

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Nick
• Heidfeld
• Nürburgring
• Nordschleife
• BMW
• Sauber

[Andrea1491to]

am i wrong or he is going a bit too slow for a f1 car..??

[NinC13]

@Andrea1491to - well to be fair to him it was PR thing BMW was doing in Germany, and last thing he would want is a crash especially when BMW had said that they will not be timing his run.

[matt80452]

can someone tell me what year was the last f1 race here on nordschliefe??

[NinC13]

@matt80452 Last F1 race at Nürburgring Nordschleife was held in 1976.

[ArieVisker]

@Andrea1491to

And because the Nordschleife is a long track, with lot's of straights the engine would not been able to coop with it.

And don't forget it's a dangerous track.

[rocchettaro89]

greatest circuit in Formula One history

[Baubauzable]

LoL easy to beat bellof with a Formula one....

[Bensaves]

@tophercheese21 Why wonder when they run 24H races around here that don't need a gimmick such as DRS?

On topic though, it would be shitloads :P

[8IPS8]

a puntita

[MrR9999]

He looks like he's taking a Sunday drive. Not pushing it really.

[tophercheese21]

hmmm, if this were a track in todays calender, i wonder how many DRS zones there would be..... Something to ponder.

[bigfuckinballs]

he missed the carosel.