Nordschleife,
dear old Ring. It is often said, “If that track could talk, how many things it would tell…” From your birth to the present day, there have been many events. Enthusiasts remember the F1 of Merzario, Lauda, Hunt, Brabham, others the prototype sports with Bellof and Ickx, few remember the Nordschleife cab, the one woman who knew every secret about you, every feature, your every whim and knew how to catch you to make the lap around the track sweeter and less brutal than how you present yourself to the world. After all you are and always will be the green hell, son of that janitor hidden in the half-light, in the ruins of a castle perched atop a hill like a sinister totem pole in Nürburg. He has established himself by rooting and drawing you without leaving anything to chance, without leaving too much room for margins of error.
Yep. Because the Nordschleife is a track for the few, it is a track that beckons, demands, demands a tribute that many times has been repaid with an increased price because of the whim of that hidden janitor. Perhaps bored, perhaps disturbed. Who knows. Still running today. Still today you reap victims. Still today you live and time has nicked very little of your eternal beauty, bewitched of course, by the true janitor who enjoys watching all those who decide to enter and try to challenge physics, mechanics, their limits ending up, as often happens, against the wall, against a barrier, in the sand or worse capsized in the middle of the track. A fair price for those who challenge and entrust their safety without thinking. Without understanding.
But today dear old Ring those in charge of management and maintenance have decided to give you a gift: An 11 million euro investment that will bring technology and artificial intelligence.
Fujitsu for 100 years
The work is in progress. We should wait until 2025 to see them completed and operational. The Nurburgring management lets it be known that the AI training and development has completed its course by learning to recognize the ground, track, grass, guardrails, vehicles. Weather conditions have also been correctly recorded and entered into the system. Thanks to its 50 km of fiber-optic cables, it will transmit any dangerous situation along all its 21 km of runway to the operations center in real time.
The experience and training was gathered in the “Döttinger Höhe,” the 2.8-kilometer section of the Nordschleife between the Galgenkopf section and the Grand Prix track, which was developed in cooperation with the Fujitsu IT group on the basis of artificial intelligence (AI).
Nürburgring 1927 GmbH & Co. KG will report on the status of the work and future use of the digital system at a press conference in March 2023. More information will follow.
In short, for all of us fans and lovers of the Nordschleife, all we have to do is wait for the track to finish its makeover. Turrets with HD cameras, panels, faster communications combined with Fujitsu’s technological expertise will take the Nordschleife to a higher level without making it lose the charm that has always distinguished it making it unique and inimitable. We just have to wait until March 2023 for more information on this and to see the first results of these important and fundamental changes. Who knows, maybe this investment will bring F1 back to the Ring.
Motorsport is beautiful
Green light for comprehensive digitalisation measure at the Nürburgring Nordschleife 🚦
➡️ Launch for one of the largest construction projects
➡️ Digitalisation of the Nordschleife takes safety to a whole new level👇 Everything you need to know 👇https://t.co/ejXceUHmuX pic.twitter.com/YJObJz7JRt
— Nürburgring (@nuerburgring) January 23, 2023
