NÜRBURG, Germany -- The Nürburgring 24 Hours is not like other races. That was probably the appeal for Max Verstappen when he signed up to make his debut at the event this year, and it will undoubtedly be the takeaway for the thousands of fans who also experienced the race for the first time this weekend.
For starters, the circuit is unlike any other race track on earth. Spread over 12.9 miles of sweeping corners and blind crests, the Nordschleife (north loop) is so big that whole villages are nestled within its perimeter. The layout rejects anything resembling conventional circuit design, and instead follows the contours of the Eifel Mountains, meaning run-off is limited and accidents will happen.
To host the annual 24-hour race, the original Nordschleife is linked to the more modern Grand Prix circuit, which creates a 15.7-mile layout that takes advantage of the latter's (relatively) up-to-date pit and paddock complex. Even so, with 161 cars crammed onto the entry list for this year's race, space around the central hub of the paddock was at a premium.
Between four and five teams shared each garage -- which would accommodate one car at a normal race weekend -- with the mechanics, quite literally, working on top of one another to prepare their cars. On his first appearance at the event this year, Verstappen was fortunate enough to share "Box 9" with just three other teams: the sister No. 80 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 (which went on to become the overall winner); the Dupre Motorsport Audi S3 (running in a separate touring car class for four-wheel and front-wheel drive cars); and a BMW 328i (entered without an official team name into yet another touring car category.)
"It's just going a bit more back to how I grew up in racing," Verstappen told ESPN in an interview about the Nürburgring earlier this year. "There are professional teams but you also have amateur teams, and everything just races together. They're all there for the love of motorsport, I would say."
That love was matched, and perhaps even exceeded, by record 352,000 fans who flocked to the circuit over the weekend to be a part of the event. They (and many others without tickets) spread themselves around the mammoth circuit, collecting in ever weirder conclaves the further they got away from paddock and into "the forest."
An upturned cement mixer and a Stannah stairlift
As the sun went down on Saturday night, the trackside scene where the grand prix circuit merges with the Nordschleife was relatively normal. Amateur photographers made use of holes cut into the fencing to get a clear shot of the cars in Sabine Schmitz Kurve, while fans on camping chairs sat hypnotised by the constant stream of headlights and taillights joining the "Green Hell."
Slightly further from the catch fencing, proud motorhome owners turned sausages on barbecues and sipped bottles of Bitburger, all while keeping an eye on large screens that they'd set up to show both the race order and the live action. All very respectable, but all on the outskirts of the town of Nürburg from which the circuit takes its name.
Venture further down the hill -- with the constant bellow from race cars as they snake through a section of chicanes known as Hatzenbach to your left -- and the ground turns muddier and the music becomes louder. Full bottles of Bitburger are replaced by empty bottles of vodka and the timing screens give way to fire pits.
The deeper you go into the campsite, the less the on-track order seems to matter. In fact, the less any kind of order seems to matter.
A box of fireworks, placed within inches of tents and motorhomes, fired its contents into the night's sky as revellers danced to electronic music among the puddles. Cars with mud sprayed across their doors were scattered either side of the torn-up trail, seemingly abandoned where they were until the either the ground or beer dried up.
Beyond a car with an inflatable doll tied to its roof, a particularly muddy area opened up with even louder music. The only light came from multi-coloured bulbs strung up over scaffolding, which were supporting a viewing platform looking out over the campsite and onto the circuit beyond.
But no-one was stood on the viewing platform, and no-one was watching the circuit.
All eyes were on two men wearing yellow hard hats, who were clambering into two kitchen chairs bolted to either end of a long plank of wood. On closer inspection, the wood was connected to an upturned cement mixer, which was strapped (presumably as a vague nod towards health and safety) to two stakes in the muddy ground.
Once the two men were in their chairs, beers in hand, a third turned on the cement mixer and the whole contraption rumbled into life. With a jerk that threatened to unseat one of the two participants, the chairs started spinning backwards to the delight of the watching crowd. It soon became clear that the top speed of the cement mixer was, in fact, underwhelmingly slow -- not that you'd have known from the smiles beaming underneath the hard hats.
Deeper into the forest, deeper into the night, the chaos of Hatzenbach gradually subsided and gave way to complete darkness on a forest trail. To the left, the headlights of the cars were still visible in the pine trees and to the right, a clearing offered a view to the far side of the circuit, which was occasionally lit up by fireworks from distant campsites.
Eventually a small opening to the left offered a view of the track. This section is known as Schwedenkreuz -- owing to a stone cross that stands right by the trackside. The memorial, so legend has it, is in memory of the former mayor of nearby Kelberg, who was killed by Swedish soldiers at this spot during the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century.
In 2026, the view beyond the memorial provides a mesmerising spectacle as headlights appear over the brow of a hill, kink left in front of the clearing and then disappear as red taillights down to the next corner, Aremberg.
Past Aremberg and over a bridge, deep forest lines the outside of the circuit. Fans with flash torches worked their way between the trees, trying to catch a glimpse of the famous Fuchsröhre (Foxhole) compression -- an area of the circuit where current Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff nearly died while attempting a lap record in 2009. In the middle of Saturday night it felt utterly remote, and it's no wonder safety workers struggled to find Wolff after he extracted himself from the wreckage and collapsed on the other side of the barrier.
From the bottom of the Fuchsröhre, the trail finally goes back uphill with the promise of lights and thumping dance music at the top. Adenauer Forst is the biggest campsite on the western side of the circuit and it welcomes you with a stench of beer-soaked mud. A scooter carrying two men and a crate of beer slithered down the hillside away from the main camp, somehow remaining upright as it took a sharp right between two trees and parked neatly next to a tent.
From the direction of the scooter, a temporary structure of scaffolding, wooden planks and neon lights proclaimed itself the "Nürburgring VIP Lounge". On top of the VIP Lounge, a long bench offered great views over one of the Nordschleife's many chicanes, with an additional shelf handily constructed at beer-holding height.
There was no ladder to get up to the observation deck -- remember, this is the "VIP Lounge" -- but instead a Stannah stairlift had been installed to provide access to the top level. Underneath the viewing platform, three leather sofas surrounded a firepit with a German flag, a Jägermeister flag and a "Save the Ring" flag hanging behind.
That was as far as we dared go into the Nürburgring night.
No place like it
Such sights are not normal at motorsport events. In fact, such sights are not normal, full stop. But this is the Nürburgring 24 Hours, and the very appeal is that it is anything but normal.
Verstappen's attendance over the weekend may have resulted in a sellout crowd, but for those deep in the forest, the presence of a four-time champion likely made little difference.
As many were keen to point out, they didn't come for a single driver, they came for the race. And everything that makes it unique.