Touristenfahrt

Assuming knowledge: how many drivers know the rules of the 'ring?

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Parent Category: Nurburgring

Created on Saturday, 28 July 2012 10:04

Last Updated on Saturday, 28 July 2012 10:57

Published on Saturday, 28 July 2012 10:51

Written by Dale

When you drive on to the Nürburgring Nordschleife, do you fully understand what you're doing? How it all works? What you should do in an emergency? And if you do, what about the guy in front of you, or even behind you? Well, I wanted to find out. So I went down to the 'Ring car park and asked 25 random drivers four easy multiple-choice questions...

Question 1: "How many laps have you done?"

A really easy question to start with, and I offered the four choices you see here. I wanted to know how many people were completely new to the 'Ring and how many were "old-hands".

Worth mentioning right now is that I asked this half-way through a two-hour Thursday evening opening. I'd be interested to see how many more 'rookies' are here on a weekend. What do you think?

There's no way to account for people over or under-estimating their laps, but I think the fact that 20% of people have not done a lap before speaks volumes about what to expect when you drive.

Question 2: "What is the Nürburgring Nordschleife classified as tonight?"

Not terribly important, on the face of it, but an innocent enough question that also guages some other important questions.

It was reassuring to see that most people (76%) do understand that the track is a public road during Touristenfahrten.

What I found worrying, for example, were the minority of people who think the track is not a public road. Would they also think nothing of driving it in a race car or without insurance?

Thankfully, they were the minority at only 12%.

Question 3: "On which side can you overtake, tonight?"

Now this is one that I'm sure a lot of regulars will be interested in. I offered people the choice of left, right, both sides and, just to throw the wannabe-racers, an option of 'only off the line or outside of the bend.'

Again, like question 2, most people did in fact know the correct answer. Only a couple of people thought they should overtake on the right (totally wrong).

But whichever way you look at it, nearly a quarter of those interviewed didn't know which side they should overtake on.

What this question doesn't address, of course, is the matter of people knowing the rules but choosing to ignore them... your suggestions for that particular problem would be welcome below. And the correct answer is not a 7.62mm to the offside wheel from a sniper nest at SX...

Question 4: "What should you do if YOU have an accident?"

A personal hate of mine is people driving off when they've had a crash. It's not just selfish, it's downright dangerous for everybody else on track. Especially the bikers.

Unfortunately this was also the worst result of the four questions.

Over 44% chose the option of driving slowly to the end. Many people even laughed knowingly and said "Of course I'm not going to stop, that's illegal."

Oh dear.

Only 12% even knew they should phone the emergency number:
0800 0302 112

Driving to the end of the lap may be fine in a small accident, but the number of people who continue driving with damaged oil lines or ruptured radiators is positively scary.

Conclusion?

Take nothing for granted out there. I don't think any of us thought the 'Ring was easy. And this survey just shows some of the problems you'll face on a lap.

And don't think for a moment that the novices are the only ignorant drivers. One guy who had over 1000 laps, and a season ticket (he showed it to me), honestly thought it was OK to overtake on both sides and that the track was a race track.

I asked these questions in German and English. The only langauges that the rules are published in on the trackside signs and gates. If I could have asked in Russian, Greek, Spanish or French that night, I suspect the answers might have been a little scarier... drive safely out there!

Representing one of the 44% who answered Question 4 incorrectly... photo by ring-bilder.de

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