All of the 2021 Nürburgring Nordschleife public driving times are finally here and online. The official ‘Ring calendar went online at the end of December 2020, and I’ve added the biggest and best trackdays to the same spreadsheet, and titled it as the “BTG 2021 Driver’s Calendar”
10% DISCOUNT: "BTGBLOG"
Just remember, that most people come on the big weekends, and sometimes it’s better to drive two or three evenings mid-week, than hang around for 2 or 3 closures on a Sunday with 2000 other drivers.
If you’re having trouble reading the calendar below , the direct link is here. I’ve colour-coded it so that you can see at a glance when the biggest opening times are each month.
Quick overview:
- Nürburgring lap ticket prices 2021
- How to buy Nürburgring Nordschleife lap tickets online
- The infamous SEASON CARD
- Nürburgring trackdays
How much does it cost to drive the Nürburgring in 2021?
First, let’s talk about options. You have three different ways to buy your Nürburgring public driving tickets:
1) Buying physical tickets, trackside.
The good news? 2021 Nürburgring Touristenfahrten ticket prices remain static for the fifth year in a row. The bad news? This is the most expensive way to buy your tickets.
| Price per lap | |
| Monday through Thursday | €25* |
| Friday through Sunday | €30* |
As with previous years, you can buy physical tickets from the ticket office opposite the Nordschleife entrance, at the Nürburgring InfoºCenter, or at the ED Tankstelle on the B258 by the Döttinger Höhe*.
*The ED Tankstelle does add a credit card processing fee to this price!
2) Buying tickets online, accessible through your phone at the tack
BUT… I would highly recommend registering an account at greenhelldriving.nuerburgring.de**. Why? Because of GHC. GHC stands for Green Hell Credits, and if you add anything over €100 to your account, you get some bonus credits added on top.
- Add €100-€199 to your account and get a 10% bonus on top.
- Add €200-€499; get 15% on top
- Add €500+; get 20% on top
For example, if you add €209 to your account, you’ll get another €31 added (15%) which means you’ve got a total of €240 (or exactly 7 laps on a weekend!). If you’re driving mid-week, you could put €218 in the account, get a €32 bonus and have 10 laps. Worth doing, am I right? That means you’re paying only €21,80 per lap. Put €500 on the account and you’re paying €20.8 per lap… the Nordschleife is also 20.8km, so that’s €1 per km. Coincidence?
By default, you will open the gates with a QR code that you can save to your phone, but you can also visit the Nürburgring Ticket Office or InfoºCenter and ask for a free RFID ticket linked to your account. You can also add existing shop-bought RFID tickets to your account from within the website, and the last RFID ticket you added will be linked to your account..
**Don’t use the App right now, it’s been broken most of 2019. Just visit greenhelldriving.nuerburgring.de and add it to your homescreen.
3) Buying the Season ticket (Saisonkarte)
If you’ve heard regulars talking about the “JK”, or “Jahreskarte”, that’s the Saisonkarte option you can see in the Greenhell Driving website (available from mid-January). The JK allows you to drive as many laps in a year, for “just” €2200. Here are the pros and the cons, in my opinion:
Pros |
Cons |
| If you’re driving more than 105 mid-weeks laps, or 88 weekend laps, per year it’s the cheapest option. | The card is per driver, with photo ID compulsory. No sharing! You can drive different cars/bikes, but nobody else can use your card. |
| Every lap is paid for, no pressure to perform, no feeling of disappointment if you ‘abort’ the lap or have ‘too many yellows’ | |
| In none-Corona years you could get on and off at Breidscheid bridge without paying extra for a special 1.5 lap ticket, or “losing” money by getting off early |
To get your season card, you can normally buy it greenhelldriving.nuerburgring.de and get it through the post, OR pick it up in person at the main Nürburgring InfoºCenter.
Nürburgring Trackday Prices
Typically between €300-€3300
A trackday, for those of you not yet aware, is an organised driving event where a company or club rents a racetrack for the whole day and then sells tickets to drivers. You can drive as many laps as you want, you just pay an entry fee for the day. I help out at the Circuit-Days events and this year we have four days spread over three events (with a discount code here).
With trackdays, the general rule is that you get what you pay for. From the low-end, that could be a DSK-run trackday (run by the Deutsche Sport Kreis for their members) for less than €300 per car. The downside is that you’re restricted to 50-minute sessions being run once every 2 hours, and a red flag will end that whole session instantly.
At the other end of the scale, you could join the Gran Turismo Events program for €3300, which includes TWO days on track, only 128 cars total and hotels and meals too.
Most of the events you’ll find in my calendar above come in between €600 and €900. When comparing prices remember that some trackday companies might only charge nothing, or just a few quid extra for a second driver, or a passenger, whereas some companies add a LARGE amount on top of the entry fee (upto €200!)
My last piece of advice when comparing events, is to check the small print. Trackdays at the Nürburgring can be divided neatly into TWO groups. Those where you sign to drive at your own risk, and those where you sign to agree that you are driving a road-legal car that’s insured to take part in the event. That’s because the events run by German companies are most often advertised as Driver Training events, and as such most Germans can enjoy third-party cover on the Nürburgring or any other race track. Overcook an entry, and rear-end a brand-new GT3 into a hairpin? No problem if you’re on German plates, with German insurance, and on an event where laptiming and top-speed testing isn’t allowed. Could be a problem if you’re on UK plates though… just saying.
