The Nürburgring in the wet is a tricky proposition at best, and for many it’s your worst nightmare. Just when you think you’ve got the whole 20.8km of the Nordschleife memorised, the weather changes and you’ve got three times as much information to remember. Which corners have a good surface? Where does standing water build up the most? And which small bumps will turn into car-crashing, spin-inducing, hiccups?
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VLN4 was a completely wet race, and I’m totally gutted that we missed it in the Milltek Fiesta (more on that later). But I’ll leave you with Eifeler888 and his viewpoint on the right-hand-side of Kesselchen, just at the fourth left-hander, which is well known to be deadly in the wet for the following reasons:
- It’s blind and looks tighter than it is, making novices more likely to lift off the gas as they take it. This produces lift-off oversteer…
- There’s a bump at the apex, so small oversteer can turn into massive oversteer if you hug the apex tight.
- The surface is a not so great, especially on the left side.
Notice how those who run wide and relax the wheel (driving closer to the camera) don’t crash, but those who steer too much and try to hold a tight line crash hard? There’s a lesson there….
UPDATE: Enjoy some bonus onboard footage from Gabriele Piana who spent about 3 hours at the ‘sharp end’ of the pack…
