THE RING

They say you can never truly learn the Nürburgring Nordschleife, regardless of how many laps you do.

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evo's deputy editor puts that theory to the test with possibly the ultimate training school HEY SAY SIX LAPS IS THE DANGER ZONE at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Because after six laps, you think you know the track. Guess how many I've done up until now? Yep. Mind you, my six laps were spread over two years, and the most recent of them was in 2018. That's about to change.

It's before 8am on a Tuesday morning and I'm standing on the Nordschleife's Döttinger Höhe back straight, the mile-and-a-half-long stretch between the infamous 'bridge' and 'gantry' landmarks. My much-needed cup of coffee is sitting on the rear wing of a Porsche 911 GT3 and I'm listening to a briefing from an instructor whose Ring lap-count is in the thousands. Shortly I'll be following his wheeltracks in the GT3, to try to learn this most unlearnable of circuits in as much depth as possible. Ahead and behind us are nearly 200 other drivers receiving separate briefings from separate instructors, about to do the same. The event is called Perfektionstraining, and it's all a bit surreal. Not least because by tomorrow afternoon I'll have increased my lap-count by about 500 per cent. Fingers crossed.