Us Brits often like to think of the Germans as a bunch of bureaucratic rule-abiding spoilsports. But the truth, it appears, is quite the opposite. Let me tell you about the Touristenfahrten sessions, or simply TF for short.
Here at the Nurburgring the public driving sessions on the 21km Nordschleife are world famous. But did you know that it's not just us residents of the German Eifel mountains who are so fortunate to have such regular and cheap racetrack access?
Hockenheim has its own regular TF slot on a Thursday night, while Oschersleben calls them "Arena Training Sessions".
The new Bilsterberg circuit
is planning a TF calendar too. The concept all around Germany is always the same; you pay a relatively small amount of money (between €25 and €50 for a 20- to 30-minute session) and drive your own road-legal car on a real race track. The sessions are typically on 'off' days and evenings, when nobody else would use the track. Only on the Nordschleife has TF become a primary money-maker.
But the management here at the 'Ring have recently increased the number of TF sessions available on the 5.2km F1 circuit too. For 40 euros, both cars and motorbikes alike can join one queue in the pitlane and drive the track for just over 20 minutes.
Maybe the sudden increase in public access is a money-making scheme from the management who, after the recent scandal should have been evicted a week ago, but it got me thinking. Why no TF in the UK?
On a public session here in Germany it's very simply stated that road rules apply (StVO). If you crash you're responsible for whatever damages or costs you incur. Germans will even expect these bills to be paid by their insurance company as test cases here have proved that it's not a race and coverage is valid.
Amazingly, there's no briefing at all. No paperwork to be completed. You just pay your money to a guy behind a counter. In return you receive a ticket which gets you into pitlane. The gate between the pitlane and the track is only opened up when the current session's traffic has exited the track at another crash gate. That happens once every twenty minutes. The only marshals on the whole course are stood at the entrance and exit of the track. There is just one emergency response team watching the CCTV coverage.
And you know what? It works. No briefings, no helmets, cars and bikes out together on a real F1 track and it actually works. Sure, the busier sessions can get a little silly. I remember first hearing the term 'Terroristen-fahrt' (Terrorists' driving) at a particularly crazy Hockenheim session in 2005.
But can you imagine this at Brands Hatch? Or Silverstone? Rocking up at 7pm for a sly half-hour thrash on the way home from the office? Hell, the briefing and paperwork alone would take up the first 30 minutes and you'd have to be on your way before the wife/boss figured out what was happening. And that's a shame, because I think TF is the best thing that ever happened to this particular PHer.
Dale's own TF session video