F1 makes Nurburgring return during enforced spring break

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F1 makes Nurburgring return during enforced spring break

F1 is returning to the Nurburgring for a testing event

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 14 April 2026 08:58

While there are no F1 races in April, the cars are back out on track this week at a circuit that has not been visited by F1 since 2020.

There's been a five-week break from F1 in April, following the cancellation of the Saudi Arabian and Bahrain Grands Prix due to the conflict in the Middle East.

It means that teams have been given a bit of respite, as they try to improve their 2026 machinery following the first three grand prix weekends of the new regulations.

But some cars will be out on track this week, at the Nurburgring in Germany.

A Pirelli dry-tyre test is being conducted on April 14 and April 15, with Mercedes and McLaren set to run at the Nurburgring Circuit.

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The test is the third tyre test that Pirelli have run during this break in the season, after a dry tyre test at the Suzuka International Circuit following the Japanese Grand Prix last month which Red Bull and Racing Bulls took part in, and a wet tyre test conducted by Ferrari last week at their private Fiorano track.

When did F1 last race at the Nurburgring?

The Nurburgring in Germany is an iconic circuit, with the 5.148-kilometre modern-day configuration featuring a varied layout with 17 corners, generous run-off areas and a modern digital infrastructure which includes a state-of-the-art digital track monitoring system which looks over both the Grand Prix and Nordschleife circuits.

The most recent F1 race to have taken place on the Nurburgring Nordschleife was the 1976 German Grand Prix, which was won by James Hunt.

However, F1 has raced on the modern circuit layout since then, regularly between 2009-2013 and again in 2020 for the Eifel GP as part of the COVID-hit F1 season.

It's this modern circuit layout which F1 will be using for its testing session this week, with the old Nordschleife layout only used for endurance and GT racing series.

F1 is unlikely to ever return to the Nordschleife layout, with it being deemed following Niki Lauda's near-fatal crash in 1976 that organisers just did not have the resources to manage such a long circuit, and that was not satisfactory for F1.

The Eifel GP in October 2020 was won by Lewis Hamilton on his way to claiming a seventh world championship title.

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