Motoring
The world’s most extreme racing circuits
We uncover the lairiest, priciest, highest and lowest permanent racetracks in the world.
Race circuits are interesting phenomena: inanimate ribbons of tarmac that, when driven or ridden at speed, can force men and women to question how committed, how skilled and how brave they really are.
We all know of the legendary venues in motor racing – places like Monza, Suzuka, Brands Hatch, Laguna Seca. But which of the world's tracks is the highest, or the most undulating? Which was the most expensive to build, and which one has proved the most dangerous? Read on as we reveal the most extreme racing circuits in the world.
The longest: Nürburgring Nordschleife, Germany
The Nordschleife is 12 miles of THIS
© General Motors
Not the first time the fearsome Nordschleife will appear on this list, at 12.9 miles the circuit in Germany’s Eifel Mountains is the longest permanent racetrack in the world. The combined track that’s used for the Nürburgring 24 Hour race is even longer at 15.2 miles, but as it’s made up of two separate tracks, with the Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit flowing into the Nordschleife, it doesn’t count.
The highest: Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico
Up in the nosebleeds, perhaps literally, in Mexico
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
The reconfigured Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez returned to the Formula One World Championship calendar in 2015, and gives the drivers a proper, oxygen-light workout by being 2,285 metres above sea level.
Biggest elevation change: Nürburgring Nordschleife, Germany
The Nordschleife drops 300m
© @world/Red Bull Content Pool
While there are several celebrated mountain-based circuits in the world – Laguna Seca in California and Australia's Mount Panorama, home of the Bathurst 12 Hours, spring to mind – the steepest elevation change on any circuit is at the Nordschleife, which rises from 320m above sea level all the way up to 620m, a 300m change. Compared to that, Mount Panorama sees only a 174m elevation change, while Laguna Seca – with its famously plunging 'Corkscrew' corner – is only a puny 55m.
First purpose-built circuit: Brooklands, UK
John Cobb gets some air around Brooklands in 1935
© Brooklands
Finished in 1907, the banked 2.75-mile Brooklands track takes the plaudits for being the first ever purpose-built car racing circuit on the planet. Car races prior to Brooklands’ arrival had tended to be city-to-city affairs, like the famous 1894 Paris–Rouen race. Disappointingly, a few years ago part of the Brooklands track was destroyed to make way for a supermarket car park. Sigh…
Most northerly: Arctic Circle Raceway, Norway
Located 19 miles south of Arctic Circle in Norway, the imaginatively-titled Arctic Circle Raceway is the most northerly racetrack on the planet. At 2.33 miles, the track is also Norway’s longest, while its proximity to the North Pole means that it’s eligible to hold 24 hour races in the summer without the need for floodlights, thanks to the sun never setting!
Ride onboard with a track day motorcyclist around the Arctic Circle Raceway
Most southerly: Autódromo Carlos Romero, Argentina
Found just outside the tiny town of Tolhuin in Argentina and sitting on the 54th parallel south, the Autódromo Carlos Romero stakes the claim as the most southerly racetrack on the planet. Teretonga Park in New Zealand once tried to muscle in on its territory by claiming that it was the most southerly, but its location on the 46th parallel south means that it’s no contest.
Most expensive: Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi
It's not hard to see where the £800m went…
© Balazs Gardi/Red Bull Content Pool
While tracks are rarely forthcoming about how much they cost to build, estimates put the price tag for the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi at an eye-watering £800 million. That sounds about right to us when you consider that construction also included a luxury hotel shaped like a big whale, a marina and tarmac for the circuit that was shipped all the way from a quarry in sunny Shropshire.
Most dangerous: Nürburgring Nordschleife, Germany
While also being the longest and most undulating permanent circuit in the world, the Nürburgring Nordschleife also has to shoulder the responsibility of being the most dangerous. To date, there have been 68 racing fatalities at the track, ahead of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where there have been 56. Although not a permanent track, the Isle of Man TT course – or Snaefell Mountain Course to give it its proper name – has grimly claimed 242 lives since racing first began there in 1908.
Watch some vintage (and non-fatal!) Nürburgring crashes in the video below
Most capacious: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, USA
Nearly 260,000 people cram into the Indy 500
© Indianapolis Motor Speedway
While the Circuit de la Sarthe, home of the Le Mans 24 Hours, can hold the most number of race-going punters at 263,500, its status as a semi-permanent racetrack (it’s run on part-circuit, part public roads) disqualifies it from taking the honours here. That being the case, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway swoops in to claim the title with a still-whopping 257,325 capacity.
So to sum up, here are the scores on the doors for the world's most extreme circuits…
- The longest: Nürburgring Nordschleife, Germany (12.9-miles)
- The highest: Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico (2,285 metres above sea level)
- Biggest elevation change: Nürburgring Nordschleife, Germany (300 metres)
- First purpose-built circuit: Brooklands, UK (1907)
- Most northerly: Arctic Circle Raceway, Norway
- Most southerly: Autódromo Carlos Romero, Argentina
- Most expensive: Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi (£800 million)
- Most dangerous: Nürburgring Nordschleife, Germany (68 competitor fatalities)
- Most capacious: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, USA (257,325 capacity)