The is a
Motor Racing circuit situated near the town of
Hockenheim in
Germany . Amongst other motor racing events, it holds the annual
Formula One German Grand Prix .
Hockenheimring was originally built as a test track for
Mercedes-Benz in 1936. The original circuit was almost eight kilometres long and consisted of two long straights with long corners joining them together. After
World War II a new Hockenheim circuit was built. This used to be quite large, with a very long, fast section going through forests essentially consisting of four straights of roughly 1.3km, separated by a chicane sequence, followed by a more tight and twisty "stadium" section (so called because of all the grandstands situated there) named ''Motodrom''. This made setting racing cars up difficult, as a choice had to be made - whether to run low
Downforce to optimise speed through the straights and compromise grip in the stadium section, or vice-versa. It was here that
Jim Clark was killed in a racing accident.
The circuit is completely flat, without any changes in elevation.
For the 2002 German Grand Prix, however, the circuit had been redesigned by
Hermann Tilke , due to safety concerns regarding the proximity of the woods to such fast portions of track. The stadium section remained intact. However, the circuit was dramatically shortened, with the long, sweeping forest section chopped off in favour of more tight corners. As always happens when a circuit is redesigned, this has led to grumbles that the track is not as good as it used to be, although the tight hairpin following the very long back straight offers an overtaking possibility. The circuit has a capacity of 120,000.
