Sebastian Vettel leads F1 back to the Nürburgring

Sebastian Vettel: We can only keep motorsport alive if we adapt it to future challenges. Race Without Trace is one of our 'There is Still a Race to Win' environmental projects. At the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2023, I got behind the wheel of two of my beloved cars – Nigel Mansell’s FW14B and Ayrton Senna’s MP4/8A – two true icons of racing. These old cars should not be gathering dust as relics in the garage. So it was a great pleasure for me to demonstrate that we can continue to have fun with old racing cars but in an environmentally responsible way by running them on carbon neutral fuel. I’m doing the Red Bull Formula Nürburgring with my RB7 with carbon neutral fuel. It runs perfectly and the sound is exactly the same, but yet we do it in a more responsible way.

I think we won't see a GP in Germany for a while. I think it's a pity, but I understand why. An F1 race is very expensive for the country and Germany just seems too unrealistic to me. Also maybe the decisive pressure from the German car industry is missing. It's a pity for fans, but there are races in neighbouring countries like Holland, Belgium and Austria.

I’ve never driven an F1 car on the Nordschleife, so I'm very excited to do that at Red Bull Formula Nürburgring, although it’s only a show run. I have great memories of the Nürburgring. It's been 10 years since I took a win here for Red Bull Racing. The fact that I can come back here with my RB7 World Championship car fueled with carbon neutral fuel makes me proud.

Yuki Tsunoda: I can’t compare the Nordschleife to other tracks I've driven because the length and where the track goes is very different – through mountains, lots of up and downs. It’s really tight and if you step out on the grass, there are walls there. It’s like a street circuit, but more challenging in elevation changes. It's a super-enjoyable, thrilling and challenging track to drive.

An NSX GT3 Evo – it’s the same model I drive in Italy every single day, just not in the race spec. It’s the same car but I would say it’s very different at the same time – the aero parts obviously make it way faster and more cool, but you can still feel the same passion, the similar sound and behaviour from the engine. I enjoy that similarity.

I would love to do a competitive race here, especially the 24-hour race. I think it would be an unforgettable experience.

I think this is the one – driving the Honda NSX GT3 Evo is very special and doing that on the Nordschleife. Most of the drivers want to have this experience at least once in their lifetime.

Chris Gregory: A lot of the preparation for a show run is in the planning leading up to the event. Because we don’t usually run on a race track, we have to make sure that the roads are suitable and safe for the cars to run on. The cars run a fairly standard setup for each show run, which compared to a race setup is higher ride height and softer springs.

The cars are serviced after every event with any worn components replaced and damaged bodywork repaired and repainted. Now that the cars are 11 years old we've run low on some components, so we have some new parts made from the original moulds and tooling.

The cars have been set up with higher ride height and softer springs, we have to use special running show car tyres for all our events, so we don’t have much choice for these.

The elevation changes would be one of the biggest challenges, as at full speed the car would bottom out in the compressions. The Karussell would also be very difficult at full speed because of the change of surface, and the camber change entering and leaving the corner.