Max Verstappen carries the "Top Gear" torch at the Nürburgring after GT3 success

Max Verstappen's recent GT3 win at the Nürburgring has brought a comparison to an earlier surge in the circuit's popularity after the BBC's Top Gear and the late Sabine Schmitz opened up the floodgates at the track. Nürburgring specialist and YouTuber Misha Charoudin believes that the coverage of a four-time Formula 1 champion being there will see another wave of public interest. 

"To be honest, at this point the majority of the motorsport world and car world and everyone has written about it, shown some pictures and videos and it’s making an absolute buzz around the car world," he said.

"So today, I would like to actually look at the bigger picture because, in my opinion, what has happened so far and if this continues to happen, we will probably classify the pre-Max era and the post-Max era. And in my opinion, we had already these key moments in the past, such as, for example, Sabine Schmitz doing a lap in a Transit van in Top Gear, because before that episode you could actually stop on the Nordschleife while doing a lap, take some pictures.

"Selfies were not really a thing back then in the ’90s and continue with your lap. Then the popularity exploded. Then about a decade or so ago, social media contributed again to a massive rise in popularity of the Nürburgring from crash videos to vlogs and also onboard videos between different channels. It sparked the excitement for the ’Ring among more of the younger audience.”

The Dutchman racing last weekend drew millions of viewers to livestreams of the event, but the more hardcore fans of racing - and those with the means to do so - could end up at the track, Charoudin believes.

"Now imagine if Max Verstappen is going to end up doing a lap in a public session - or it doesn’t matter, could be a private track day in a road car - and then the general public again will understand that, like, ‘Hold on a second, there’s a race track that I can go to with my own car and drive it all by myself just like Max Verstappen does.’

#31 Emil Frey Racing, Ferrari 296 GT3: Max Verstappen, Chris Lulham

Photo by: Ferrari

"That’s going to do certain things to the numbers of visitors that come to the track - what happened back then with Sabine Schmitz and her driving a lap with Jeremy Clarkson in a Transit van, what’s been happening with social media, and what’s going to be happening now.”
 
Schmitz, known as the 'Queen of the Nürburgring', became a household name after she featured on Jeremy Clarkson's popular car show. She filmed a number of scenes for Top Gear in the mid-2000s, when she coached host Jeremy Clarkson to lap a Jaguar S-Type around the track in under 10 minutes. 

This episode became so popular that she returned to the show and attempted to set the same time in a Ford Transit van. Introducing millions of viewers to the iconic circuit, its popularity increased almost overnight. 

Verstappen has further boosted the circuit’s visibility after he shared a Ferrari 296 GT3 with British driver Chris Lulham, driving the race car to first place after starting third.