At the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring, every second counts – especially this year. Thanks to the good weather conditions, the drivers expect that pure performance will be the deciding factor. Weather capriciousness such as rain or fog, which have regularly influenced the racing action in recent years, is not to be expected. So the contenders for victory will fight for every meter and every second.
At the same time, marshals, rescue workers and other emergency services who do their work in front of the crash barriers in the event of an accident must also be protected. This is done through the use of yellow flags and so-called Code 60 phases, which drivers must strictly adhere to. This is where GPSoverIP’s GPSauge comes into play: a high-precision positioning system that provides exact data on the speed, position and movement of each vehicle – with impressive accuracy. It is also possible to use several parallel satellite systems, such as GPS, Glonass, Galileo and Beidou.
Nordschleife and GP circuit measured with centimetre precision
This precision has been significantly improved again for the current race. Over the winter, the entire course and all marshals were measured to the centimetre. This made it possible to determine exactly where a section of the route begins and ends. At all posts on the Nordschleife, two white lines on the track now mark the exact boundaries. “There are posts, especially in curves, where it was not previously clearly recognizable where, for example, a Code 60 zone begins,” explains Dr. Werner Koch. “That could be due to the sitting position or the individual point of view. Now it’s very clearly defined.”
Overtaking maneuvers can now also be tracked even better through the GPS eye. The officials can see exactly which vehicle has happened to which competitor. Even if a start number is not clearly visible, the exact location and time assignment allows each action to be reconstructed – no participant remains unrecognized.
Closing loopholes
Indirect advantages will also be restricted in the future. In the past, there were repeated complaints that some drivers used the entrance to a speed-reduced zone tactically to pull away and gain an unfair advantage. Although the system does not yet automatically recognize such incidents, they can be clearly verified retrospectively if reported.
The team behind GPS-Auge is constantly working to further improve the system and add new features. This should make the Nordschleife not only safer, but also fairer.