Germany

Nürburgring, Hockenheim and Hearty Regional Kitchens

Germany produced three world champions and staged 79 championship rounds, and its food changes character from one region to the next.

Germany joined the World Championship calendar in 1951 and stayed for most of the next seven decades, hosting rounds in 66 seasons up to 2020. The German Grand Prix accounts for 64 of them. The Nürburgring added twelve European Grands Prix, one in 1984 and eleven between 1995 and 2007, two Luxembourg Grands Prix in 1997 and 1998, held on German soil under a neighbor's name, and the Eifel Grand Prix in 2020, for a total of 79 rounds. The Nürburgring has hosted 41 of those and the Hockenheimring 37, while Berlin's AVUS staged a single Grand Prix in 1959.

Few countries have produced champions on this scale. Michael Schumacher won seven titles, in 1994, 1995 and every year from 2000 to 2004, along with 91 Grands Prix, nine of them on home soil. Sebastian Vettel took four straight titles from 2010 to 2013 and won 53 races, and Nico Rosberg became champion in 2016 after 23 victories of his own. Behind them sits a deep bench of regular starters, led by Nico Hülkenberg with 264 starts.

German cooking is really a family of regional kitchens, shaped by the country's federal history and shared with its neighbors. Pork, poultry and beef dominate, and meat is more often braised than fried. Sausage making is an old craft, with more than 1,500 kinds of Wurst, enough to keep the most devoted taster busy for years. Potatoes became almost universal by the nineteenth century, noodles and dumplings fill out the plate, especially in the south, and in spring white asparagus takes over the menus.

The circuits sit in very different food country. Hockenheim is in Baden Württemberg, where Swabian and Baden cooks are known for Spätzle, Maultaschen and Black Forest cake. The Nürburgring lies in Rhineland Palatinate, whose Palatine kitchen is hearty and practical, with the stuffed Saumagen as its most famous dish. Berlin, home of AVUS, sets German classics such as Eisbein and Königsberger Klopse beside Currywurst and the city's many international influences.

A taste of Germany

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