Glad you guys haven't seen this before, I think I found it the day after it was recorded/posted. It makes me die a little inside watching it but goes to show it can happen to anyone in any car if your head isn't screwed on right at that point. For me personally, if I'd nearly run off on that corner before, my a-hole would have clenched hard enough to back off; maybe this guy knew the limits of his car on a warmer track but not in these conditions or perhaps just...IDW, he's nuts. I am guessing perhaps the car also had Summer shoes on although most of Europe is yet to break out of Winter yet despite being over-due by a month a least (snow again tomorrow over here,
).
Most UK insurers actually put a clause into their terms now which specifically says European cover/cover in total is invalid if the car is driven on the Nurburgring; that's in addition to the usual terms stating that the car cannot be used for any competition purposes or timed events. You can buy separate insurance for track days or cover for driving to the 'ring, it's expensive for what may only be half a day of racing but it's often far less than the cost of whatever damage you'll do. Nurburging ring policies are often more expensive because if you hit those barriers and damage them, they need to be paid for and I hear they aren't cheap.
I like watching the crash and lap videos to get a sense for the bad corners, it's a bit of a dream to drive that track as confidently as some can but in reality if I ever went I'd probably lose my balls and spectate for the day, at least in a car that I give two craps about anyway.
Here's an idea of the costs this guy may have had to pay if he wasn't insured for it (dependant of his insurance terms:
•Base fee for attendance of armco truck: €150
•Removing damaged armco: €10/metre (x2 or x3 or x4 for multiple-height sections)
•Replacement armco: €31/metre (x2 or x3 for double/triple height)
•Removing damaged armco posts: €5.10 each
•Replacing armco post: €39 each
•Safety car attendance: €82 per 30 mins (car + 2 people)
•Circuit closure: €1,350 per hour
•Recovery truck: €190 (inc VAT)
This page is quite helpful:
http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/insurance.php