AVUS
Berlin, Germany · 1 races held
Race History
| Year | Grand Prix | Winner | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | German Grand Prix | Tony Brooks | Ferrari |
About AVUS
AVUS, in Berlin, was one of motor racing's most extraordinary venues. Originally opened in the 1920s, it consisted essentially of two long parallel straights of public motorway joined at each end, with a hairpin at one end and, by 1959, a steep, brick-surfaced banked curve at the other. It hosted the Formula 1 World Championship just once, for the German Grand Prix of 1959.
That race was run in two heats, a rarity in the championship era, with the aggregate results deciding the outcome. Tony Brooks won for Ferrari, whose powerful cars were ideally suited to the circuit's flat-out nature. The event was overshadowed by the death of Jean Behra in a supporting sports car race on the fearsome banking, and the dangers of the layout meant the German Grand Prix never returned to AVUS.
Memorable Moments
- 1959: Tony Brooks won the only world championship German Grand Prix held at AVUS for Ferrari, whose straight-line speed proved decisive on the high-speed layout.
- 1959: The race was uniquely run in two separate heats, with the result decided on aggregate time, a format almost never used in the championship.
- 1959: The steep, brick-paved north banking made AVUS one of the fastest and most dangerous circuits ever to host an F1 race, and it was never used for the championship again.
Track Character
AVUS was barely a conventional circuit at all: two arrow-straight stretches of autobahn linked by a hairpin at one end and a near-vertical banked turn at the other, producing some of the highest average speeds in Grand Prix history. Cars ran flat out for long periods, putting a premium on raw engine power and slipstreaming over cornering finesse. The brick-surfaced banking, with no retaining barrier at its top, was as treacherous as it was spectacular, and its extreme nature ensured AVUS remained a one-off curiosity in the F1 record books.