“Alvaro martínez” is a freelance writer who writes articles in his spare time and works making automotive reviews and many many more things
(This is an old article I wrote in DT more than 2yrs ago , have in mind that the current information regarding the involved individuals will differ from the one presented on this old article and this one is out of date)
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Although the youtuber Autoaddiction has taken part in some statements in other media outlets, I have clear that the story about this incident was not complete. Since there were still gaps to fill out alongside some extra doubts and therefore, I decided to get in contact with them to arrange an interview in order to clarify their version from this recent event. After patiently waiting for the answer to the e-mail I sent to the Youtuber, I got what I was looking for… answers to my questions.
I got what I was looking for, answers to my questions.
After some talking and answering the questions, I have seen for myself that it wasn’t as bad like they painted it on other media outlets. On the Youtube channel not only there are accident compilations that remind us of the dangers of Nurburgring, we also have varied content such as rally videos and highlights. What not to do on the Nürburgring Racetrack including daily highlights and mistakes, or some Q&A videos that reveal more than we think of the racetrack, below I present one of his most recent videos that show us in a more practical way what not to do on the Nürburgring Racetrack during the Touristenfahrten sessions (public driving session) down below, with a lot of useful things to know if we decide to try and conquer the green hell. (WARNING, LONG POST)
Things you should NOT do at the Nurburgring nordschleife
-ALVARO: You are a quite famous YouTube channel on the automotive world, may I know what you do mostly at the YouTube channel?
AUTO ADDICTION: Our primary videos are highlights videos from a certain day. We film an entire day at one or more corners at the Nordschleife, however we only use the highlights of that day, so that the videos are only about 10 minutes long. Highlights can be anything from a very fast car/driver, an exotic or unusual car, and also the more famous driving errors such as braking error or a spin/crash.*
*they no longer film accidents at the racetrack
-ALVARO:What is usually your star content? What content is monetized in the channel and which is not?
AUTO ADDICTION: All of our videos are monetized, yet some videos are demonetized by Youtube because they might not be advertiser friendly. An example for a demonetized video is the 2018 Crash Compilation that has over 13 million views. However there is also a difference in ad revenue per video. For example videos that don’t have a crash or accident in it, have a much higher ad revenue compared to a crash video.
The video “Funniest Moments of the Nürburgring” is a video with one of its highest ad revenue.
-ALVARO:Moving on to another point, have you had any problems before regarding the content? Have you been contacted in any way by any authority / owner of Nürburgring to communicate you that lming accidents isn’t ok/stop lming?
AUTO ADDICTION:Yes, a few months ago I received a mail from a lawyer that was hired by Nürburgring GmbH. It stated that I was not allowed to lm at the Nürburgring and that I got banned from the Nürburgring area. The mail specifically mentioned our video about the construction works at the Nordschleife during winter 2018-2019, which we filmed last year. In that video (which I took down right after getting the email) we talked about the track updates for the 2019 season. I was also standing on the track to explain our viewers what was going to change for the next season.
Because they specially mentioned this video, I was under the impression that I got banned because I stood on the track without permission. However I had not assumed that the houseban also applied to the spectator area.
-ALVARO: There are many people who say that it isn’t right to film accidents at the racetrack since serious Injuries may occur during crashes in Touristenfahrten sessions, if you realize that an accident you were filming has been quite serious for its driver… would you include it on a compilation?
AUTO ADDICTION: I absolutely agree that it isn’t right to film or publish accidents in which people get severely injured or even die. We normally never upload any crash videos were people get hurt badly or worse. I say “normally” because there are 2 exceptions:
1-Nissan GTR Crash: Unfortunately a spectator died in this tragic accident. We spoke to the friends and family of the victim and we agreed that the video should be made public. However all income from that video has been donated to the family of the victim.
2-Motorbike Crash Marcel: At the time of the accident I feared the worst for Marcel, who fell really hard with his motorbike. I did not see any movement and rumors went round that he died. At that point my camera was still running, but I wasn’t actively recording and I already decided that we would not use the footage.
“BUT I WASN’T ACTIVELY RECORDING AND ALREADY DECIDED THAT WE WOULD NOT USE THE FOOTAGE”
However a few days later, Marcel (who I didn’t know back then) contacted me. He was in hospital but considering the circumstances, he was doing well. Marcel told me that he actually wanted to see the crash video, because he couldn’t remember anything that happened, and he was curious to see what went wrong. He told me to publish the crash video.
I did upload the crash video, but I also added a personal message to that video were I mentioned that we normally never upload videos in which people get injured, We also started a GoFundMe for Marcel in which we raised over 600€
-ALVARO: knowing that accident videos are mostly demonetized, which content you publish to the platform is more advertiser friendly?
AUTO ADDICTION: Videos that show beautiful and/or very fast cars, drifting scenes and also extremely unusual cars for a racetrack, like the DHL ford transit for example. These type of videos are most advertiser friendly.
-ALVARO: Have you received any recent message from the circuit owners/Authorities now? (Apart from the German police saying that you cannot enter the spectator area)
AUTO ADDICTION: No, after the police “incident” we haven’t received anything.
-ALVARO: After you shoot a video of any kind at the Racetrack… what do you do after filming it?
AUTO ADDICTION:After a full day of filming at the Nürburgring (from 8:00h in the morning till 19:00h evening for a normal weekend day), the first thing to do, is driving back home. We don’t live that close to the Nürburgring, a trip to the Nürburgring takes 3 hours in total (approx. 360km).
When we get home, we need to cut and edit the footage, which usually takes another 2-3 hours. Since 2018, our videos are shot and produced in Ultra HD (4K60p). This uses much more data and rendering videos also requires a beefy computer.
This also shows the need to monetize the videos. Otherwise the costs of making the videos would be so high, that we simply would not be able to make these videos.
“…OTHERWISE THE COSTS OF MAKING THE VIDEOS WOULD BE SO HIGH, THAT WE SIMPLE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE THESE VIDEOS. “
-ALVARO: Although this problem won’t likely be solved soon and take a long time to be cleared out… what do you plan for the future of your channel? Will You film again at the Nürburgring if you are let back in?
AUTO ADDICTION: At this moment I’m not sure. Yes we would love to continue making the videos we used to make, but I’m pretty sure that won’t happen. However we would like to work on a solution with the Nürburgring management.
For now we will focus on other videos that are not Nürburgring related. This situation unfortunately closed one door, but luckily also gave us some new opportunities
EDIT: Currently, Autoaddiction is allowed to film again at the Nurburgring racetrack, but there will be no more videos of accidents or serious incidents during tourist sessions uploaded to the youtube channel. Videos of those will only be made on competition days.
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