Barely have we had enough time to say “Toodle pip old boy” to the British GP before we are all on a ferry across the ditch and on the drive across Europe to the country of Austria. Home of the Spanish Riding School, Red Bull GmbH and of course, Bernie Ecclestone’s second favourite dictator.
The Osterreichring was once an extremely fast circuit made up of fast, long, sweeping corners. Driver safety was well catered for by a range of poorly placed catch nets, armco barriers, grass banks and ditches, all of which could safely collect the remains of cars and drivers in a variety of part shedding, fireball billowing ways. A peak was reached at the 1987 Grand Prix where it took 2 hours and 3 attempts to start the race after 4 cars crashed on the first go and 12 more thought that looked like such fun, they’d join in at the second attempt. Amazingly, thanks to the long-lost days of “spare cars” 25 of the 26 cars managed to make the third start.
With the track now clearly far too entertaining for F1 it lost is place on the calendar for a number of years. In an effort to regain its place it was quickly realised that with a little help from everyone’s favourite track wrecker they stood a very good chance. Herman Tilke answered the call and out went the long sweeping curves, mostly by his usual trick of simply lopping off any parts he didn't like, and in came the standard straight, tight bend, straight, tight bend mix. Tilke’s ability to take a track and design it to improve overtaking by eliminating any corner where overtaking was previously possible has long been admired by teams who are able to dominate F1 races from pole.
Austria’s return to the grid only lasted a few more years and much like the career of Alex Wurz, it never matched the Austrian’s that came before it. By 2004 most of the track facilities had been demolished and it looked like that was that. Then, in 2008 Red Bull decided they needed a track of their own and started the huge and costly refurbishment of what would now be called “the Red Bull Ring”. Initially some lesser series were persuaded to return to the track and then in 2012, when it was announced that the 2013 New York GP (remember that?) would not take place that year, up popped Red Bull to offer their nicely refurbished track. FOM gratefully accepted and the Austrian GP was back on and has been on ever since.
As this is Red Bull’s home track, and with a huge number of Dutch fans likely to make their way to the stands, it’s going to be nothing more than a lights to flag victory for Max Verstappen. Thanks to the efforts of his closest rivals at Ferrari and Mercedes the young Dutchman is well on course to take his debut world drivers championship.
At Ferrari, Charles Leclerc has claimed a line on his “how will Ferrari fuck it all up this time” bingo card and will now be looking to go for a full house. Carlos Sainz will be demonstrating the same level of delusion that Sergio Perez suffered from earlier in the season where they consider themselves, having won a race, to be the equals of their teammates.
Mercedes will now need to demonstrate what looked like genuine pace at the back end of the British GP can be translated into the same level of pace at a higher downforce track and finaly prove they have turned the corner.
This race will also see the return of the much loved “sprint race” which has already proved so popular at previous weekends and has enabled drivers to blast around, on full attack without having to worry about tyre or fuel management just as they asked for. As a result of this, the sprint races have provided almost no entertainment and no difference to the grid line up. Herman would be proud.
So, it’s time to don your racing lederhosen, grab a stein and raise it to the memory of Niki Lauda.
Race Timings:
The Osterreichring was once an extremely fast circuit made up of fast, long, sweeping corners. Driver safety was well catered for by a range of poorly placed catch nets, armco barriers, grass banks and ditches, all of which could safely collect the remains of cars and drivers in a variety of part shedding, fireball billowing ways. A peak was reached at the 1987 Grand Prix where it took 2 hours and 3 attempts to start the race after 4 cars crashed on the first go and 12 more thought that looked like such fun, they’d join in at the second attempt. Amazingly, thanks to the long-lost days of “spare cars” 25 of the 26 cars managed to make the third start.
With the track now clearly far too entertaining for F1 it lost is place on the calendar for a number of years. In an effort to regain its place it was quickly realised that with a little help from everyone’s favourite track wrecker they stood a very good chance. Herman Tilke answered the call and out went the long sweeping curves, mostly by his usual trick of simply lopping off any parts he didn't like, and in came the standard straight, tight bend, straight, tight bend mix. Tilke’s ability to take a track and design it to improve overtaking by eliminating any corner where overtaking was previously possible has long been admired by teams who are able to dominate F1 races from pole.
Austria’s return to the grid only lasted a few more years and much like the career of Alex Wurz, it never matched the Austrian’s that came before it. By 2004 most of the track facilities had been demolished and it looked like that was that. Then, in 2008 Red Bull decided they needed a track of their own and started the huge and costly refurbishment of what would now be called “the Red Bull Ring”. Initially some lesser series were persuaded to return to the track and then in 2012, when it was announced that the 2013 New York GP (remember that?) would not take place that year, up popped Red Bull to offer their nicely refurbished track. FOM gratefully accepted and the Austrian GP was back on and has been on ever since.
As this is Red Bull’s home track, and with a huge number of Dutch fans likely to make their way to the stands, it’s going to be nothing more than a lights to flag victory for Max Verstappen. Thanks to the efforts of his closest rivals at Ferrari and Mercedes the young Dutchman is well on course to take his debut world drivers championship.
At Ferrari, Charles Leclerc has claimed a line on his “how will Ferrari fuck it all up this time” bingo card and will now be looking to go for a full house. Carlos Sainz will be demonstrating the same level of delusion that Sergio Perez suffered from earlier in the season where they consider themselves, having won a race, to be the equals of their teammates.
Mercedes will now need to demonstrate what looked like genuine pace at the back end of the British GP can be translated into the same level of pace at a higher downforce track and finaly prove they have turned the corner.
This race will also see the return of the much loved “sprint race” which has already proved so popular at previous weekends and has enabled drivers to blast around, on full attack without having to worry about tyre or fuel management just as they asked for. As a result of this, the sprint races have provided almost no entertainment and no difference to the grid line up. Herman would be proud.
So, it’s time to don your racing lederhosen, grab a stein and raise it to the memory of Niki Lauda.
Race Timings:
| First Practice | 8 July | 12:30 |
| Qualification | 8 July | 16:00 |
| Second Practice | 9 July | 11:30 |
| Sprint | 9 July | 15:30 |
| Race | 10 July | 14:00 |
