Red Bull Ring

Osterreichring (gray lines) and A1-Ring (black lines) road map

The track, called Osterreichring, was built in 1969 near the venue of the first Austrian Grand Prix on the Zeltweg Airfield . Osterreichring was a high-speed race track, but in 1987 the FIA recognized the track as not meeting safety requirements, and the Formula 1 Grand Prix on the track was stopped.

In 1996 , the Osterreichring circuit underwent a radical modernization and was renamed the A1-Ring in honor of the cellular operator A1 , which paid for the restructuring of the highway. A ten-year contract was signed with the FOM for the Austrian Grand Prix, in addition, in 2001-2003. the track took the stages of the new DTM . However, in 2003 , the contract with the FOM was broken by Bernie Ecclestone , as in Austria a ban on tobacco advertising came into force, which made up the bulk of the income of Formula 1 teams ^[1] . Due to environmental problems and financing, in 2004 the main buildings of the circuit were demolished, which made it impossible to hold international competitions at the A1-Ring ^[2] .

Since 2005 , there have been rumors about a possible reconstruction of the track. In 2006 , the former Formula 1 pilot Austrian Alexander Wurz announced that he was going to buy out the A1-Ring and prepare it for the competition, but this idea was not destined to come true. A year later, Red Bull , VW , KTM and Magna International announced plans for joint reconstruction of the highway, but later VW refused to finance the project ^[3] .

In 2008 , the track was bought by the owner of Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz , who renamed the A1-Ring into the Red Bull Ring and began the reconstruction of the infrastructure ^[4] . The configuration of the circuit remained unchanged. In 2011 , the DTM championship returned to the track near Spilberg, but Mateschitz is skeptical about the possibility of holding the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix at the former Osterreichring ^[5] . And yet, on July 23, 2013 , information appeared on the racetrack website that the race on the track would be held on July 6, 2014 . ^[6] On June 22, 2014, the 27th Austrian Grand Prix was held on the track, after which the race became annual.

The Osterreichring track was distinguished by its high-speed turns and a very high average lap speed. In the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix, Nelson Piquet won the pole position with an average speed in the circle of 256.638 km / h (the record of that time belonged to Silverstone - 258.983 km / h). During the operation, only one significant change was made - in 1977 the S-shaped ligament of Hella-Licht was added.

The biggest complaints were caused by a too narrow starting line, which caused many collisions at the start of the race. In addition, deer periodically came out of the forest that surrounded the track, which also caused emergency situations ^[7] .

Reconstructed by Hermann Tilke, the A1-Ring retained part of the configuration of the old track ( as seen in the satellite image ), but was reduced from 5.9 kilometers to 4.3 ^[8] . The average lap speed also fell. In 1997, the holder of the Austrian Grand Prix pole position Jacques Villeneuve drove a circle with an average speed of 221.364 km / h ^[9] .

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