Red Bull Ring (Österreichring) History
In this Circuits of the past video I tell you the history of the Red Bull Ring, home of the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix.
The original name of the circuit we know today as Red Bull Ring was actually Österreichring.
It all started in 1958 with races on an airfield in Zeltweg. In 1961 and 1963 inagural Formula One races were held here and in 1964 there was an official Austrian Grand Prix counting for the championship.
However, the airfield track was very bumpy which caused a lot of suspension failures. So after 3 races the track was found no longer suitable for Formla One.
Not far from Zeltweg they started to built a new permanent race track. It opened in 1969 under the name Österreichring.
The Österreichring was a very challenging track with fast corners and huge elevation changes. It hosted the Formula One Austrain Grand Prix from 1970 to 1987. Because of it’s challenging character, it was one of the most populair tracks on the F1 calendar.
But as usual, beautiful race tracks often are also dangerous race tracks too. When in in 1975 Mark Donohue died, the fast first corner was modified for the 1976 Grand Prix. A year later it was changed into a chicane.
However, after the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix the Österreichring was removed from the F1 calendar.
In the 1990’s the track was modernized. The new version opened in 1996 under the name A1-Ring, after the telecom provider who financed the reconstruction.
But the natural flow of the circuit was destroyed in this new layout. Actually, it was now a stop-and-go-circuit.
From 1997 to 2003 the new A1-Ring hosted the Formula One Austrian Grand Prix again. A year later, in 2004, the old Österreichring was bought by Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz.
He had ambitious plans to rebuilt the race track and expand it with a hotel, kart track, racing school and much more. Also the lost part of the original Österreichring should be reconnected to the new track!
Assuming that all permissions have been granted they start to demolish the old buildings. But after protests of the owner of a nearby domain, the Austrian environment Council did not agreed the permissions and the works had to stop immediately.
What remained was a half demolished race track. Now it seemed to be all over for the iconic Österreichring…
However, after years of abandonment they finally got permission to rebuilt the track. But there was another problem when investors withdrawl from the project.
Nevertheless in 2008 they finally start to rebuilt the circuit. But because there was less money, they only rebuilt the track in the A1 configuration, but changed the name to Red Bull Ring. And in 2014 Formula One returned to Austria.
Oficcially there are still plans to expand the track and reconnect the abandoned western loop.
In the spring of 2016, photos of a new connection to the abandoned western loop appeared on the internet. Several media speculated about a possible return to operation of the old section. However, the operators of the Red Bull Ring remain silence.
When Herman visited the Red Bull Ring in the summer of 2017 the old western loop was still abandoned. Why they made those connections will remain a mystery…
Before this section will ever be used again, they have to fight a tough battle to get the permission, because of noise complaints from local recidents. So long, this section is left abandoned.
So far the history of the Red Bull Ring. If you want to know more about it, check the article on the website: [ Ссылка ]
Hier de geschiedenis van de Red Bull Ring in het Nederlands: [ Ссылка ]
The sources of the footage used in this video is Red Bull Content Pool, Michael Draye & Herman Liesemeijer.
Special thanks to Simon Smith for the voice over. Visit also his channel: [ Ссылка ]
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