Image credit: Sebastian Fastenrath
It is race week for Formula One again as the World Championship makes station at the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix. The track's comeback in 2014 was welcomed by many who remembered the race from its 1997 to 2003 stint on the calendar, and the Red Bull Ring sees some of the fastest lap times of the season - its predecessor, however, saw much higher speeds: Up until 1987, F1 raced at the fearsome Österreichring.
Despite the different name, the venue in question is the same: The Österreichring became the A1 Ring after its mid-1990s redesign, then was bought by Red Bull and renamed accordingly. While the latter two did not differ in its layout, the first iteration of the track may have looked similar, but it had a vastly different character compared to the later version of the Styrian track.
The Österreichring offered lots of beautiful scenery, but little in terms of safety precautions. Image credit: Sebastian Fastenrath
The circuit continued operations with some minor layout tweaks until 1994, then the bulldozers rolled in to remodel the venue over the next two years. When it reopened, F1 came back for the Austrian GP in 1997, and several other series followed suit. Parts of the old track had been incorporated into the new track, which had much slower and less flowing corners. Meanwhile, most of the first half of the lap on the old layout was left as not much more than an access road, which can still be clearly seen in aerial pictures of the track.
Parts of the former Österreichring can still be seen today: Two of the blindingly fast turns are still there, visibile to the left of the current track in this aerial photo. Image credit: Google Maps
In its original configuration, the Österreichring did not feature any slow corners - it was only after Mark Donohue's fatal accident at Hella Licht in the warm up to the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix that the first turn was slightly reprofiled for 1976, then slowed down via a chicane for 1977. The rest of the track was usually taken in third or fourth gear at minimum in an F1 car - all while facing big elevation changes and banked corners with barely any run-off.
The Hella-Licht-S was the only slow section on the old layout - before 1977, however, it was another fast sweeper (as the original layout can be seen to the right). Image credit: Sebastian Fastenrath
Reintegration of the westernmost part of the old Österreichring into the current track was strongly considered in 2016, but ultimately came to nothing. The old layout is still lost to time, but luckily, sim racing allows us to experience the blindingly fast circuit in all its glory even today.
Automobilista 2 features two official versions with and without the chicane at Hella Licht alongside the modern track, both under the "Spielberg" name. The first Automobilista includes both versions as well, and a mod version for rFactor 2 is also available.
The old layout (gray) with the modern version laid over it. Corner names are from the A1 Ring era. Image credit: Arz on Wikimedia Commons, available for free distribution under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license
Taking a Group C machine or an F1 car from the monstrous mid-80s turbo era for a spin there is rather intense, but extremely good fun - even more so if you have opponents around you who are not afraid to race side by side cleanly and enjoy battling in the draft.
It is race week for Formula One again as the World Championship makes station at the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix. The track's comeback in 2014 was welcomed by many who remembered the race from its 1997 to 2003 stint on the calendar, and the Red Bull Ring sees some of the fastest lap times of the season - its predecessor, however, saw much higher speeds: Up until 1987, F1 raced at the fearsome Österreichring.
Despite the different name, the venue in question is the same: The Österreichring became the A1 Ring after its mid-1990s redesign, then was bought by Red Bull and renamed accordingly. While the latter two did not differ in its layout, the first iteration of the track may have looked similar, but it had a vastly different character compared to the later version of the Styrian track.
The Österreichring offered lots of beautiful scenery, but little in terms of safety precautions. Image credit: Sebastian Fastenrath
Exciting, but Dangerous
Looking at a map of the layout, the Österreichring looks similar in shape compared to the Red Bull Ring, only with faster corners. That is only half of the truth, though: The former was also longer, allowing for much higher speeds that by the mid-80s were reaching over 340 kph (about 211 mph) heading into Bosch-Kurve. Coupled with barely any safety measures and a notoriously narrow main straight that repeatedly caused problems (the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix famously had to be restarted twice due to chaos as the lights went green), the departure of F1 was no surprise.The circuit continued operations with some minor layout tweaks until 1994, then the bulldozers rolled in to remodel the venue over the next two years. When it reopened, F1 came back for the Austrian GP in 1997, and several other series followed suit. Parts of the old track had been incorporated into the new track, which had much slower and less flowing corners. Meanwhile, most of the first half of the lap on the old layout was left as not much more than an access road, which can still be clearly seen in aerial pictures of the track.
Parts of the former Österreichring can still be seen today: Two of the blindingly fast turns are still there, visibile to the left of the current track in this aerial photo. Image credit: Google Maps
In its original configuration, the Österreichring did not feature any slow corners - it was only after Mark Donohue's fatal accident at Hella Licht in the warm up to the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix that the first turn was slightly reprofiled for 1976, then slowed down via a chicane for 1977. The rest of the track was usually taken in third or fourth gear at minimum in an F1 car - all while facing big elevation changes and banked corners with barely any run-off.
The Hella-Licht-S was the only slow section on the old layout - before 1977, however, it was another fast sweeper (as the original layout can be seen to the right). Image credit: Sebastian Fastenrath
Memorable Results & Crashes
From 1970 to 1978, the track saw a number of iconic moments like the aforementioned three starts of 1987: In 1984, Niki Lauda took the only home win of his F1 career (and, in fact, the only F1 win for an Austrian at the track to date). In 1975, Vittorio Brambilla won in the pouring rain for the March team - only to lose control and crash as he crossed the finish line because he had taken both hands off the wheel in jubilation. In 1986, Gerhard Berger looked set to repeat Lauda's feat of two years earlier, but suffered electrical problems, leading to a dominant win by Alain Prost. And who could forget Andrea de Cesaris' 1985 crash that saw his Ligier roll four times and the Italien fired from the team as a result?Reintegration of the westernmost part of the old Österreichring into the current track was strongly considered in 2016, but ultimately came to nothing. The old layout is still lost to time, but luckily, sim racing allows us to experience the blindingly fast circuit in all its glory even today.
Automobilista 2 features two official versions with and without the chicane at Hella Licht alongside the modern track, both under the "Spielberg" name. The first Automobilista includes both versions as well, and a mod version for rFactor 2 is also available.
The old layout (gray) with the modern version laid over it. Corner names are from the A1 Ring era. Image credit: Arz on Wikimedia Commons, available for free distribution under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license
Taking a Group C machine or an F1 car from the monstrous mid-80s turbo era for a spin there is rather intense, but extremely good fun - even more so if you have opponents around you who are not afraid to race side by side cleanly and enjoy battling in the draft.
