The news that the Grand Prix of the most prestigious racing competition will be held in Austria by a real balm on the soul of fans of this exciting sport. Recently, the championship has been replenished with new modern autodromes in completely different parts of the planet.
But not always new means better, not all of these tracks satisfied the demanding tastes of the fans. Therefore, when they announced the return to the championship of everyone’s favorite highway, which was made by the standards of the old school, fans of racing from around the world were just delighted. But in Formula 1, not everything went smoothly here, the inhabitants of Spilberg, the town where the track is located, will still remember the terrible and deafening roar of the motor -horseman car, and did not really want to worry about it again.
Austrian autodrome has a rich history. He is 45 years old and during this time he darkened 25 Grand Prix, survived two changes in the name and suffered a global reconstruction. This route was opened in 1969 and called “Osterrahing”. He was a typical track, the designs of that time – narrow, high -speed and very dangerous.
Scandals about the safety of the track flashed Dean by one. In 1975, American Mark Donoheu died on it. And during the Friday training, the 1987 Grand Prix, a deer ran out onto the highway, which almost led to the death of the McLaren rider Stefan. You can not ignore the dangerous accidents at the start of the track, which only aggravated the opinion that it is too “harsh” for the competition “Formula 1”.Therefore, in Spilberg they forgot about the World Cup for a long 10 years.
This long period of time gave the Avtodrom chance seriously transformed. The reconstruction carried out under a clear and close leadership, at that time still a rather little -known architect German Tilke, led to serious changes. The track was very shortened, which made it possible to significantly slow down the average speed of each circle. However, some elements of the old configuration remained unchanged. Therefore, if you evaluate the type and nature of the circuit, the track remained fast and fascinating. And he was ready to challenge the best pilots and the racers of Formula 1 accepted it.
Then the track received a new name “A1-Ring” and accepted the stages of Formula 1 for seven years, after which she left the championship again, but already due to the reduction of the budget. When in 2003 Austria banned tobacco and tobacco products, Formula 1 lost one of the main funds of her income. In addition, in the closure of the track, the environmental defenders and dissatisfied with constant noise and the rumble of engines and local authorities of Spilberg played their role.
