Round 9 of the 2017 world championship will witness the 31st Austrian Grand Prix, not too bad for a country that has only generated thirteen drivers, even though two of those were World Champions who contributed to a total of 41 Grand Prix wins. The Austrian Grand Prix has been to four differently named circuits, which are actually covered by a mere three kilometres.
The first Grand Prix took place at the bumpy 3.2km Zeltweg airfield in 1964, only early versions of Monaco were shorter, but it was not a success and it was another six years before Grand Prix racing returned to the country.
By this stage, the German-born Austrian Jochen Rindt was becoming successful in Formula One, so a circuit was constructed near Zeltweg specifically to host an Austrian Grand Prix. It was called the Osterreichring, literally, the Austrian circuit, and had several superb features, in particular the very fast downhill right-hander, Boschkurve. However, the first corner, Hellalicht, had to be slowed with a chicane after a serious accident which eventually cost the life of American Mark Donohue in 1975.
That same year, Austrian weather problems were highlighted when the Grand Prix had to be stopped after 29 laps, and winner Vittorio Brambilla promptly crashed, after the chequered flag! It was the third shortest World Championship round in history and one of four races where half points only were awarded. A year later, John Watson scored Penske's only Grand Prix win, and the year after that, Alan Jones did the same for Shadow. In 1978, the Grand Prix was once again stopped by rain.
Rindt, of course, was Austria's first World champion, while Niki Lauda was the second, winning three titles, making a total of four, and placing Austria fourth in the all-time national rankings. Gerhard Berger, Lauda and Rindt have won those 41 Grands Prix mentioned above and only drivers from Britain, Brazil and Germany have won more. Gerhard, incidentally, had the dubious honour of being the driver to have won the most World Championship points without winning a title.
Austria was also the venue for the third closest finish of all time. On lap 31 of the 1982 Grand Prix, Keke Rosberg was in fourth place, behind Alain Prost, Elio de Angelis and Nelson Piquet. But Piquet retired on that lap, promoting Rosberg to third, 10 seconds behind de Angelis. Keke was on top form, his Williams handling better as he gained on the Italian's Lotus.
On lap 49, he found himself in second place when Prost retired and with three laps to go, he was only 2.5s behind de Angelis. With two laps to go, it was down to 1.6 seconds and with a lap to go, he was right on de Angelis's gearbox. But, in spite of the Lotus engine briefly misfiring, Keke could not overtake. On the run-in to the flag, he nipped out of de Angelis's slipstream, but the Italian took the chequered flag by just 0.050 seconds. The rest of the field were all lapped.
The 1984 event was the 400th round of the World Championship and it was also the first race where all the cars were turbo-powered. It was stopped because of a miss start but Lauda went on to score Austria's only home win. The Grand Prix was stopped because of a start-line accident the following year, while in 1986 Alain Prost beat Michele Alboreto by more than a lap, the French driver's third win in the country. No one has won more times than he has.
It took three attempts to get the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix started and the FIA was so unimpressed that the race lost its place on the calendar, in spite of reconstructed pits and the emergence of another Austrian star, Gerhard Berger. Fast forward ten years and Grand Prix racing was back in Austria again, this time at a circuit called the A1-Ring at a place called Spielberg. In fact it is no more than a modified version of the Osterreichring financed by mobile phone company A1 and supported by the nearby town of Spielberg, rather than Zeltweg.
The entire layout was redesigned by the infamous Hermann Tilke, who is responsible for a lot of the more modern F1 track designs, but sadly in the process the circuit lost all of its long and sweeping corners, apart from the Texaco Bends, which were also altered but not quite as much as they became somewhat slower and shorter while the Hella-Licht chicane, while a bypass that went directly to the second half of the fast, uphill backstretch replaced Flatschach, the Dr. Tiroch curve and the first half of the backstretch.
Jacques Villeneuve won that first race but once again, the race only lasted a few years, seven to be exact, before it was taken from the calendar once again before it was brought back in 2014. The penultimate race of that era was one fans will never forget. The famous 2002 event at the A1Ring that caused such controversy when Rubens Barrichello, who had led the weekend from practice through qualifying and every lap of the race itself, was ordered by the team to allow his teammate, Michael Schumacher to overtake him for the win.
Rubens held off until he final corner of the final lap before allowing the German through, but the fans booed the world champion every step of the way as he made he conducted his cool down lap and climbed up onto the podium. He was that distressed by the fans reaction to the controversial move that he pushed Rubens onto the top step in his place, a position he so rightfully deserved, but the damage was done. Schuamcher was also penalized for his actions as it broke the FIA's rules about the correct use of the rostrum. The race only lasted one more year in that configuration, hosting its last event in 2003.
Red Bull bought the track ten years later and renamed it the Red Bull Ring as it is known by today. Incidentally, Mercedes has won every race since its return to the calendar, the first two with Nico Rosberg and the 2016 event with Lewis Hamilton, who scored the grand slam of pole fastest lap and victory.
Of all the Austrian GP's held throughout the years, McLaren is the most successful with 6 wins, Ferrari on five, Lotus on 4, and Williams and Mercedes on 3 apiece while Alain Prost holds the record for most Austrian GP victories with 3.
For more interesting stats on this weekend's race, click here.
