Bandini won the first Austrian GP in 1964, held on the Zeltweg-airfield with his 158 #0005 before the next Austrian GP was raced in Spielberg in 1970. The track was then called Österreichring and changed name to A1-Ring in 1997. Spielberg has already seen a 9-year-break from 1988 to 1997. After Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, owner of Red Bull and its Racing Team bought the A1-Ring it was slightly modified and is presented as Red Bull-Ring for the 2014 XXXII Austrian GP. The layout of the 4.326 km track is according to the layout of the former A1-Ring.
After many Top-4-Positions, the first winner for the Scuderia was Eddie Irvine in 1999, the season when Michael Schumacher had his Silverstone accident. 2002 (the “let Michael pass for the Championship”-race) and 2003, the final Austrian GP, Michael took the victory. The “Austrian-Racer-History”: Niki Lauda’s best result was a 2nd place with 312 T2 #031 in 1977 whilest Gerhard Berger’s only race in 1987 on #097 was a dnf.
Look at some of the participants in Austrian GPs in one of our Slide Shows!