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Formula One racing is set to make a comeback at Austria’s Spielberg circuit next year, the track’s owner Red Bull said yesterday. |
Austrian Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz and Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone agreed that a race would take place on the Red Bull Ring in
Styria province on July 6 next year, pending permits by authorities, the Austrian energy drink maker said.
“I experienced years of motor sports at the Ring in my youth, and it means very much to me
as a Styrian that we not only revive the Ring but also got back the top competition,” Mateschitz told DPA.
The last F1 race at the hilly circuit was held in 2003,
when Michael Schumacher
won the Austrian Grand Prix
for Ferrari.
Mateschitz, who founded energy drink maker Red Bull and owns Formula One teams Red Bull and Toro Rosso, subsequently bought the venue.
“The Ring has a perfect infrastructure, and with Red Bull, we have an Austrian team. Austrian fans have been waiting for this for many years,” former Austrian driver Gerhard Berger was quoted as saying by Austrian press agency APA.
Ecclestone said early this year that the rural Spielberg region did not offer enough hotel rooms to qualify as a F1 venue. A Red Bull spokeswoman did not offer an explanation about what might have changed his mind.
Spielberg’s comeback could be part of an extended race calendar next season, which already includes F1 debuts by new venues at the future Olympic city of Sochi in Russia, as well as New York.
Ecclestone has said that he could imagine holding 21 Grand Prix events a year in the future, compared to this season’s 19 races.
The sport’s governing body, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), usually decides on its preliminary schedule for next season in late summer.