John Watson, Penske PC4 Ford, Austrian GP August 1976. Watson and Penske’s first GP wins.
Given the junk ‘Tilke Tele Circuits’ on which the circus races too much these days the old tracks, not that the ‘Red Bull Ring’, goes back as far as Monza or Spa, are important for their own sake as great ‘theatres’ but also to remind us of the heritage for which we are all responsible.
I’m not suggesting F1’s Venture Capital Fund owners, CVC give a ‘Rats Toss’ about heritage mind you.
Pastor Maldonado, Lotus E23 Mercedes, Austrian GP June 2015. Pastor was 7th in the race won by Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes F1 W06. (reddit.com)
Etcetera…
It was Tilke’s work to shorten the fast, long Osterreichring, used for the Austrian GP from 1970-1987 to the shorter A1-Ring used for the race from 1997-2003 aka Red Bull Ring now. The Styrian Mountains setting to start with was so good even he couldn’t bugger the thing up completely in its transformation to the modern age…
Photo Credit…reddit.com
August 1976, I was there. What a beautiful place.
What a lucky boy! Do you have any particular recollections of that weekend, did you have your trusty Nikon with you?!
The circuit is on my list…one day!
Mark
It was the first F1 race I had been to. The weather was great and the surrounding countryside a picture. Our vantage point was too far from the circuit for any useful photography. There was no Ferrari participation as it was just after Lauda’s crash. Alan Jones was driving for Surtees. Austria is still one of the nicest countries I have been to.
We also went to Zandvoort and Monza which were the next two races in the championship.
Interesting that Ferrari missed the meeting, Regga was the other driver then wasn’t he.
Zandvoort, now that would have been special!, and now the site is covered by houses if my memory is right.
Sounds like a fantastic trip.
Yes he was. He was back in action at Zandvoort. A race track in the sand hills.